After graduating college with a business degree and no true idea of what I wanted my career to look like, I got a job at the top sports network, where I learned a love of sports is not all it takes to want that life. I moved to a new state and opened a business, which was also not for me. Lost and just looking for a paycheck and benefits, I got a job in administration. While it’s been fine, it’s never felt like something I am truly proud of. It took all of those stops on my journey to push me to realize I need to be challenged. I want to push myself. I don’t want a job I can just skate through every day for the sole purpose of collecting a paycheck every two weeks. I want a career. I want the opportunity to grow and continue learning.
I have a couple of friends in software development, and while I had toyed with the idea of pursuing it myself, I never seriously considered it an option. It took coming across a TikTok (I know, but stay with me here) of a young woman talking about how she had gone through a program with Flatiron School and was making great money doing something she loved, having never gone to a formal university. This caused a whole string of lights in my head to erupt in full luminescence. Suddenly a career change seemed within reach, and I had hope for the first time in a long time.
After doing my research and working through some of the pre-bootcamp prep course, I decided this was definitely the next step for me to take in pursuit of a career I could enjoy and be proud of. I signed up for the self-paced Software Engineering course, and I could not be happier with my decision. I am only on week 3 of the program, but I look forward to my work day ending each day so I can study. I look forward to the challenges I’m presented and the opportunity to learn new skills. I finally feel hopeful that I’ve found what I’ve been looking for, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me.