[carabiner]

I was hoping for more advice for those pursuing this transition, but it was more just an account of Google's incredible support for his wish to change careers. He never mentions his employer by name, but I think it'd be helpful to point this out. Those of us on the outside (I and a few other DS's I know are doing this) are spending 6 months or more grinding leetcode and studying system design, doing mock interviews, and applying to hundreds of jobs. So it can be much more painful if you don't have an employer that holds your hand (and pays you) through this entire transition.

[thomzi12]

You're right, Google has been very supportive -- very thankful for that! That said, if you work at a technology company, you CAN build a portfolio and self-advocate for projects with engineering teams your data science team already works with.

I think it's worth seeing how far you can get with this approach before interviewing for engineering roles at other companies.

One notable caveat with my approach: pursuing a portfolio approach took me a whole year to switch from DS to engineering. As you point out, grinding leetcode may only require half that time.

[legerdemain]

ME (at not-Google): I wanna do a 12-week dev bootcamp!

MY LEAD: Uhhhh... What if it was two weeks long, tops? Or even less?

MY ASSIGNED HR PERSON: Great, let's process your leave of absence! We'll cut your benefits and convert your stock options so you'll have to buy them out a lot sooner than you were prepared to!

[thomzi12]

Taking that much time off of any job is pretty hard to do!

The real goal of a bootcamp though (besides networking) is adding a project to your portfolio. You can then show off this project to hiring managers to demonstrate your competence.

You don't need to do a full-time bootcamp to make this happen! I just checked and Flatiron school and Hack Reactor both have online part-time full-stack bootcamps. Also, while not as big of an investment, online platforms like Codecademy have career paths with a capstone project you can complete and add to your portfolio.

So, overall there are a variety of pathways to do this. Totally fair to point out though a bootcamp of some kind is a nice option in the off-chance it's a possibility.

[legerdemain]

I didn't end up doing a bootcamp in the end. I sort of wish I did: friends of mine who did ended up with some strong connections as a result. Then again, someone else I know had an extremely negative experience with Hack Reactor and lost thousands of dollars in it, so maybe it's for the best that I didn't go.