Yeah, this is definitely a gamble I'm taking. As of now, A gamble I'd be happy to take because I think I would genuinely enjoy and be good at the career. I am betting on the market picking up and getting lucky/leveraging connections. Could definitely be a losing bet, but that's the thing with taking the risks.

Why do you want a CFA and tech experience? I work in fintech space (largest financial/trading SaaS in the world) and I've seen two people in my org with the CFA. One was a manager of an eng team, and the other was a salesperson. Im sure there are others but im not sure a CFA will help if you have no experience.

Yeah, I'm of two very different minds here. A big part of me wants to say chuck it, f* it and go all in on tech. Just seems the most sound

You can do the CFA later, but getting into tech without the background isnt going to be easy. I dont know what your other career experience is (I have not read the entire thread, but you said you have some finance career exp) but you might be able to finesse yourself an interview at a fintech company if you can upskill a few languages and then pass the technical interview... You'll have a real good shot. Im not sure you'd be able to walk into a full dev role, but might be able to get a QA/automation role and transition into a software dev role.

Thanks for this. I've also thought about taking the CFA later, but don't know if I actually will end up doing it. But maybe at that point, it just matters less. The goal of doing CFA/CFP would be to help with the pivot to fintech. But if you say it won't help, maybe I just go balls out in tech first. I have financial planning experience, working at a roboadvisor or some wealth management platform would be cool

Been a bit busy, but belated:

I see. I was figuring your $1.3k room setup would be pretty decent - not that it wouldn't be a chitty apartment, but hopefully you'd enjoy spending time/tolerate living with your roommates and the place was nice enough.

I kind of like the CFA as a fallback plan. You still more or less haven't coded at all, right? Even if you think it really seems like a fit for you, I wouldn't dump everything else until you spend some significant time with it, though maybe "not dumping everything else" can just be not burning bridges at your current job.

I am a bit doubtful that a CFA would be synergistic with the Odin Project/an equivalent initially - maybe you could make use of the two in tandem after a few years, but if you just do the Odin Project, I don't think you'd be prepared to any serious engineering work, especially things that move people's money around on a tight schedule. I think that even if you did do TOP and get a software job in fintech, you'd likely be a generic web dev who happens to work in fintech.

If you are really serious about getting into software, I would plan on doing work beyond TOP, though I think it'd be fine to do TOP first and then decide your next moves.Gotcha. I think I had a bunch more written about why I don't want to leave Boston in an earlier draft - stuff like medical access and career gains from being in the office (my in-office presence was mentioned at both my promotions, and I don't think my manager/skip would be enthused about me applying for remote). If I were to go fully remote, I'd probably also just job hop. So yeah, I'd like to prioritize home ownership, but I don't think I should at the moment. Best to get my health in a stable state, and then I can reassess things.

And ha, I wouldn't actually weigh money in dating like that. Getting with some chick just to subsidize rent sounds nuts. That's probably the only way my rent would go down thoughI would probably move to a different suburb closer to home so that I have more social connections, but I just am not ready to move away from the city/go fully remote atm. Definitely something that I float around in my mind a lot though.

This is really helpful. I looked at my NW again, and honestly, I feel pretty good. I've been slowing down, and I feel pretty good about either continuing to stay at home or move out. If I move out, I think I'll go all the way and live alone. I would ideally like to have more saved, but if I leave next month, I'll have at least 115k+, which is not amazingly comfortable, but will allow me to bet on myself comfortably enough (I think). I'm also buying a cheap beater here in NJ which will make at least the next month or so, if not longer, more bearable. Rent would be about 2200, and I would probably be able to save 1k/month. I'm trying not to overthink it too much, and just focus on doing the work/increasing income/helping out the fam long term, maximizing independence. NYC broker fee is a b*ch.

I definitely want to do CFA just as a personal goal, and I'll continue TOP - though I'm set on SWE as my next career path - When I was laid off, I'd spent several hours - 3/4 hours/day over 3/4 months - completing the foundations section - I thoroughly enjoyed it. As far as career/lifestyle goes, SWE feels like a pretty good bet, honestly. What would you recommend after TOP? And do you think I could be employable after it?
Ahhh, that makes sense man. Sounds like you have a lot weighing on your health and job right now, which makes sense. It sounds like once you're healthier, you'll be in a position to add gas, with an even more lucrative job and potentially moving home (imagine the financial gains of doing both?). It sounds like in the long-term, barring anything unusual, you'll be pretty cozy, and in the short-term, you have a pretty decent scenario, considering your savings rate, work culture, and lifestyle. I think we're both in a position where there's some anxiety, but on the not-too-distant other side is comfort. The big question to me becomes, what's the even bigger game...

