How I Became a Software Engineer

Photo by Katarina Šikuljak on Unsplash

Seven years ago, I would have adamantly told you that I wouldn’t ever work in tech — it just wasn’t my thing. Code, to me, just wasn’t as visual or exciting as mechanical components and machining.

Hi, I am Carla and I am a software engineer; but, you might know me better as @CarlaNotarobot on Twitter or “That account that Tweets clingy programming jokes”.

A question I get asked exceedingly often is how I got into software engineering and what was my journey.

I didn’t want to fit my response in a mile long Twitter thread, so here I am. Sorry if it sounds like I am rambling, I am just going to type as I think.

I didn’t really touch code until I was 19 and a freshman in college studying mechanical engineering (yay Matlab).

Sure, prior to that I had a few experiences with code, but nothing significant.

I did a Lego Robotics camp when I was 10 and got to fiddle around with the click-and-drag code interface. Like probably most 10 year-olds, I thought building the robot out Legos was the more entertaining part of the challenge. I’m also pretty sure I spent most of the week playing Lemonade Tycoon after my team finished building our robot first.

Then, at 17 I learned some Visual Basic at a STEM college prep program. The only thing I really…