Comment by treis
5 years ago
They're stuck because they work with proprietary tools on obscure tech. Nobody else wants them because their experience doesn't translate.
I recently made the transition but it was extremely difficult. I ended up with 1 offer after ~10 or so interviews and ~50 or so applications.
Yeah, this is my situation. I am AWS certified and started working on a team that uses it, sort of. So maybe I can transition off of there in a year or two because the subject matter sucks.
Programming is programming no matter the language, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. They are all just tools. If you have a masters degree you should be able to pick up anything proficiently in a matter of a few months, just grok the existing codebase as much as you can.
The programming part is easy to pick up. The tools and ops parts are more difficult, mostly because there are so many. And we are a 'microservices' shop (read distributed monolith). I don't get to read/work a single system or language. One sprint/day I might be in ECS Java, the next might be Python Lambda, then no code stuff like Splunk and Tableau. There are a bunch of minor and bureaucratic tasks too.
The real problem is I deal with this sort of stuff. I started doing analysis about modifying a system to provide a new field to another system for the purpose of reporting. After spending a day looking at it, they pulled the story because they didn't actually need that field. And this isn't a one time thing - pulling back work. Then they give me BS stuff. They wanted me to increase the code coverage on an app that we were going to transfer to another team. The target percentage - 100%. It was already at 97% line 98% branch. Why am I wasting my time on this miserable task?
Dude run from your current employer. I actually transitioned into software dev after working as a Mech Eng after 2 years and I started at $120k. With you experience I feel like you could do way better.
Glassdoor's market rate/comp tool says I'm actually making market rate for the area.
So while some employers require X years of (specific tech), many, MANY don't. They expect X years of development. Broadly. Can program and are AWS certified? Start looking. And if there's nothing in your area, look remote. You can hit that salary and solid benefits (no pension) in most metro areas (I hit it with 5 years dev experience, and only a bachelor's, back in 2015 in Atlanta, for a non-tech company).
You are almost assuredly more desirable in this market than you think. Consider making finding a new job your new hobby.
Glassdoor's market rate/comp tool says I'm actually making market rate for the area. One major downside to switching is that it involves more time to come up to speed, like putting in extra hours. I can't really commit to that because I have to watch my kid as soon as i log off of work (after 8 hours).
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Get. Out.