It's 2016 and you're dreading the prospect of another year at your boring 9 to 5. Who could blame you? Life's too short to spend your time staring at a clock, hating your job.
This year, thousands of people will quit their day jobs and start a new life as a software developer. As far as career changes go, it's a fairly easy one. Developers are in demand, paid well, and there are a good number of schools around the city to teach you the skills you'll need.
If you're considering the switch, consider some of the questions below:
What coding languages should you learn?
Great question. And why are there so many? Some must be more in demand than others, right? We sorted through the data behind our own job board to tally up which skills have the most opportunities. Here's the report.
Where should you learn to code?
In this regard, you’re in luck. Austin is home to some of the best coding schools in the world. And unlike a university, they’re surprisingly accessible. Most schools have tuition assistance programs, and they all have fantastic track records of getting their grads jobs. There are a lot of factors to consider when chosing a school, but you can learn about a lot of options here.
What’s life as a dev student really like?
Certainly it's just like college, right? Nope — dev school is a whole other beast.
As you build your skills, you can build your network at tech conferences—now that you'll understand what the talks are about. Here are a few shows coming up soon in Austin.
Of course, if you want your software education to be a really big part of your life, you could take it to the next level by moving in to Dev House ATX, where your live-in landlord, application engineer Tyler Wasden, will mentor you through your own projects. You can even shadow him on his own projects once you know what you're doing. Read the full story.
What sort of jobs can you expect?
Austin’s tech sector is on fire (in a good way). Last year we took a look at our job board analytics and found which jobs are the most in demand. You can find that here. We took a slightly different approach earlier this year, and looked at which coding skills are the most in demand. You might be surprised, and you can find that here.
How much will you make?
Sure, it’s important to love what you do for a living, but if money weren't important, we'd all work on taco trucks.
We took a look at how much you can expect to make in various positions in Austin. Take a look at our 2015 salary guide.
Where should you work?
This is one thing we know a lot about. We're pleased to inform you that Austin has tons of cool jobs for developers.
At any given time, the Built In Austin job board has over 200 developer jobs on offer. There are positions at small startups, big established tech companies and everything in between.
Here are five cool companies hiring right now.
Hope you have an amazing 2016 and enjoy your new life as a developer! If you have any companies or stories you'd like to tell, send us an email at [email protected].