Just do it. I didn’t get my first job til 27, and it was an 80 hour per week sweatshop finance job where I didn’t see friends or anybody for 3 years.

Everything turned out great, and my 30s have been in the top 5% of the entire world population’s 30s.

That is not true I had a friend who changed careers from airline pilot to coder but he had to get his masters in Data Analytics. If you have the knowledge you are employable

Actually, quick question. Are you even good at coding? How much coding have you done?

Everyone loves the stories about wfh and high salaries but what about the actual work? Do you understand OOP? Can you write basic programs?

Do you think 1 year of unemployment on your resume will mean anything to employers about your coding experience/ability? How will you pass the resume check when you got autists who learned to code in middle school and have 4 years of education at a recognized college? Or ****** from India who was born in a wework startup?

Recruiters are bombarded by people with no professional experience or education who think they can watch some YouTube videos and become a software engineer for the perks. You aren't the first person to fall for l2code

No one is passing the resume check with 1 year gap and no swe education or exp

Welp I did and got a decent job, it's all about networking and I was smart enough not to mention the gap

28 years old brah checking in.

Been in STEM since college.

Random advice is people who stay stagnant, get too comfortable, stay with the same company for years, and do the bare minimum, all end up staying low-med income AF. Stay at the job for 2-3 years, then company hop when you realize you can talk-the-talk and execute well in any future interviews. You'll see a lot of low paying entry level jobs in STEM, even for programmers. Get promotions, raise that base pay, leverage your current pay to negotiate offers down the road. Sounds obvious and applicable to many other industries, but I honestly feel bad knowing some people I used to work with 7 years ago still only make $50k or less. Especially in this economy.

There's a famous quote from the poet Oscar Wilde: "When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know that it is." I think connected to that, is the fact that money while you're young, is of most importance $1:$1. Not just due to inevitable inflation devaluing the dollar, but also the fact that any money you invest now, will have multiplied by the time you're in your 40's, your 50's, and so on. As such, if you could "save an extra $50k" now, you might end up seeing that turn into 7 figures. In fact, this is true. If you put $50k into something that averages 6% growth for your entire life, zero contributions beyond that initial $50k you've "forgotten about," by the time you turn 79 it would be just over $1 million. By that logic, every $50k or so you waste away in your youth, you're stealing $1 million from your retirement.

EDIT:

What I would do in your shoes: I'd say phark it to the pucci and the social life. You're still super young. View age 28 Hmatt330 as the age of self improvement in all regards. Eat clean, stay disciplined with the gym, no social life so might as well quit drinking, live with your family and focus on your family relationships, study your arse off, job hunt when the time comes. This is your Bruce Wayne turning into Batman moment. This is your Tony Stark turning into Ironman moment. This is your Goku training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber moment. Enter age 29 Hmatt330 juicy AF, with a juicy physique and juicy wallet. Self confidence to the moon and back because you accomplished everything you wanted. Move back into the city and make the inhabitants and tourists 'mire.

"Coder" is a huge term. You said your buddy has a master's in data analytics. OP said his third option was just, "learn to code." My point is that entry level software engineers ("coders") are a dime a dozen these days, it's no longer a rare and valuable skill unless you have the knowledge to apply it. If I'm hiring a 30 y/o I want someone with experience and subject matter expertise. If the job doesn't require either of those, I'm hiring a kid or someone from overseas.

Sounds like you're also in a good spot move or not. Great to hear you're that into the coding already.

What struck me looking at TOP curriculum was its lack of focus on "engineering" - especially that its only section on algorithms was practically a footnote in the job prep section, saying you should study leetcode to prep for the coding interview. Could you get a job with studying TOP just as is? Theoretically, yeah, but I agree with the other people in here stating that getting a job with skills like this is getting increasingly harder, and the job that you would get would be most basic form of code monkey.

TOP looks to me like it trains you how to use the tools, but not necessarily how to make great designs, like if you showed somebody woodworking skills and expected them to build a house without knowing much about structural engineering.

Next steps I would advise would be deep dive on data structures/algorithms, learn a classic backend language i.e. Java/C++/C (probably in tandem with the DS/algo learning), learn about software engineering principles (e.g. design patterns), and spend some time on system design. I think these would probably be the major gaps in your skillset when looking at entry level software engineering positions. I think whether you choose to stay more on the front end of things or not, getting some basic proficiency in these would help you a lot.
Agreed, does seem like we're both decently off, and hopefully, it isn't too long before we can reap some rewards.

Bigger game? Tryna be a mogul or something?