AUSTIN, Texas — Austin is a growing tech hub. Just yesterday, Amazon announced it is bringing 800 jobs to the Domain.
It seems more tech companies just keep adding jobs.
Some of the jobs pay very well and it has people talking about switching careers.
Below are some of the salaries of Amazon employees in Austin by glassdoor.com:
- Software engineers $76K to $114K.
- Senior Product Manager $113K to $161K.
- Principal Technical Program Manager $127K to $171K.
- Logistics Area Manager $46K to $77K.
- Programmer Analyst $65K to $94K.
- Software Development Engineer $95K to $117K.
KVUE talked to a tech industry expert about switching careers into the tech field.
Lauren Bauml, campus director for the Flatiron School, a coding boot camp based in New York, said it is a great time to explore a technology job.
“A recent report showed that we had over 5,200 open, new tech jobs in Austin in 2018 alone,” said Bauml. “Many of those being software engineering and web development."
She said the first step is: find out whether you have the right skill set for the job you are looking for.
“If not, what are the different pathways that are available to you,” said Bauml.
There are essentially four main fields in tech: Coding, which could prepare you to be a web developer; UX or user design, to design websites; data science; cybersecurity.
“If you're analytical,” said Bauml. “Data science might be a great field for you. If you are a problem solver, coding and software engineering might be a great field for you."
Undergraduate tuition for software engineering can range from less than $10,000 to more than $40,000 per year.
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A boot camp costs about $12-15,000 for a three month, immersive course.
“A good bootcamp program will be able to equip you with those hard and those soft skills to be day one job ready in your intended field,” said Bauml.
If you want to enroll in a bootcamp, Bauml recommends coursereport.com to find the best match for you.
If you have no foundation in technology make sure – “That you're going to be given all the right prep courses before you start the bootcamp,” said Bauml. “To ensure you have a level playing field with your colleagues.”
As for choosing a company to work for, every organization has a different culture; Google is much different than a startup.
Of course, tech companies also have openings for traditional roles – like marketing and sales.
Probably the most important point in finding a job in tech is to figure out what position you want, whether that is coding, user design or cybersecurity, and work backward from there. Then consider money and time investment.
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