Why I Decide To Pursue A Career In Software Engineering

Starting out I never would’ve imagined me trying to pursue a career as a software engineer. This is probably one of the last things that would have crossed my mind as a career let alone even knowing what it is that a software engineer actually does. A couple of other careers came to mind like being a filmmaker, sports agent, lawyer, paralegal, etc but i never could really see myself doing 4 years of school and also the job market for those particular careers. I also loved the sport of boxing and found a passion for it that I still have but slowly died out the older I got. I saw the effects that boxing can have of the mind and body so I decided I needed a change of plans. I was at a loss for what i wanted to do with my life, after months and months of research I came across web designing as a potential career.

After months of research this is something that can quite possibly be interesting enough to actually pursue above average wages and the stress levels of web developers seemed to be below average as I discovered the passion comes from being able to problem solve. As I started out with more research I saw that it all consisted of coding. Now at this point I’ve heard of coding and my initial thought was of a computer tech individual who’s very smart and spends his whole day at a desk typing while drinking coffee in a firm. I didn’t think I was quite cut out for it but the idea of designing something still intrigued me so I decided to give it a shot.

So eventually all the research and Youtube videos said the path to becoming a web developer was to start coding on your own. This led me to watching coding courses on Udemy and starting coding challenges on Codesmith.com Now although it was challenging as I actually started to solve some of the code on my own it was one of the most satisfying feelings I’ve ever felt while doing something. But the material quickly moved from one section to the next so with much assistance from a professional for me personally it was nearly impossible to learn the material on my own. This led me to researching colleges and coding boot camps.

Now I’m doing research on research and surprisingly it didn’t take me long to make a decision on which path I should take. I leaned towards the coding boot camp option because not only is it cheaper but it’s also a shorter time period in which I can learn to actually code. Now the issue is where should I attend a coding boot camp? At this point the first coding boot camp I’ve come across was Lamba which I did not get accepted into, it was kind of a downer but I continued on the search for others. At this point I’ve come across a school called Flatiron that I saw in New York that doesn’t require you to pay anything until you get a job. Sounded perfect to me so I reached out via email. I also saw that you should apply to more than one school in case you don’t get accepted into your school of choice. So I discovered another school that caught my attention which is Codesmith that is based in California and also had really good reviews. Now I had two schools in mind and I had interviews for both of them on the same day in September. I got accepted into both schools after some pre-work and a required technical interview at Codesmith, which I was not prepared for. At this point I was thinking maybe Codesmith isn’t for me right now. This is when I got back into contact with Flatiron, which the rep explained to me launched a partnership which Amazon full time associates in which they pay 100% of the tuition. At this point I made the very easy decision to enroll at Flatiron school.

After months and months of research and struggles I’ve finally went ahead and got enrolled in a coding boot camp and began to further my education. This point in the course everything is not clear but I am not totally confused either, excited nonetheless. What I hope to accomplish not only by the end of this course but my career as a future software engineer is to become a better coder day by day and develop an helpful app of some sort and a media app. Also to mentor anyone who is confused by a certain bug or problem as knowing now first starting out isn’t easy at all so the simple acts of kindness to help anyone succeed is going to be something I pride myself in doing. Again I am very excited and can’t wait for what the future brings!