Why I decided to study Software Engineering

I’ve always struggled with my identity.

As an identical twin, it was all too easy for my sister and I to be assumed as one and the same. We shared a lot of interests, sure, but plenty of interests were separate per person, but treated as equal anyway. I don’t like higher-level math or feel comfortable driving, and my sister doesn’t like parties or spending hours in art museums. It took a while to determine what activities I actually enjoyed, and not just was obliged to take part in.

I didn’t know what field I wanted to pursue going into college, so I picked one(criminal justice) that sounded useful and ran with it until I got my bachelor’s. Predictably, this method didn’t totally pay off- for a multitude of reasons, I decided that being a police officer or lawyer didn’t really suit me. I enjoyed the idea of working in a close-knit group of people, so I took an EMT course after graduation and received my NREMT license. Immediately after that, the pandemic hit.

Once that happened, I was forced to reevaluate my life path. Though I was qualified, the idea of spending my first months as an EMT in the height of a deadly pandemic was terrifying. I realized that me being a newcomer to the profession was relatively likely to kill a patient, and that gave me pause.

I looked into other career paths. I know many computer scientists -being involved in the Magic: the Gathering scene as well as living in the SF Bay Area guarantees that most of the people I know are engineers. I asked around, and they recommended I try a few modules on Code Academy to see if I liked them.

Long story short, I did. I enjoyed the puzzle-solving aspect of them, and the sense of accomplishment from understanding a module. I looked into coding boot camps, and Flatiron’s ‘cohort’ system stood out to me as something I could get into.

I still struggle with my identity sometimes. I still have a lot of self-doubt about career paths, life paths, and how I come across to others. Some days are worse than others, naturally, but I‘m glad I started the journey into learning how to code, and am eager to see how I improve.