My Story: An Honest Why
Published: 2023-08-30 18:49:15

"If I could do the whole thing over again, I would have studied Computer Science in college,” a line I’ve said to many friends and family members since graduating in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

After five years at Northeastern University and two co-op internships, I wanted a break from Chemical Engineering. Having discovered my enthusiasm for cocktails as an undergraduate, I found myself working at a bar in New jersey for my first year out of college, Americana Kitchen & Bar. Turned out I had a knack for hospitality and a good sense of customer service. It taught me to have a thicker skin. But a year later, I realized that I enjoyed bartending for my friends more than I enjoyed bartending for customers. Not to mention, I needed my weekends back.

In 2021, I returned to the STEM field, working as a lab technician as SGS, an analytical laboratory analyzing ground water and soil samples for trace metals content. The lab was short-staffed so it was an arduous year of long hours spent with far too many analytical instruments and too few hands to maintain them, run the samples, and review the analyses. Pay wasn’t great, and I was only getting by because I stayed part-time at the bar on weekends. 

In 2022, I returned to engineering, working as a lab engineer at Hosokawa Micron Powder Systems running client tests to support powder processing equipment sales. Money was better and it seemed like I had more time to myself. But now I found myself spending nearly two-and-a-half hours in the car each day. Over a year, I found less and less time for hobbies as I grew used to the long hours. I wasn’t happy at work and I still needed my life back.

By the time 2023 rolled around, I needed something different. I found I enjoyed the problem solving aspects of my jobs the most. Working at the bar was problem solving every day, especially since Americana Kitchen & Bar was one of the first in its area to adopt a QR-code contactless ordering system in lieu of the pandemic. At SGS, I learned most when troubleshooting instrument issues. At Hosokawa, every client test was different and every client’s requirements were different too. So in all its forms, trouble-shooting was at the heart of work that made me feel fulfilled.

If problem solving was something I enjoyed in and of itself, somehow, I thought back to my computer science classes in high school and the bits of programming I did in my engineering curriculum at university. That was constant problem solving and learning. Then my mind leapt to the stories I would hear from my software friends who worked remote the past few years, at times even traveling while working. I started looking into software engineering bootcamps.

In my conversations with my software friends before I decided to make the switch, it was a mixed bag in terms of people’s thoughts on whether it was a good idea or a crazy idea. The recent layoffs in the tech industry had some effect of saturating a work-market that then didn’t have enough jobs to go around. But overall, my friends were encouraging and supportive, reassuring me that it’s not a bad thing to want the lifestyle of a software engineer; And, of course, the fact that as technology evolves, all disciplines and industries will need software engineers.

It only took a few weeks for me to solidify my desire to pursue the career change. After a handful of phone calls, several hours of pre-work which, thankfully, was mostly review, and the daydreaming began of life as a software engineer. But one friend who also attended a bootcamp posed a good question to me in one of our conversations. After telling him my story and why I started thinking about computer science, he would ask: “Well, what is life after you clock out a software engineer?” 

A great deal of this whole process is focusing on the career-oriented check-boxes and discovering where we fit into this vast and evolving field of technology. While it’s wonderful to approach with passion, I believe it’s also healthy to adopt a tempered approach with an honesty about the practical benefits. Remote and hybrid work with a more-than-decent paycheck is plenty attractive. There’s no shame in that. 

To answer my friend’s question I visualized the day when I’ve graduated and started working as a software engineer. It’s a remote day so I have more time for my morning run and in between meetings or as a quick break I can prepare cocktail syrups for gatherings I’m hosting that week or hop on the piano for a few minutes while thinking about where the bug in my code could be. A better work-life-balance is what’s on the other side of the tunnel, among other things. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I really believe that life only truly begins after clocking out. 

Work is work. And sometimes, well, most of the time, for most of us, that’s okay. My journey to Flatiron School through my handful of job changes has felt like just a series of practically-driven decisions rather than career-passion oriented. My life is enriched by my hobbies: running, cooking, bartending, reading, writing, piano, board games. It’s been a dream of mine to run the Leadville 100 ultramarathon in Colorado. I’m hoping one day I’ll be able to record J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. 

That all being said, I’m excited now for the first time in a long time about learning a new skill and hopeful about software engineering and finding its place in my life as a comfortable job, without an awful commute, with plenty of problem solving, and co-existing in harmony with my many hobbies. So, it’s all been for practical reasons, but I know I’d be putting up a façade if I wrote this whole story without acknowledging the practical reasons. And I’m proud of being at the tail-end of my bootcamp journey now with Flatiron School, excited to pursue my software engineering career in the airline industry.