Career Switch To Coding takes you from an unknown coder to turning down more job offers than you accept.
You have the coding skills to do the job, but do you know how to get the attention of your first employer?
Career Switch To Coding and Pocket options: Bridging Coding Careers and Fintech
Career Switch To Coding is a practical guide and resource that helps new developers turn their coding projects into job-ready portfolios and real-world applications. The site emphasizes project-based learning, templates, and worksheets for portfolio development and outreach, which makes it a natural springboard for building fintech-related demonstrations and integrations.
Learning by building real fintech projects
One compelling way to demonstrate the skills taught on Career Switch To Coding is to create small fintech projects—examples include dashboards that visualize market data, simple algorithmic signal testers, or mock trading interfaces that show how a user might place trades. These kinds of projects can be sketched as portfolio pieces that reference popular platforms; for instance, a demo explaining how to connect a user interface to a trading service could link to resources such as buy doordash stock as a realistic example of linking UI elements to market actions.
Why this connection helps job seekers
Employers hiring for junior developer roles often look for demonstrable problem-solving and domain awareness. By following the Career Switch To Coding approach—building focused, well-documented projects that touch on domains like fintech or trading—candidates can show both technical ability and product-minded thinking. Even a short project that simulates interaction with a trading flow (clearly labeled as a demo, not a production trading tool) can make a resume stand out and spark conversations in interviews.
“This book has given me so much more confidence in navigating the job market that I’m actually looking forward to job hunting once I finish my portfolio”
Why did I create Career Switch To Coding?
What is Career Switch To Coding?
A book and set of worksheets and templates to arm you with all the skills you need to convert your newly minted coding skills into a coding career.
Book
A practical guide that is broken up into 6 sections:
1️⃣ Foundation
2️⃣ Preparation
3️⃣ Exploration
4️⃣ Conversation
5️⃣ Execution
6️⃣ Conversion
Templates
Knowing what to say or write at key moments is hard, I have tried-and-tested templates for all the key moments of job hunting including:
📄 Initial contact with recruiter or company
📃 Speculative cold contact
📄 Asking for guidance with intent
📃 Following up after an interview
📄 Email submitting a take-home test
📃 Accepting and rejecting offers
Worksheets
Worksheets to help you:
1️⃣ Find your unique mix of skills and how they complement life as a developer
2️⃣ Determine which portfolio projects will give you the most bang for your buck
Blog
Portfolio project ideas, tips on finding companies, interview prep, learning resources, career paths ...
Who am I?
Hi, I'm Simon 👋
Coding has always been my hobby, noodling away on my own every evening and weekend making little projects and solving my own problems. My day job was running a product and manufacturing business. Over 8 years my co-founder and I ground out a modest but respectable business.
In Feb 2019 that all came to an end and I was on the hunt for a job. I applied for nearly 200 jobs over that spring and summer and learned a lot about what doesn't work.
In the middle of the summer, I started applying for my first coding jobs, I had exhausted all other job types in the region and, while I had no idea if I had the chops to be a full-time developer, I figured it couldn't hurt. It still wasn't plain sailing, but I managed to persuade an amazing company to employ me as a developer at the end of the summer.
Since then I have spoken to dozens of companies and recruiters who are hiring developers and honed my online portfolio and LinkedIn to make sure I have a steady stream of inbound job prospects. I have interviewed with a further 11 companies and been offered 10 roles, of which I have turned down 8.
That's a 90% success rate for me and 20% for them!
Applying for your first developer role without a computer science background is not an impossible task, it's a process that can be implemented, refined, and benefited from.
