Why I decided to study Software Engineering?
Originally Posted on May 15, 2020
What do you do for a living Irene? People ask me this question all the time. I tell them I am in the midst of completing a coding bootcamp. Mainly I decided to study software engineering because it matches my strengths in a career, it fascinates me, and I wanted a challenging but collaborative teamwork environment.
My strengths in a work environment include being good at explaining concepts, asking the right questions, having what I like to call a “builder mindset,” and picking up on details quickly. I also work with others effectively and really enjoy working in teams. Before I started this bootcamp, I believed that having these sorts of strengths would bring me success in coding, both to study it and build a career out of it.
I studied successful people before I started this course and came to realize quickly that people don’t do things they know they are not innately good at doing because they want to set themselves up for the best chance of success. For instance, I wouldn’t study fashion modeling because I don’t have the best sense of fashion nor the interest for it.
The concept of building something to make a computer system work truly does make my eyes light up. I think it is amazing that we as imperfect humans, can write instructions in a computer’s mechanical language to make it do things that humans cannot do themselves.
Humans cannot have forms available at any hour of the night for customers to fill out because they only work certain hours of the day. However, humans can write code to create a website to do just that. Humans can’t search through thousands or millions of personal demographic records of all the citizens in a large given area, just to find a certain characteristic in that population, but they can program a computer to do this. Hence the name software engineer; engineering ways to do these types of things. The idea that I can be that creative human software engineer in each of those instances fascinates me.
In my previous job positions, I have worked alone and worked with others, so I have had a taste of working in both environments. I can firmly say that working with others is always better from my perspective. It gives me this overwhelming sense of satisfaction when I know that I have done what is morally good to help others. It also helps me to better catch my mistakes in what we are working on and develop better listening skills to make the team project better.
It is evident to me, that almost anything that has ever been admired in this world, i.e. a major box office movie success, social media websites, even creating a well-rounded family, have been a team effort. In software engineering, you cannot just work alone, it is all about working with other developers to create something great. That is one of my greatest motivators for wanting to study software engineering and Flatiron’s bootcamp gives me that kind of team environment.
Learning to code is not an easy task by any means. I knew this before I started this bootcamp because I already did some independent coding projects. I wanted this kind of challenge. The structure of a coding bootcamp itself is also a challenge, but it was the right step forward to invest in myself.
Speaking from experience I also really wanted a worthwhile challenge because my other jobs although challenging enough at times, were futile eventually because the end of progress was always in sight. Being the best at this or that position didn’t bring me satisfaction. I wanted to create something lastingly useful. I think work with a significant challenge and reward of accomplishment, makes it far more engaging.
It is only week two of this coding bootcamp and my desire to learn is still going strong. Of course, there are those times when I feel like what I am trying to learn is too hard, but I just try my best to ignore that voice in my head and keep going. I have my rational and strong reasons why I code, which I couldn’t be prouder to have. With this determined mindset, when I finish bootcamp, I can answer that same question people ask me so often now with an experienced tone of voice, “I’m a software engineer and a Flatiron graduate with great aspirations.”
Connect with me on LinkedIn. To know more about what I’m working on click here Github.
