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I Work Full Time in the Tech Field (Software) - AMA!
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amother
OP


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 10:17 am
Hey!
I'm a full-time software developer and I have 2 little kids. Any questions? Looking into this field? Ask me anything!


Last edited by amother on Tue, Oct 12 2021, 11:13 am; edited 1 time in total
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amother
Chestnut


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 10:57 am
What's your salary (sorry very blunt)?
Work hours?
Training?
How easy is it to switch?
Flexibility?

I actually am very not happy with my job (healthcare with MA) and am considering computer fields but I feel like it's so far from reach right now.
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amother
Raspberry


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 11:00 am
What language do you program in?

What are your hours?

Is it hard to find childcare?
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hodeez




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 11:12 am
Me too! Do you work for corporate or a start up?
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amother
OP


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 11:24 am
Great questions!

Salary: Salary definitely depends on where you live, what type of company you work at (corporate vs smaller/startup) and also on your experience. I've been in the field for about 3 years now and have a degree in Computer Science, and I am making in the 95k-115k range at a smaller NY company. In the tech field you can usually expect to keep making more with each year of experience; it doesn't really cap out for a while.

Hours: Tech is usually very flexible. Again, it does depend on the workplace - in a very large corporate company you probably do have to work specific hours. I pretty much just have to get 40 hours done in a week. Of course, that's a lot of hours... But if I need to take off during the day I can always make up the hours at night. Another thing to note is that a lot of tech companies these days have flexible vacation policies, which basically means time off is unlimited as long as you're getting all your work done on time. I was told by other frum women in this field when I was looking into it that once you are established somewhere you can often cut your hours. I hope to work part-time at some point in the future, but right now I'm the main breadwinner for our family. If my company won't let me become part-time I would probably switch jobs, but I think they will be okay with it.
By the way, a huge advantage of this field is that working remotely is super easy. I'm fully remote now, but even when I was in the office I could work if I needed to travel for Yom Tov etc.

Training: There are two main ways to go about this. One is to get a degree in a field such as computer science. You only need a bachelors (one of the only fields still like this!) but of course that's 2-4 years of college, plus the expense... The other way is to do a boot camp or course. These are very popular nowadays! Most corporate jobs require a degree, but even there once you have experience they won't care anymore. Experience is EVERYTHING in the tech field! And it also depends where you live - if you're in Lakewood, so many people do boot camps and there are all these frum programs, so you'll for sure be able to find a job. Also, if you already have a degree in something else and then do a program and do some projects/internship to get a little experience on your resume you should be good to go. You do a LOT of learning on the job, so don't feel overwhelmed that you don't know how to do everything from a program - it's a massive field!
Some people are also self-taught - there are a TON of free or cheap resources out there, but that requires a lot of motivation and dedication, and also probably isn't as reputable on a resume.

Ease: I think it's actually an easy field to switch into because you can do a program for a few months and if you're good at it and have a little experience you can probably get a job (particularly if you're in Lakewood). That being said, it isn't really an 'easy' field in general. You have to be up for this type of thinking. It isn't boring at all - you aren't sitting and crunching numbers or anything, but it isn't the type of field that just anyone can go into. But if you start doing some training you'll know if it's for you or not. I would recommend doing some online basic beginner coding classes (free or cheap) before paying for something.

Flexibility: Again, it often starts out with a lot of hours, but it's really flexible!! Because you can usually do work from home and make up hours whenever you want, it's really good for a frum woman. Of course it depends on the job, but if you look for flexibility when you're searching for a job you'll definitely find options in this field.
I can go to an appointment and then just do an extra hour at night after my kids are asleep. Even when I worked in an office I was able to do this because I worked on a laptop and brought it home with me.

I think this is a fantastic field for a frum woman, but it has to be a job that appeals to you.

Whew - lots of information!! Hope that answers your questions; feel free to ask if you have any more


Last edited by amother on Tue, Oct 12 2021, 11:14 am; edited 2 times in total
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amother
OP


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 11:28 am
More questions came in while I was writing that looong reply LOL
Here goes:

Right now I program in C# (.NET framework) on the backend and both Javascript (Vue.js framework) and C# on the frontend.
But the thing with coding is that once you learn the basics you can learn languages on the job. I didn't learn any of these in college!

Childcare depends on where you live, but it is a large stressor when you work so many hours... I recently moved from NY to out of town and found it much harder here. BH I ended up working it out, but it was SO stressful! My toddler is in school and I have a babysitter in my house for my baby - we share the cost with another family/baby. When my daughter comes home I greet her (I work remotely now) and then go back to work and she plays with the babysitter for an hour. There are always bumps, but BH it's generally working out.

I work for a startup, but it isn't super new anymore. Still pretty small in terms of employees, but also very established in its area. (Definitely nothing near big or corporate though!)


Last edited by amother on Tue, Oct 12 2021, 11:13 am; edited 1 time in total
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amother
OP


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 11:30 am
hodeez:

Are you saying 'me too' that you're also in software?
Cool!
What type of work do you do?


