How long does it take to get hired in tech? Making any career change takes time, especially if you’re a total beginner in the field — but how much time does it take to land your very first tech job?

This is a tough question to answer, because it depends on so many factors, including:

• How much time you can spend learning and applying to jobs
• Whether you already have a background in tech
• The job market in your area
• The types of jobs you’re looking for
• How quickly you accept a job offer

We’ll answer this question based on what we see in our Break Into Tech program. Break Into Tech is our flagship program that allows students with zero technical experience to learn design or development and land their first jobs in tech. It was recently relaunched to include a Get Hired Track that is 100% focused on getting students into tech jobs.

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So how long does it take to get a job in tech? Based on what we see in our Break Into Tech program, it can take from four to five months to learn the tech skills you need to hit the job market, and up to six months to get hired in tech (some companies have longer hiring processes) — all depending on how much time per day and per week you can spend learning the skills and looking for a job.

TL;DR: All totaled, it can take anywhere from four months to a year to learn tech skills and get hired, on average.

Let’s take a closer look…

Table of Contents

1. How long does it take to learn the tech skills you need to apply for jobs?
2. How long does it take to actually land a tech job?
3. How long does it take start-to-finish?
4. What if I can’t spend 8-10 hours per week learning tech skills?
5. What if it takes me longer than 6 months to get hired?
6. How much time do I have to spend each week on the job search?

How long does it take to learn the tech skills you need to apply for jobs?

The short answer? Five months or less, at a minimum — or as long as it takes you to work at your own pace! 😉

But how long it takes you to learn tech skills depends on so many factors, including how much you already know about the field you want to get into, whether or not you have any experience in the field, what career you want, and how you’re learning (self-taught vs. online learning vs. in-person bootcamps, etc.).

At Skillcrush, we prepare students to become UI/UX designers and front end developers in our online, self-paced learning program: Break Into Tech. Students who join our Get Hired Track also get hands-on job support from highly-experienced career coaches.

Break Into Tech teaches you the technical skills you need to find a job as a front end developer or UI/UX designer, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React, wireframing, mock ups, Figma, and Adobe Creative Suite products — among others. The specific skills you learn depends on the career goals you set when you start our program.

For both our aspiring developers and designers, it takes on average four to five months to learn all the tech skills needed to start applying for jobs.

This average is based on the assumption that you can dedicate one to two hours per day or eight to ten hours a week to learning the skills, which is what most of our students do.

On top of our skills training courses, we now offer The Get Hired Track, which is only available as part of the Break Into Tech program. The Get Hired Track teaches you the skills you need to succeed in finding a job, from the best way to present your resume, portfolio, and LinkedIn, to essential job interview and job offer negotiation skills. And that takes time too! Let’s look closer at just how much time…

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How long does it take to land a tech job once you’ve learned all the technical skills?

Once our students complete the UI/UX Designer or Front End Developer Track of Break Into Tech — which takes about 4 to 5 months, on average — they’re eligible to start the Get Hired Track.

The Get Hired Track portion of our Break Into Tech curriculum lasts for 12 weeks, and we’ve seen students landing jobs as early as four to six weeks in.

You can expect to get hired anywhere from within several weeks (at a bare minimum!) to within six months, once you begin actively job searching.

I say “actively job searching,” because you won’t be applying for jobs the entire time. Our Get Hired Track includes job search training and curriculum that you’ll work through before you actually hit the job market and start sending applications out.

Students typically spend three to four weeks on average working through the Get Hired curriculum and updating their job search materials (such as their resumes, and LinkedIn profiles, and portfolios) in advance of applying to jobs.

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How long does it take start-to-finish?

Altogether, if you enroll in the Break Into Tech program, it can take five months to get hired at an absolute bare minimum, six months to get hired if you’re working at a faster pace, and 11 months to get hired if you’re working at an average pace.

Just keep in mind that Skillcrush’s programs are self-paced, so how long both take from start to finish depends on you as a person and how much time you can invest in the process.

Generally, students who commit at least two hours a day every weekday for four months to learning tech skills in our Break Into Tech program finish the curriculum and projects faster and can look for jobs sooner.

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What if I can’t spend 8-10 hours per week learning tech skills?

If you can’t spend eight to ten hours a week learning tech skills and applying for jobs, don’t worry! Skillcrush is totally self-paced. If you work through our program, you’ll still be able to get a tech job, but the process will take longer depending on how much time you do spend.

Although we’ve found that students who work through the curriculum at a consistent pace tend to see better outcomes, we want you to do what’s comfortable for you. At Skillcrush, we’re flexible and inclusive — we want parents, caregivers, and people who are juggling other work and personal commitments to break into tech at a pace that’s right for you.

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How much time do I have to spend each week on the job search?

We don’t require you to spend a certain number of hours job searching per week, although we do suggest setting aside five to ten hours per week at a minimum.

Per our career coaches, getting a job can be a full-time job — the more time you can spend applying for jobs, the better your chances will be of being hired.

Using Skillcrush’s slightly unorthodox (but very effective!) job search approach, we’ve made the job application process repeatable and simple, so you can make your job search as efficient and painless as possible.

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Is Tech Right For you? Take Our 3-Minute Quiz!

You Will Learn: If a career in tech is right for you What tech careers fit your strengths What skills you need to reach your goals