About twice a month, I’ll get someone coming to me to ask for career advice. I’m starting to collect the more common questions and my thoughts on them. I’m putting these together as a series of blog posts under the tag CareerPlusPlus.
This is one of the most frequent questions I get asked.
Usually I need to know a little more about why someone wants to get into a field. Often when people come looking for advice on getting into a new area there is some motivating factor. I think it’s prudent to understand the why before jumping into the how.
If you think the discussion of motivation is a waste of time and just want to get down to how to make a transition, jump to the section on transitioning.
The reason to ask why is because sometimes the motives aren’t clear. If you don’t know why you want to do it, it’s hard to set goals and a path for how to get there. What are you trying to achieve? I find people work better when they have a clear direction on where they want to get to.
Some of the common motivations I’ve come across:
- More money, or at least the perception of better pay
- It’s a sexy topic and they don’t want to get left behind
- They feel what they’re currently doing is getting stagnant, the field is dying out, or some other dissatisfaction with their current work
- They learned a little about it and it was intellectually intriguing
Generally the motivation is a combination of some of these plus something else particular to the person. Normally one of these factors is the biggest influencer and the others are secondary.
Going after the paycheck
There is some very solid advice from Garry Tan:
Let’s say you’ve decided you want to get into some different tech/field/area/whatever because you’re looking to increase your salary. This can be a very successful strategy. I ask the motivation question because sometimes the same end goal can be achieved through different means. If your current expertise is in an area you enjoy, did you consider just trying to find a higher paying job in your current field?
It is not uncommon to get significant pay bumps just by moving to a different company. This comes with risk. It means leaving the comfort of a known environment and potentially moving somewhere you don’t enjoy.
Some people think that if they can get into a different field and stay at their current company they can increase their pay. Sometimes this works. Most of the time, it does not. Whether it will work for you really depends on the specifics of your workplace.
If you’re looking to get into a different field because you want to go after the bigger paycheck, just go into it knowing you will probably have to switch companies. If you’re taking that risk, I recommend asking yourself if you need to get into that field or not. If so, read on.
Afraid of getting left behind
Maybe you see the entire tech field is moving in a direction and you’re afraid what you’re working on will no longer be in demand. This is a very reasonable concern, because it definitely happens.
Staying up to date with the latest technology changes and approaches is important.
If this is your primary motivation, and you do like the work you’re currently doing, then I have a homework assignment. Learn a little about the new field you’re interested in. What are the big ideas? Where is it most impactful? Then take that and apply it to your current work. Is there any way you could use that field or technology within your current work?
The reason I approach it from this direction is that I find it very important to ground your approach using concrete steps within your domain of expertise. Don’t try to grasp everything all at once.
Write down a specific, objective goal. Then I go over it with the person and start asking questions like “How would you do that?” and “What values will you compute for this part?” I ask these questions to build out the plan in their head.
Dissatisfaction in your current work?
We all get this from time to time. Sometimes it’s because you’ve been doing the same thing for too long. Sometimes it’s because your industry is on the downturn. Sometimes it’s your work environment and you see the other field is hiring a lot. Whatever the reason, it’s hard. It is probably time to shake it up.
When this is the case, the most important thing I think I can do is to make sure the person is going after the right change. Not everyone is suited to every technology and type of work. For example, I work really well in R&D and I work terribly in front end. Even if front end work started paying double what I was making now, it would be a bad fit for me.
If it really was double the pay, I’d probably try to change my ways. That’s irrelevant to the question at hand, but I believe in complete honesty.
What I try to do in this case is to make sure the person is well aligned between their skill set and the area they are trying to get into. Usually when someone asks me for this kind of advice, it’s because they’re interested in the work I’m doing and want to get into it. Because of that I usually have a good sense of what the right skills someone needs are. I can’t give completely generic, broad advice in this area.
One thing I can do is to suggest talking to someone you are on good terms with that does work in the field and ask them how the work is different than what you’re currently doing.
Intellectual Challenge
Usually when someone comes to me with this as their primary motivator, the best thing I can do is to get out of the way and push them to go for it. Sometimes a new tech is just cool. Seize the momentum.
How to actually make a transition
Ok, so you’ve decided to make the leap. How do you get down to the nuts and bolts of doing so?
I wish there was a simple formula. I can tell you what has worked for me.
Start doing the work. Honestly, nothing will get you more into a tech than working with it.
That’s easy to say, but where do you even begin? First I would want to take a domain I’m already familiar with or a code base that I know really well. Then I would ask myself how I can add some piece of tech X into that frame. If I can’t come up with anything, then I might just go out and build a small project.
Find a good, existing library or framework. You’ll need to spend some time finding out which are the go-to libraries in the field and/or ask someone. Go through the tutorial but do the tutorial. Don’t just skim it. Open your IDE, start a project, and go through every step of the tutorial yourself. If you want to learn a technology, it takes effort. There is no free lunch.
Once you’ve gotten all the way through that, now it’s time to build something interesting using this tech.
Interesting doesn’t mean “what it did before but using the tech.” Outcomes matter. If you can’t come up with a way that this tech improves on what you had before, then you have learned something useful. Too many people try to throw the newest, sexiest tech at problems that don’t exist. If you really want to succeed in a new area, you need to understand what the boundaries are where it can perform better than what we have now and the places where it doesn’t fit.
Let’s say you build something and it isn’t any better than existing methods. This wasn’t wasted effort, because you’ve started to build the muscle. You just aren’t ready to enter any weight lifting competitions. Again, this takes effort.
Now build something different. Break away from what you did before. It probably would help if you throw your ideas to someone and get some feedback. What you’re really looking for is a demonstration of how this new tech can unlock something you could never have done otherwise. Maybe it’s a 10x speed improvement. Maybe it’s a new functionality. There has to be some way the new approaches make a real difference.
Once you’ve done two smaller projects with the new tech, you’re ready to take on something bigger. Maybe this is an open source contribution back to the libraries. Go to their github page, open the issues, and search for a good first issue. Work through the bug and contribute back. Seriously, nothing will get you deeper into understanding how to work with a tech than by diving into the internals. You will both be giving back to the community, building up your credentials, and learning far more than you would otherwise.
Closing thoughts
Getting into a new field can be both exciting and scary. It will probably mean some risk. You will likely need to leave your current job. It will likely mean some or a lot of your personal time spent on learning. If you’re willing to make that sacrifice and you’re willing to take on the risk of getting into a new field, go for it.
I’ve never regretted the time I’ve spent learning something new. I have regretted not starting sooner when I wanted to.