From Finance to Tech: How Mai Landed Her Software Engineering Role After Flatiron School

Mai Vang is a Flatiron School graduate who made the leap from political science and finance to software engineering. After graduating from Flatiron School in 2022, she faced a tough job market and treated the job search like a full-time job – networking, building projects, and refining her skills. That determination paid off. Today, Mai is a software engineer at Maizeee, where she improves performance and builds scalable UI components. Mai shares how Flatiron School prepared her for the real world of tech, the projects that helped her land her first role, and how she’s staying ahead of the curve by diving into AI.

What motivated you to change career paths and do a coding bootcamp?

After college, I worked in finance (accounting and financial analysis) when I realized just how powerful technology could be. During a month-end project, I did a lot of manual work in spreadsheets, double-checking numbers for errors. A programmer friend told me I could write a program to automate the process. AI didn’t exist yet, so I Googled “how to write a program.” Once I built it and saw how efficient it was, I was hooked.

That experience made me consider whether to return to college for a master’s, pursue another four-year degree, or take a more focused route like a coding bootcamp. 

Ultimately, I chose bootcamps because I wanted something more immersive, practical, and fast-paced. It just felt like the right way to figure out my tech passion faster through a coding bootcamp.

Once you decided to do a coding bootcamp instead of returning to college, did you research several programs, or were you set on Flatiron School?

Yes – I did a ton of research! Maybe it’s the financial analyst in me, but I wanted to assess all my risks. I looked into everything: traditional colleges, online programs, local schools, and multiple bootcamps. I also met with a lot of people to make sure I was making the right investment in both time and money.

After those conversations, I realized I didn’t want to commit to another four-year degree, and getting a master’s didn’t feel like the right move either. That’s when I started narrowing my focus to bootcamps.

Some of the biggest factors for me were price and location. I’m based in Los Angeles and didn’t want to deal with long commutes – you know, LA traffic! Luckily, Flatiron offered remote learning in my area, making it easy to attend class.

I also wanted a bootcamp that taught programming languages actually used in enterprise, not something outdated or obscure. That was really important to me.

Finally, I did a lot of LinkedIn stalking. I saw a bunch of Flatiron grads working at companies I wanted to get into, which really sealed the deal for me. That’s why Flatiron became my top choice.

What did a typical week look like for you at Flatiron School? How was bootcamp different from your undergrad experience?

We typically started each day with a lecture on a new programming concept – for example, early on, we learned HTML and CSS. Lectures were usually two to four hours, and by midweek, we’d apply what we learned through personal or group projects. We'd take a coding assessment at the end of each week to ensure we understood the material before moving on to the next topic.

It was a cycle of lecture, project, and assessment – rinse and repeat. Compared to undergrad, the pace was much faster. I lived and breathed code every day for 15 weeks. It was intense, but the full-time immersion helped me learn more quickly and gave me the confidence to ask questions and get help. It was a busy experience, but it was absolutely worth it.

What was your favorite project that you built while at Flatiron School?

My favorite project I built at Flatiron School was called Tiny Task. It was a group project with two other girls in the class. It worked collaboratively, using each student’s strengths, interests, curiosities, and, ultimately, seeing our ideas come to life. That was fun to work on. We also had to learn version control together, which created a lot of merge conflicts, but that happens in the real world, so it was a good learning experience to do that in the program. After we completed the project, I could present and discuss the code and what we did on the website.

How did Flatiron School prepare you for the tech job hunt?

Flatiron prepared me for the job hunt throughout the program. We constantly built projects that mirrored real-world problems or things we were personally interested in. By the time I graduated, I had projects I could showcase to employers—I could say, “Here’s what I built, and here’s what I’ve learned.” You could interact with the apps and see features like authorization and authentication, as well as how I set up the database and linked it to the client.

Flatiron also offered career services. I had a career coach who helped me practice mock interviews, improve my resume, and build a networking strategy. We met at least once a week to check in and adjust the plan. I really appreciated how robust the career support was.

It’s wonderful to hear you received this career support at such a critical time in your journey into a new industry. 

How long did it take you to land your first job after graduating?

It took me about a year after graduation. I knew it wouldn’t be instant, so I treated the job search like a full-time job – constantly networking, applying, refining projects, and building new ones.

Thankfully, I landed my first role at Hanawilo. The job search really showed me how much grit and resilience I had, and it helped me learn how to talk about my skills with confidence.

It’s been a couple of years since you landed your first job. How have you grown as an engineer since then?

There are so many different aspects to it – I’ve grown technically, personally, and professionally. Technically, I’ve gone beyond the fundamentals I learned at Flatiron and now build more complex features, understand system design, and work more deeply with algorithms.

Professionally, I’ve learned how to work through sprints, collaborate with teammates, and communicate across departments – not just with engineers, but also with marketing teams and external users.

I feel like I’ve gained experience across the full stack, and now I’m figuring out what areas I want to dig deeper into.

How are you staying ahead of the curve – are you working on any AI projects?

One way I’m staying ahead – or at least keeping up – is by surrounding myself with people exploring AI. I want to know what they’ve done, what they plan to do, and what they’ve discovered along the way.

I follow a lot of AI leaders, join online forums, and watch a ton of YouTube videos. One channel I really like is AI Engineer – it features how different people and companies are using AI in the real world. That helps me spot trends early and see how AI is applied practically in the workforce.

How do you see your career progressing, particularly in light of these emerging technologies, like AI, machine learning, and everything else coming on the horizon?

I see myself not just writing code, but wanting to understand problems. I want to understand the issues as I take on more leadership roles. I want to understand problems with vague scope – knowing how I can understand what this scope is trying to achieve, or what it is trying to resolve, so that I can go ahead and get a solution. I definitely want to get into system design, making sure that I understand how and why certain things are designed to make the system more efficient and cost-effective. 

I am on the side that AI will definitely make us better and faster engineers. Not only will AI take over some of the parts that we don't want to go ahead and do anymore, but we can focus on solving more problems. AI will help us and improve us along the way.

What advice would you give to someone just starting Flatiron School?

My advice is to ask a lot of questions. Flatiron knows you’re coming in without a programming background – they expect questions, so don’t be shy! If something doesn’t make sense, reach out to your instructor right away and set up a one-on-one. Don’t get stuck – ask for help.

Also, connect with your cohort and the larger Flatiron alumni community. They know what you’re going through and what you’re about to face.

And finally, build projects. Create things that interest you or solve problems you care about. If Netflix doesn’t have a reverse button, make one! Just build something – it helps solidify your learning and keeps it fun.

Looking back, was Flatiron School worth it for you?

I would have to say yes. Between the return on investment and the personal career fulfillment, I would not have done anything differently. I’m sure I still would have found a way into tech somehow as a software engineer, but it was worth it because Flatiron School gave me structure and the accountability to show up every day. 

At Flatiron School, I built new friendships and a strong technical foundation for my new tech career. So yes, it was worth it.

That's so great to hear. Mai, thank you so much for your time today and for sharing your insightful story and journey. 

Find out more and read Flatiron School on Course Report. This article was produced by the Course Report team in partnership with Flatiron School.