Military ServiceSoftware Engineer
Unverified. Submitted, nothing checked.Starting conditions
- Institution
- Large State School
- Major
- Self-taught
- GPA band
- 2.5-2.9
- Graduated
- 2014
- Location
- Austin, United States
- Started late
- No professional network
Limited exposure to the destination field at the start.
The sequence7 steps
- Certification7 mo
Used tuition assistance for cloud certifications
Used tuition assistance for cloud certifications. This took 7 months and was harder than expected.
Evidence for this step - Coursework1 yr 5 moPivotal
Worked through a structured CS curriculum after hours
- Project7 moPivotal
Shipped three open-source projects
- Relocation3 mo
Relocated for a lower cost of living while job searching
- Setback3 moPivotal
No callbacks; resume was reading as non-technical
No callbacks; resume was reading as non-technical. This took 3 months and was harder than expected.
Obstacle
The plan stalled here, and it was not obvious it would recover.
How it was resolved
Asked the people who rejected me what the specific disqualifier was, then fixed exactly that instead of everything at once.
- Networking3 mo
Joined a veterans-in-tech mentorship program
Joined a veterans-in-tech mentorship program. This took 3 months and was harder than expected.
Evidence for this step - Job3 mo
Started as a software engineer
Started as a software engineer. This took 3 months and was harder than expected.
Start this earlier than feels necessary.
Evidence for this step
Outcome
Associate software engineer offer
Reflection
Would repeat
- Starting the outreach earlier than felt comfortable.
Would skip
- The first application cycle, which I entered underprepared.
Biggest obstacle
Having no contacts in the field, which made every early step slower than it needed to be.
What was luck
- One person answered a cold email who did not have to.