Last edited by amother on Tue, Oct 12 2021, 11:16 am; edited 1 time in total
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amother
Electricblue


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 11:31 am
Also in this field but I work in corporate!
Thanks for starting this topic!
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amother
OP


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 11:34 am
Can you talk a little about corporate in terms of hours and flexibility/family culture?
I always thought I for sure wanted corporate, but then I got my current job and I appreciate a lot of things about it. But I'm thinking I might switch in the future...
In my mind what I like about my job is the flexibility and also that I get to work on all the projects in progress, and in a number of different languages, because the software team is small (vs having one set job to work on). But I don't actually know how corporate is (just that it probably pays more and has better benefits LOL )


Last edited by amother on Tue, Oct 12 2021, 11:15 am; edited 1 time in total
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amother
Electricblue


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 12:24 pm
The hours really depend on the project and team, but there is much less flexibility (I.e. it's not generally accepted to frequently take off half a day and make up the hours at night, maybe once in a while).
I've worked 40 hours, strict 9-5, and 60-80 hours (that didn't last long lol).

In a large corporation, you're not really working outside your project, maybe helping people here and there, but you don't really move around within your role. However, most big companies support mobility (more or less supported based on company culture), so you can move to another role with some ease. And there are sooo many things going on, it would be impossible to know about or being involved with all of them!

You do feel like a bit of a cog in a machine, but it also comes with certain stability.

The non-Facebook/Google/Apple/Amazons of the world are starting to realize they need to compete more in terms of salary, but they're still catching up somewhat. Probably still better than mid-size companies.
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amother
Electricblue


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 12:25 pm
I know some people who manage part-time at corporations, but it's not supported across the board. My company isn't into it.

However, with the push towards supporting women in the workforce, especially in technology, things have improved in terms of overall flexibility and understanding, especially post-covid.

Oh and one other thing -- many of the big corporations are a lot LESS likely to promote permanent WFH, they really want people in the office.
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hodeez




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 12:32 pm
HappyMom321 wrote:
hodeez:

Are you saying 'me too' that you're also in software?
Cool!
What type of work do you do?

Yes I work in corporate, service assurance engineer. It's as glamorous as it sounds LOL
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amother
OP


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 12:35 pm
Thanks for the info on corporate!
Sounds like mostly what I thought... Although I definitely agree that it's nice to know your exact job - that can be a problem in a smaller company. And you probably can't beat corporate pay and benefits!


Last edited by amother on Tue, Oct 12 2021, 11:15 am; edited 1 time in total
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amother
Electricblue


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 12:44 pm
HappyMom321 wrote:
Thanks for the info on corporate!
Sounds like mostly what I thought... Although I definitely agree that it's nice to know your exact job - that can be a problem in a smaller company. And you probably can't beat corporate pay and benefits!


NP! But yeah everything you said above about the general field applies in corporate as well. In fact, many corporations are starting to look beyond the BS in Comp Sci as well.
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amother
Maize


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 12:45 pm
HappyMom321 wrote:
Thanks for the info on corporate!
Sounds like mostly what I thought... Although I definitely agree that it's nice to know your exact job - that can be a problem in a smaller company. And you probably can't beat corporate pay and benefits!


Yeah, the pay and benefits at the large companies is really unbeatable. My husband is a SW engineer and last year moved from a mid sized company to one of the tech giants because the compensation was just so much better (and the benefits are fantastic). The hours are rough though. It’s very flexible but for sure he’s working way over 40 hours a week. We found this website to be accurate for pay bands at the big companies if you’re interested.

https://www.levels.fyi/
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amother
Bisque


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 2:35 pm
I also work full time as a software engineer, similar to you I work for a medium size startup (300 employees) and the hours are really flexible. I work remotely for a NY company even though I live in NJ so my salary is 120-140k with 4 years of experience and no degree (I did a boot camp)

I just want to point out that even though it's a great opportunity for frum women - it is somewhat difficult to break in to the field with no experience. Getting the first job can be really difficult!
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amother
OP


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 2:37 pm
Good point.
Getting that first job is really hard!
But once you get it and start gaining experience it should be easier from there


Last edited by amother on Tue, Oct 12 2021, 11:15 am; edited 1 time in total
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ggdm




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 2:50 pm
Software developer/data scientist here Hi

I second everything you wrote Very Happy

I work very party-time at the moment and haven't been in the office since March 2020 (not in the US though). I am in a mid-sized company and find it a good balance between the start-up where I was before and what I hear from people in big companies.

We are constantly looking for new people and have a few "boot camp" opportunities for people from other fields. It's an employee's market. I have colleagues with all sorts of backgrounds. The most important is what they know. The degree is not important (it is a bit important in big companies, but still not like in other fields where you earn more just because of a degree).

There is a lot of different things you can do in the field. Programming is only one. You can be more in IT, administration, DevOps. I am more of a data engineer, data scientist, cloud architect at the moment. We very much look for " customer and software understanders" like product owners, requirements engineers, scrum masters.

I agree it is a good field for frum women. There is a lot of acceptance of "weird" (non-mainstream) people.
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amother
Electricblue


 

Post Thu, Oct 07 2021, 3:04 pm
ggdm wrote:


I agree it is a good field for frum women. There is a lot of acceptance of "weird" (non-mainstream) people.


Haha so true! I work in a field where not shaking hands is a major no-no, but because I'm a software engineer, we're all a bit weird, so this is just my weird.
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amother
Burntblack


 

Post Tue, Nov 02 2021, 5:01 pm
OP,

Thanks for this thread!
Would you be able to suggest online course opportunities? I am in Europe.

Thank you!
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