How to switch career from PSU job to SDE
Background:
Tier 1 college, Branch - Civil, 2018 passout, Presently working at a state govt PSU with around 11.5 LPA CTC (salary part only, excluding medical facility which is decent)
Things I like at the present job:
- Home state posting all throughout the career
- Easy to take leaves and can mostly go home on weekends
- Good work life balance.
Things I don't like:
- Rural posting (as of now, will change in future)
- Repetitive kind of work - not challenging enough and hence limited growth (I guess this is true for most PSU jobs)
Why thinking of the switch?
- Civil was never really my passion - just what I got.
- Taking the job was mostly due to family pressure of doing govt job.
- Liked programming during school days, did web dev work in college fests.
- I do like the process of building something up and also learning new things, and am hence beginning to feel tech is something that would suit me.
- Salary and fomo factors are there but not significant enough. I feel I have not been taking enough risks and hence am not being rewarded enough. I want the thrill of grinding and progressing in life.
What's stopping me then?
- Obviously, the safety and protection of a secured job is difficult to overcome.
- Family wants me to settle now, but I don't.
- Recessions like this where layoffs take place even for skilled people due to factors not in one's control.
- The fact that I might have to take a paycut, to begin in this career.
So what should be the path to take?
- Learn DSA, make projects and apply. Could use my network (although very very few of my batch are in tech, most are in analytics, finance, core sector) to begin somewhere and switch
- Go for M.Tech in tier 1, and hence aim for product based companies.
I am more inclined towards option 2, as the tech job market being what it is now. I am ready to slog for 2 -3 years (mtech preparation, mtech and then placement)
Please help me out with your views and suggestion.
I'd suggest trying your hand at freelancing first rather than diving head first.
try to learn a technology of your choice, deliver some real life projects, if you like the experience, start applying for jobs.
Thanks for your suggestion. I dont think freelancing opportunities are that easy to obtain for a newbie developer, with no industry experience? But definitely will give that a go to test the waters.
Try first with cheap projects - like fiverr
For God sakes be comfortable with the pain or cons of being a sde. If you are comfy, then sure Go ahead.
Could you list some cons and pains of being an SDE? Your personal experience or those of people you know, will help me reach a better decision. Thanks in advance.
just search reality of working as a software engineer on utube that's it. Nothing much more than that
Try Freelancing... Get into part time remote job and be happy with ur PSU job
Why Sir? Why do you suggest not to shift into coding?
it field is going to be very competitive. So it's going to be another race like IIT JEE. Hence before quitting ur job, test the waters first
Stick to PSU only imo... Nothing beats hometown and govt job security.. You can go to urban area for travel and few weeks
But in govt job, you are restricted, don't have flexibility of choice in your life, like postings, transfers, type of work assigned. But in corporate world your destiny is in your hands. If you got skills, you can go as you wish.
Mba krlo