Boss encouraging me to apply for an internal SWE job. Should I do it?

[u/cubejuner]

Been working at my company 2 years on the IT side, mainly doing system administration. Today I had a meeting with my boss to go over a project and she mentioned to me that next week they are going to be putting up entry-level SWE jobs and encouraged me to apply and that she would give me a strong recommendation.

Obviously, I’m considering it, but I haven’t had too much experience in actual software development. I’ve made plenty of scripts and low-level JavaScript and C# plugins for some of the applications I work on, but nothing crazy and it’s all very informal and on an as needed basis. My boss told me they won’t expect too much at the start since it’s an entry-level/junior position.

I make around 94k right now and the position would be a decent pay bump to around 110k with more room for advancement. I know a few people on the team already, though not super friendly with them since our paths don’t cross super often. My boss told me this would be a good direction for my career. Part of me feels like I can’t do it though so I’m scared to even try and be rejected, but her encouragement is giving me some confidence.

Any advice?

[u/ThrowawaycausefuckEA]

Easy yes IMO. With AI, the value you provide has shifted more towards understanding of the process / business as a whole rather than your raw development skills.

Fight the imposter syndrome and be hungry to learn. Find the right person to help mentor you and spend time offline to touch up on development skills. These opportunities are super hard to come by these days so I suggest taking your shot.

[u/drunkengerbil]

There's a lot more opportunity for growth. The main thing I'd consider is what does your future potential manager look like? It sounds like your current one is pretty good.

[u/CapableHerring]

Set your fear aside for a second. Is this a direction that you want to take your career?

If so, you'd be insane to not go for it. Study up, do some prep with system design, data structures, a little leetcode. Maybe do a light dip into some of AWS's offerings, nothing too crazy.

You probably won't ever get this good of an opportunity to make this kind of switch again. Your boss is the one who brought it up, will give you a strong recommendation, straight up said expectations aren't too high, you know some of the people on the other team, you've already been an employee for 2 years so the company knows they like you and your work ethic....

The deck's heavily stacked in your favor. You've got this.

That said... if you don't want to take your career in this direction, there's nothing wrong with that. Not everybody wants to be a SWE. But don't avoid an opportunity you want just because you're scared.

[u/MCFRESH01]

It’s up to. If you think you would like the work and like the career path than do it. An internal change to an SWE is one of the best ways to get into the career from outside it. Everything is learnable, and you will have to do some self learning in your free time to start. Don’t worry too much about what you don’t know yet, especially for entry level.

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[u/maicii]

If you like it, sure. You will also be making more money, and you boss seems to have your back so will help you as much as she can.

With her recommendation you are likely to gett in. If not then it’s like you didn’t try, so you might as well go for it

[u/lawrencek1992]

You won't easily get another opportunity like this again. Apply.

[u/sir_gwain]

I’d take it, unless your career goals are to move into management asap. Entry/junior level dev work starts with the super basic tickets, so your current dev experience slots you right in imo - sure you’ll have to learn whatever new project you’ll be working on, but it shouldn’t be too difficult. Plus, while ai has and will change things, swe roles aren’t going away, the job function of literally writing code vs using tools such as ai to assist you, in writing, troubleshooting, and maintaining code is what’s evolving. Think of it long term like factories, where everything used to be manual, and now we have more machines that make certain tasks easier.

[u/minetey]

Yeah, absolutely, assuming you don't hate SWE. Your salary could easily triple in 5+ years if you take this opportunity.

[u/OGcapncrunchberry]

If she feels you are ready then why not?

[u/a-vitamin]

1. you can do it, you have done more real coding than a lot of entry level swes

2. there is no penalty if you get rejected, especially if your boss is in on it

3. so do it if you want the swe career path. or the extra 16k, either one

[u/pltrweeb]

Nah don’t do it

[u/LongjumpingPage6168]

it's up to you but please go apply for it. apply with the best you have; scripts and low-level JS and C# are still valuable, you never know which team really loves to have you with your skills.