“Why did you decide to learn Software Engineering?” (Dec 2019)
Over the past few months I’ve found myself in an incredibly rare, albeit fortunate position in which very few people probably find themselves in life. I had the (forced) opportunity to spend almost half a year without working (I’m awaiting my US adjustment of status which allows me to work here and leave/enter the country as I please). I moved over to the US to be with my fiancée, now wife. During the past 5 months I have been awaiting my US work permit. I thought long and hard over the past 15 months about what I would do once I moved, how I would spend the days in which my calendar was completely empty. If I think about it, it’s the first time in 20 years that my calendar has been entirely free of obligations.
I’m 24 years old and I went from high school to an incredibly demanding college. I immediately went into the world of work, first volunteering 8–12 hours a day for one organization which captured my heart and then picking up part-time work for another which also followed a similar social-mission-driven goal. I quickly learned the need to have a more reliable and substantial source of income so I went into recruitment/sales for one of the biggest recruitment companies in the world and struggled through 13-hour days (including my commute, I know, many people have it far worse!) while awaiting news from the embassy to say that I could move to the US to be with my fiancée and start the potentially long wait for my work permit. I lived with my parents throughout this year and saved almost 90% of my monthly income (luckily they didn’t charge me for rent and let me have their food for my lunches) in order to be best prepared for my time in the US without an income.
What would I do with my days? Should I join a gym, finally put a concentrated effort into getting into good shape? I asked several friends what they would do if they were forced into taking a 6-month break with no obligations and finally decided that I should try and find something I was passionate about. An area in which I could develop a career and really enjoy my time at work. I spent around $100 on 10 courses on Udemy (a truly fantastic site with almost constant 95% off sales). Each course comprehensively covered a complete career path. During my first few months in the US I worked through these courses every day until I decided that a course (career path) was not for me. I picked the courses based on what I had liked at school as well as what my main hobbies/interests were. I purchased courses in Finance & Accounting (I’d always liked math at school), Management (I love people), Sports Journalism (I love sports too), HR (similar to my previous work), Sales (I’d already done a decent amount and wanted to see if it could be more interesting in a different field perhaps), Data Science (again, math, logic) and Web Development (recommended to me by a friend). The only reason I actually added the web developer bootcamp course to my list was because a friend from college who had studied foreign languages and linguistics with me had recommended trying coding due to the similarities to foreign languages, logic and how she would describe me as a creature of habit. It didn’t take long to realize that this was something I loved doing and between the Traversy Media Youtube channel, several of his courses on Udemy, as well as that initial course, I’ve not looked back.
After eliminating all the other courses one by one (and I really did work through at least 50% of each course before I gave up) I thought long and hard about how I could break into this field. Most Youtubers in the field of web development will tell you there are three paths. You can teach yourself (something I was already sort of doing alongside many other courses), go back to college to get a degree in computer science (something I definitely couldn’t afford nor could I see myself spending that many years studying so many irrelevant classes) and then there were coding bootcamps. The idea of studying part-time and being able to work at the same time really appealed to me as I wanted to be able to work and bring some money in for me and my wife as soon as possible to help support her (she works hard every day to support us both at the moment and I do not want her to have to do that for another year!). I also wanted a little structure and a career service to help me out (which is why I went with the bootcamp option over just teaching myself). I spent a whole week looking in detail at various bootcamps, applied to several and finally decided on Flatiron. Their hours/timezone worked best for me, their length of program fit my schedule well, their reputation speaks for itself and their curriculum covered almost every skill that I wanted to hone. They also seemed to have the best extracurricular services among the bootcamps including a career service, meetings to discuss your mental health throughout the program as well as a great community feel. I also love the idea of keeping a blog while studying to help show employers that you are comfortable talking tech.
This first post is designed to show you why I ultimately decided to study software engineering. While there are many obvious benefits such as high pay, great opportunities to advance in your career, a structured 9–5 (in a lot of companies), lack of weekend work (again, a lot of companies, not all) and the option to even work from home meaning more flexibility to pick up kids from school (thinking ahead here …), these are not the reasons that I chose to study Software Engineering with Flatiron. I decided to pursue this career path because I finally found something which I really love to do and around which a career can be built. I studied foreign (human haha) languages and linguistics at college because I loved it, but the passion I once had for it has somewhat died down for now (I blame this on the endless days of studying and writing papers at my very intense college) and it was hard to find a career which focused largely on the skills I had acquired. I’m excited to have found coding, web development, software engineering. I’m really excited that I have found something I’m enjoying and I’m extremely excited to have the opportunity to start this journey now with Flatiron and to see where it takes me. Follow my blog to see me start writing more technical posts about my coding journey and I hope to be writing about how I ultimately land my first job in the industry in around 10 months’ time once I’ve completed the program. It already feels amazing to be part of such a welcoming cohort and I wish everyone else the best of luck!