The journey of a self-driving car engineer
This blog post is more of a reflection. Hopefully it’s the first of a series (no promises though!). I’m starting with the last things first, and trying to describe, memorize, appreciate, and reflect — in my own way — on the past year, led by taking the Self-Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree program.
The journey started a year ago, more or less, when I started feeling a sense of stagnation. I had had a passion for web development from a young age, and that’s what I had focused on during my side projects and internships. However, as I started to work on it full-time, it had stopped exciting me. I already knew everything I cared for, and there was not much room for progress. Here anxiety struck. “Warning you’re stuck! You’re stuck!”
I had this existential fear of “am I missing out? Am I wasting my career, time, life…?” Things started growing fast. Then the bedtime monster came over. I couldn’t sleep. Help!
When these thoughts take over, you know it’s time to make a plan. I started looking at my old passions and decided to study AI in more depth. This choice got reinforced when I had an interview and was asked to implement a neural network from scratch. I enjoyed it so much that it felt like falling in love with programming all over again. With my goal set, now I needed to focus my energy full-time on it. I considered taking a Master’s degree, but as my livelihood in Singapore depends on having a full-time job, that wasn’t a valid option (unless I sell a kidney and I’m not sure anyone will want it!).
To cut a long story short, this is when my eye was caught by Udacity’s Self-Driving Car Engineer Nanodegree program, thanks to a friend’s post on Facebook ( Marwan Zouinkhi yoho!). The idea of lifelong learning appealed to me. I applied and my one-year-long journey began.
In this year, I pushed myself out of bed, studied almost every weekend, stayed after work reading lectures, and debugged projects on my one-hour train ride. I stayed long hours grasping concepts, and got to know the meaning and applications behind all those math formulas I learned at school.
As I’m writing, I’m trying to jump between what’s personal and what’s more technical. Between struggles and the satisfaction of accomplishment. Between pushing yourself to start work and pushing the boundaries of your knowledge (as much as your ignorance). This contradiction and complimentary describes my journey. Or let’s call it “the ride.”
I studied in coffee shops, took leave of work to meet deadlines, traveled and stayed at an Airbnb, just to force myself to keep on and finish that last piece of code. I dealt with not having much free time to recharge, take a breath, and boost my energy. And most importantly: I didn’t quit!
When your life starts to get out of order, or you fail to run that piece of code, it can feel like everything will probably crumble, self-esteem first. So just push yourself slowly, one step further, get out of bed, change that one line of code. And if that’s too much, maybe just code in bed! Everything else will fall into place after — at least that was the case for me.
This year doesn’t just certify my skills as an engineer at a technical level. It’s a check on how hard I can push myself, how hard I can focus and finish what I started. It’s a proof, to me above all else, that living with emotional instability isn’t a barrier to achievement. It’s an analysis of what needs to be worked on next — both technically and personally.
If I had to label this year, I would choose the word dedication. So let’s clap for dedicating yourself to your dreams, one at a time.
What now? On a career level, I will be focused on putting the acquired knowledge more in practice and follow Michael Virgo’s paper discussions. On a personal level, I will dedicate more time to work on my lifestyle and reaching the physical goals I set.
I will end this by saying thanks to Udacity for making studying enjoyable again, and for elaborating such high-quality content. And thanks to my mom for calling me at 7am (midnight TN time) on a Saturday to make sure I wake up and meet my deadlines! And good news! I managed to make the career change I aimed for after finishing just the first term of the program.
If you have any questions about the course, or anything, please feel free to contact me or drop a comment! Shout out to Dhia Hayouni and Safwen Daghsen for their much-appreciated feedback. Check out their content, you won’t regret it!
To start your own journey with Udacity, take a look at the programs offered by our Schools. You’ll learn new skills and build projects in high-demand fields, such as in our Data Analyst, Machine Learning Engineer, and Introduction to Programming Nanodegree programs. Follow in Khalil’s footsteps in Udacity’s School of Autonomous Systems.
Editor’s Note: This article is the sole work of the author. Its views, findings, and conclusions do not necessarily represent those of Udacity.
