Finance To Tech - Harvard CS50 Course?
Has anyone here transitioned from finance to tech, and if so, any particular thoughts on various training programs or boot camps to help get that “tech experience”? Also curious on what specific finance skills were able to translate, or if your daily job is more so tech / programming focused
Just exploring ideas here, as finance seems to be becoming the less attractive field in general. Exceptions include BSD managing partner at KKR or wherever. No idea on what specific tech field to go into, just want to work 30-40 hours a week with minimal stress, and optionality to work from wherever I want.
I switched into tech via this path:
1. Self studied (learned JS and Python and some core DB fundamentals)
2. Went to a top bootcamp (Hack Reactor/ Codesmith/ App Academy)
2a. Got Certified in AWS, studied a ton on Leetcode and architecting systems (ignored the frontend, I hate that stuff)
2b. Took some community college courses on Cybersecurity, C++, Java, etc
3. Landed a contract role paying $65 an hour, then converted to FTE at a FinTech company
4. Left that (brutal hours), now at a video streaming SaaS for $210k all in (work 45-50 hours a week but mostly on my own accord because I'm learning a ton)
I plan on getting a second BS in Computer Science (online), then an MS in Computer Science (online, hopefully to switch to MLE or MLOps), then might gun for a part time MBA but I'm not sure on that last bit. I love helping people switch into tech, so feel free to ask questions.
Other non-coding roles to consider:
Product Manager, Product Owner
Sales Development Rep (SDR)/ Account Exec (AE), quasi coding -> Sales Engineer/ Solutions Architect
Other finance/ ops roles at tech companies
Edit: Also for timeframe reference, my first super basic program I wrote in October 2020, I'm now a Senior SRE/ SWE (I deal mostly with reliability and building scalable platforms) and have been here ~3 months. I spend a lot of time every day reading, practicing, and learning though.
That's insane, senior SWE two years after writing your first line of code.
How were you able to sell yourself? Were you more personable in interviews due to your experience in finance?
Thanks! I was pretty upfront in interviews actually. But I just referred to entire projects I took charge of, how I communicated between all stakeholders (mostly just talking to Product, Dev, and QE). My first real job out of there I worked 80+ hour weeks frequently (and truly working 80+, skipping lunch frequently because of how truly busy I was).
it wasn’t healthy, but gave me good talking points for interviews
Super helpful thank you. As a guy with literally no tech experience, besides “coding” my MySpace layout decades ago;, is there any particular very beginner step you’d recommend for a finance guy?
im talking like - what is the tech equivalent of macroecon or corp fin? I want to start off broad and get a high level understanding before going down the rabbit hole in a particular niche
The video below sums it up well. I’d just add- know what the different types of engineering are, pick a type, and pick a language to support that type. Ex. You want to do frontend web development, so then you learn HTML/CSS/JS and then learn React. There’s tons of specialties to select from
Hey chief @malta did you post a video link? Didn't see it populate. Appreciate your insight.
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