Finding Purpose at Work
I was clueless when I decided to quit law school. I knew precisely what I didn’t want to do, but had no idea where my talents or passions lied. My only jumping off point was to follow what absorbed my free time: learning to code (seeing as it was quite a bit more exciting than reading old case studies, and it involved spending a lot of time on the computer which was, at the time, a great plus).
I began my new career path into software development when I was 25, which in hindsight is a bit peculiar…to have declared a career and put it to death, all before a quarter of a century. Anyway, I quit after a year of law school and had a job as a line producer in advertising projects for a hot minute, and eventually decided to go to a coding bootcamp. I had spent countless hours at that point learning how to code on my own via Codecademy and FreeCodeCamp, and talked with my coworkers who were on our dev team. It seemed like a perfect fit: lots of dollar signs in my future, very few suits and heels.
In all seriousness — I was really excited to go into software engineering because it seemed like an industry that focused not only on professional development, but personal development as well. Every person I met who had recently gotten into this career had a shiny coat of paint — like switching to this job gave them life. I watched many a YouTube video about engineers who spent most of…
