S26:E5 - Exploring the Path from Medicine to a Tech Career (Shona Chan)
Nov 29, 2023
auto_awesome
Former doctor in Anaesthesia, Shona Chan, shares her journey from medicine to tech. She talks about her decision to attend a coding bootcamp, her first job in tech, and transferable skills from her medical career. Her story emphasizes how career transitioners can take skills from one career to another.
Career transition is acceptable and decisions should be made based on the information available at the time.
Transferable skills from the medical field to coding include problem-solving abilities, grit, and resilience.
Deep dives
Transitioning into Tech from the Medical Field
Shana Chan, a JavaScript engineer at OLS Medical, discusses her career transition from the medical field to tech. She emphasizes the importance of making decisions based on the information available at the time and highlights that changing careers is acceptable. Shana shares how a project at work sparked her coding career and why she felt confident in her decision to pursue coding. She also touches on the benefits of bootcamps, the flexibility in the tech industry, and the importance of finding a job that aligns with your interests and passions.
Transferable Skills from Medicine to Coding
Shana highlights the transferable skills she brought from her medical background to her career in coding. She mentions problem-solving skills as a parallel between medicine and coding, emphasizing how both require finding solutions to challenges and puzzles. She also mentions the importance of grit and resilience in both fields. Shana emphasizes the benefits of being a junior developer in the era of AI, where AI tools can enhance the learning experience. She encourages those transitioning to tech from unrelated fields to focus on their skills and contributions to companies rather than worrying about the uncertainties of the market.
Navigating the Job Search as a Career Transitioner
Shana shares her experience and advice for those navigating the job search as career transitioners. She initially cold applied for jobs but found more success when she reached out to health tech and med tech companies directly, sharing her story and interest in combining her medical skills with technology. Shana encourages patience, perseverance, and seeking support from friends and family during the job search process. She emphasizes the importance of focusing on personal goals and ignoring external noise and uncertainties in the tech industry.
Lessons Learned and Words of Wisdom
Reflecting on her journey, Shana advises transitioning career professionals to go at their own pace and take daily steps towards their goals. She highlights the importance of self-exploration and experimentation, cautioning against letting fear or societal expectations hold them back. Shana advises career transitioners to trust themselves and their abilities, embrace the learning curve, and remember that they can always find their way back if things don't work out as planned.
Saron speaks with Shona Chan this week about her experience navigating the world of software following a successful career as a doctor in the field of Anaesthesia. Shona shares her experience working in the medical field for 10 years until she decided she wanted to pivot into tech. Shona talks about how she made the decision to go to a bootcamp to learn to code and how she got her first job in tech. Finally, she talks about transferable skills from her medical career to her newfound tech career and reiterates how there are so many skills career transitioners can take from one career to another.
Shona Chan is a doctor and software engineer, focused on enhancing healthcare through technology. Before Shona discovered coding, she worked in the field of Anaesthesia in the UK. She started learning to code so that she could build an app for her workplace. She couldn't ignore this newfound interest and so enrolled herself in Le Wagon's Web Dev Bootcamp to develop her skills.
Get the Snipd podcast app
Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Save any moment
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Share & Export
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode