The chance I have to take. Why I want to become a Software Engineer.

It took me a long time to start writing these first words. I guess I never really asked myself why I would like to be a software engineer and rather asked myself how I could become one. Probably because it never occurred to me that I should not become one… at least for the past few years.

I guess it all started when I touched my first computer. I must have been around 10, and my parents got a Macintosh Plus. They used it for work mostly, but I always managed to negotiate with them for a 10 minutes “play” session where I could pretend I knew how to use it and explore what it could do. Since that day, I’ve always been around computers, learning bit by bit, being fascinated by what one could do with such machines, and of course gaming.

Then life happens, you hear your school telling you you are good at foreign languages and you should follow that path, you hear your parents telling you that computers are a trend that will fade in a few years, so it’s better to pursue something different. You listen to them, you convince yourself that they are right, they must know better. You decide that anything related to computers will just be a hobby for you.

Then one day you wake up, and you realize that the trend hasn’t faded, quite the opposite actually, you realize that you can do and understand things that seem basic to you when it is not for other people and you make the decision it is time to branch out and do what you always wanted to do : Work in IT.

I looked for solutions, trying to find something that would suit my situation. When I found nothing, I made the decision to start learning on my own, after all, everything I need is out there, accessible from the comfort of my very own home. I learnt about coding, mostly HTML first, then CSS, then I read about how there was shortage of software engineers worldwide and made a simple, logic based, decision : Coding is coding, whether it’s HTML, CSS, Java, Ruby or any other language that will be created in the next few years. Am I clever enough to know which languages will disappear and which will stay ? Probably not. Do I like coding enough so that I can be resilient enough to learn new things constantly ? Of that I am sure. What to do then ? This is when it hit me. How about, instead of learning a specific language, learning how to think languages ? How about learning the fundamentals of object-oriented programming and be ready for whatever language is coming my way in the future ?

After realizing this, I started looking around at new solutions. A few months into thinking and searching, I read an article in a famous French newspaper called Le Monde. They were talking about Holberton School. Talking about how, rather than traditionally teach people about coding languages, Holberton was empowering their student and pushed them to work on projects in order to learn software engineering along the way. How Holberton was counting on their students to find the information out there rather than to try to robotically learn by heart. I knew this was the solution to learning and decided that it was a chance I had to take. Three days later, here I am, writing an essay, trying to join the school and carry out my project.

I know the road to completing this project will not be an easy one, and I can see difficulties ahead, but I see an amazing opportunity joining Holberton School and I have to try.

In my story of hit and miss, there is something I look forward to : When I manage to become a software engineer, I will be able to do what I like, and my skills will be sought out by companies, allowing me to live the life I want to live.