Latest / The Career Change Podcast with Fexingo: Switching Fields, Bootcamps, and Reskilling / How a Former Teacher Built a Six-Figure Tech Career
Transcript
- Lucas: I want to start today with a number that stopped me: fifty-two thousand dollars to one hundred fifteen thousand dollars in eighteen months. Luna: That is a jump. Who made that leap? Lucas: A woman named Maria. She was a high school English teacher for eight years. No tech background, no computer science degree. She did a part-time product management bootcamp while still teaching, and eighteen months later she was a product associate at a mid-size SaaS company. Luna: So she didn't become a software engineer. She went into product. That feels like a different path than what we usually talk about. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why I wanted to use her story. Most career-change narratives are about learning to code. But product management, project management, customer success — those roles also pay well and are more accessible to people with strong communication skills. Luna: Which a teacher would have in spades. I'm curious — what bootcamp did she choose? Lucas: She enrolled in a 24-week part-time program called Product School. It's not a coding bootcamp — it's focused on product thinking, user research, roadmapping, stakeholder management. She did it evenings and weekends while still grading papers. Luna: And the cost? I have to imagine it was less than a full coding bootcamp. Lucas: About three thousand dollars, versus twelve to fifteen thousand for a typical coding immersive. So lower financial risk, which matters when you're leaving a stable salary. Luna: Right. So she's learning product theory, but how does she prove she can do the job without experience? Lucas: She built three portfolio projects. One was a mock product for her school district — a mobile app for parent-teacher communication. She interviewed other teachers to identify pain points, created wireframes, wrote user stories, presented a roadmap. That project alone demonstrated she understood the product lifecycle. Luna: So she used her existing domain knowledge. She understood the problem because she lived it. That's smart. Lucas: Exactly. She didn't try to build a generic travel app or a food delivery clone. She picked a problem she knew intimately. That made her portfolio authentic and gave her something to talk about in interviews. Luna: What were the other two projects? Lucas: One was a redesign of a local library's website — she audited the current site, identified usability issues, proposed a new information architecture. The third was a competitive analysis of three edtech products, with specific recommendations for a hypothetical startup. So she also showed she could think strategically. Luna: I love that she didn't just copy something from a tutorial. She actually made things that could be shown to hiring managers and make sense. Lucas: That's the standard that separates candidates who get interviews from those who don't. But even with a strong portfolio, she faced a lot of rejection. She told me she applied to about 80 jobs over four months. Luna: Eighty applications. That's a mental grind. Did she do anything different with her resume or cover letter? Lucas: She reframed her teaching experience. Instead of 'taught English to 120 students,' she wrote 'managed stakeholder expectations across five classes of 25 students each, delivering curriculum aligned to state standards.' She turned parent-teacher conferences into 'quarterly stakeholder reviews.' Luna: That's exactly what career coaches tell you to do, but it's harder to execute than it sounds. Did she mention any specific interview that tipped the scales? Lucas: The company that hired her — it's a SaaS platform for K-12 schools, so her teaching background was actually a competitive advantage. She understood the customer. The hiring manager later told her that her ability to explain complex features to non-technical users was what sealed it. Luna: That's the soft skills argument we keep hearing about. But it's real — especially in product management, where you're the bridge between engineering and business. Lucas: And I think the tech industry is finally valuing those skills more explicitly. We're seeing job descriptions that list empathy, communication, and cross-functional collaboration as must-haves, not nice to haves. Luna: That said, I don't want to leave listeners thinking it's all about storytelling. What gaps did Maria have to fill? Lucas: She had to learn data literacy. She took a separate SQL course on Coursera, about six weeks, just to be able to pull her own reports. She also had to get comfortable with agile methodologies — sprints, stand-ups, retrospectives. Those are foreign to most teachers. Luna: So the bootcamp gave her the framework, but she had to supplement with technical skills. That's a good reality check. Lucas: Yeah. And she also had to learn to market herself. She started a blog where she wrote about product decisions in edtech. That became part of her portfolio. Recruiters found her through it. Luna: That's a lot of work on top of a full-time job. But the payoff is real. And it speaks to something broader — that career change is possible, but it's not passive. Lucas: Absolutely. And if this episode is helping you think through your own career move, I'll just say — listener support is what keeps this show ad-free and focused on real stories like Maria's. If you find value, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep the conversation going. Luna: Yeah, even a small contribution helps. And it's one of those things where if even a fraction of listeners pitched in, we could keep doing deep dives like this. Lucas: Exactly. Anyway, back to Maria's story. One thing she stressed was the importance of networking. She joined a local product meetup, went to about six events before she felt comfortable speaking up. Eventually she connected with a product director who became a mentor. Luna: That mentor was probably instrumental in her job search. Did she get a referral? Lucas: Not directly. But the mentor reviewed her resume, gave her feedback on portfolio projects, and introduced her to three other product managers at different companies. Those conversations led to informational interviews, which led to actual interviews. Luna: So the mentor didn't get her the job, but the mentor got her the access. That's a crucial distinction. Lucas: Right. And it's why I think cold-applying is still necessary, but not sufficient. You need to build relationships. Maria's advice was to find one person who's two or three years into product, not a VP. They're more accessible and their advice is more relevant to someone just starting. Luna: That's a great tip. So to wrap up, what are the concrete takeaways for someone listening who's thinking about a similar move? Lucas: Three things. One: pick a bootcamp or course that targets the role you want, not the role you think you should want. Two: build portfolio projects that draw on your existing expertise — don't start from scratch. Three: network with people just ahead of you, not just the most senior people. Luna: And don't underestimate the power of your previous career. Maria's teaching background wasn't a liability — it was her differentiator. Lucas: Exactly. The narrative that you have to start over from zero is a myth. You're not starting over — you're building on top of everything you've already done.