Ask HN: How to pull off a successful career switch?

My recommendation is not letting your resume of today dictate your future career. If you want to be a front-end dev, then figure out a plan to learn the skills you need to get the experience you need to have the career you want. Don't give up on your desires just because there is a learning curve to get there, even if it does feel daunting. Your future self will thank you for having gone through the trouble.

On the other hand, if you really don't like the idea of being a coder and would be making a change even if the learning curve was quick and easy... that is a good reason to go ahead and make a change.

Either way, step one is to decide what you want your next job to be. It is difficult to give good advice at this point because we don't know where you want to land, so all we can give is a generic path of: Identify skills gaps -> learn those skills -> apply for jobs.

At 26 I made the switch from manufacturing management to coding. I started practicing and just trying to apply my new skills everywhere I could within the job I had, even when using old approaches would have been better. I slowly moved in the direction of coding and now I am a full time dev. There's the cliche phrase "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail". Well I say just pick up the hammer and whack things and you eventually find the nail.

I have switched careers multiple times. Electrical engineer to computer engineer to systems programmer to systems analyst to business analyst to IT support and then network engineer to academic and now back to programming mechatronic systems.

Although I've never given it much thought, my switching has always been into a field that I became interested in. Applying the principle of adjacent possible, i.e. using my existing skills to provide the foundation for stepping into a new field. In hindsight, the downside is that I probably would have had a more lucrative career by not jumping around. But I had fun and when the fun left, I would start looking for new opportunities.

It might not be obvious, but I tended to work for smallish companies who were ramping up in the area that I got hired to do. Obviously large companies are far more interested in candidates who can prove that they have 5+ years experience doing exactly what they are looking for.

If you enjoy web programming, and would like to pursue it as part of your career I have a few suggestions:

- you are correct that many companies would pass on your current background if you went out for an open developer role.

But they pass on many qualified people as well. There is some baseline amount of software engineering knowledge expected by most companies though.

By your own description is likely you don’t have it yet.

- changing careers to something that usually requires so much practice is less of a switch and more of a wiggle.

- The fastest way to wiggling in this direction could be:

   - pick a single web backend language and tech such as Python and Django (which has a lot already included and mature documentation) and start making practice sites about plants or whatever interests you. 
   - do it until you are just competent enough then start applying for contract roles using upwork or other IT hiring platforms. Price low, get a gig and figure out what you have to, going off the clock if necessary. 
    - do this for up to a few years, increasing your rate as you grow. Learn vanilla JavaScript es6+. Learn how to host your own stack on EC2 or digital ocean. 
    - make small contributions to open source projects. Conduct yourself professionally and politely in comment threads about issues you file or PRs you offer
    - prepare for brutality in hiring, it’s a lot like raising money. Often a difficult experience even if you’re great. Apply to many companies, learn what you are looking for and be honest about what you know and don’t. 

Your “I used that once for” type stories will eventually become very useful, because it is helpful to have someone who has seen problems manifest in many ways, regardless of how poorly you solved them back in the day.

It is not easy but it can be done. You will have to work for it, but you can be paid decently well up until you convert to a FTE.

Or just do something with plants. If you can make life work and do that, maybe do that.

I switched from physics to full stack dev. Granted, some consider that a small leap but I promise I was terrible when I started.

This is basically "just a confidence thing" with a dash of accepting a pay cut.

My advice:

Code on the weekends, see it's fun.

If it's fun take a bootcamp, or better yet, build your own project.

When they ask for your experience, can your self a junior.

And when they ask for your preferred wage, ask for a low number.

Get paid to learn. The market in Canada is desperate for talent.