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How to choose a team for transferable skills?

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Entry-Level Software Engineer [SDE 1] at Amazona year ago

Hi Taro. When choosing a team, we also have to choose their specialization and tools. If the specialization is niche and the team uses exclusively internal tools I won't gain any transferable skills. I got laid off from AWS and I am realizing that I have little transferable skills. I used mostly internal tools. Believe it or not, many AWS teams do not use AWS extensively.

How can I choose a team or focus area for transferable skills? I was considering pivoting into Android and IOS development because I see many job openings for these.

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    Senior Software Engineer [SDE 3] at Amazon
    a year ago

    I am not sure if expertise in a certain set of tools should be considered a transferable skill given that new tools keep popping up all the time in the software world and there's a lot of variation in toolset from one company to another. There's a reason big tech companies focus on problem solving and behavioral traits during interviews and not on the technologies you've worked with. For a software engineer, some examples of transferable skills are problem solving, good communication, responding well to feedback, ability to break down a problem into simpler tasks and quick learning.

    For an entry level job, I'd suggest keeping an open mind and exploring different areas. Apply to as many jobs as you can , talk to recruiters and hiring managers and see what interests you. If you like mobile development , by all means go for it. But I am sure for an entry-level job they won't expect you to be an expert in it. So instead of waiting around to gain expertise, keep giving interviews. That way you'd get a sense of what is expected of you and you'll get better at interviewing.

    Best of luck!

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