Hi everyone!

It's Friday afternoon and here I am, writing a new article while having a cup of coffee.

As a former Civil Engineer, I found it kind of funny to see in the news, today, that Civil Engineers are one of the worst paid in the construction industry. A structural engineer who designs and calculates the structure of a building can get paid something like 0.30% of the total cost of the building, while those in the real estate market can earn a 5% commission over the selling price (cost + margin), just for selling it.

This is not funny, the funny part, is that it reminded me that I learned this lesson 10 years ago.

There's no correlation between how educated you are, or how important is your contribution to a project with what you get paid for it. This is not only about the law of supply and demand. It's mostly about you and your client, and how your client understands and perceives the value of what you do.

This was one of the reasons why I left this industry and changed careers to Software Engineering back in 2017 🔥

Why should you think about a career change?

Well, most of the time, we pick a career too early in life. We are young, and we have dreams, but we don't have enough experience or maturity to have a wide perspective of the industry we are picking and if we really love it or not.

It's pretty common to enjoy the academic part, but when we start working we see there's not such a big relationship between the academy and real life.

When we approach our 30ths, and mainly our 40ths, we have a different perspective, and we know that the most important part and function of working is to bring home money to put food on the table.

We also had time to think about what we really are, and what we would love to do in the future. It's super important to do something we're passionate about and interested in.

I guess this is the fundamental part.

Life is too long to only have a career, and usually, the career we picked early in our lives, is not our main passion. We can even like it, but we prefer something else.

Tech, AI, Data Science, and Software Engineering 🌈

With all the tech we have around (mobile phones, tablets, computers, smart TVs) we tend to be impressed and passionate about this truly amazing world, that's evolving faster and faster every single day.

Despite the crisis, the demand is growing and growing, and this industry, which is always searching for a new bleeding edge, is requiring more and more professionals.

There's a big panoply of jobs where you can fit in if you learn the fundamentals. And the best part is that you have lots and lots of resources free on the web.

How to start a Career Change to Tech?

Well, I have good news for you!

You can start it for free.

I did it 6 years ago, back in 2017, and my success recipe was:

• 33% doing a good and free boot camp (such as freeCodeCamp)

• 33% finding a mentor (get into the community)

• 33% reading books and taking good courses (be picky).

• 1% luck (yes, a bit of luck! 🍀.

Besides this, it's also important that you start creating an online presence. I'd recommend you blog about your experience here on Hashnode, and share your growing pains and projects on Twitter and Linkedin. This way you start to connect slowly but steadily with a warm community that might be of great help!

While studying and learning, make sure you create a curated portfolio of what you've learned. It can be simple projects. Just take enough care of them to be good-looking and focus on a fundamental thing at a time.

Companies don't hire entry-level developers based on expertise but on passion, perseverance, and soft skills.

Conclusion

If you're thinking about or willing to do a careers change just reach out! You can follow me here at HashNode, on Twitter, or on LinkedIn

I'm Edo, and I'm helping people to change careers into Software Engineering.

I'm growing human beings at WeCraftCode, and I'm the author of the book Code Your Future: A Guide to Career Change and Success in Software Engineering.

Have fun, and... "Carpe Diem", Seize the Day! 🚀