I spent 6 years as a mechanical engineer at Boeing designing airplane components. The pay was okay but I was bored out of my mind.

Started learning Python on the side for data analysis at work. Built some internal tools that automated reporting. Got hooked on programming and decided to make the switch.

Did a bootcamp (Hack Reactor) which gave me the web development foundations. Then spent a year at a mid-size company as a junior frontend developer. The pay cut was tough but necessary.

After a year, I started preparing for FAANG interviews. The engineering mindset from my ME degree actually helped a lot with system design - thinking about load bearing, redundancy, and failure modes maps surprisingly well to distributed systems.

The Meta interview was 2 coding rounds, 1 system design, and 1 behavioral. The coding rounds felt fair - medium difficulty LC problems. The system design question was about designing Instagram's image feed and I had practiced it extensively.

Getting matched at E5 (senior) with only 3 years of software experience surprised me. I think my engineering background helped demonstrate problem-solving maturity.

The transition was scary but worth it. My TC went from 120k to 380k. More importantly, I actually enjoy going to work now.

1. Your non-CS background is a strength, not a weakness. Don't hide it.
2. Bootcamps are good for foundations but not sufficient for FAANG interviews.
3. System design is where career changers can actually have an advantage.
4. Take the pay cut early in your career switch. It pays off exponentially.
5. Network with other career changers. They understand what you're going through.