Over the course of the last few years, my interactions and intermittent collaboration with software engineers have inspired me to pursue programming studies.
My career roadmap has never been neat nor direct. In fact, it’s been a little all over the place. Let’s start from the beginning: when I was 8, i wanted to be a dolphin trainer.
My path has drastically pivoted from the dolphin trainer vision I once revered. Fast forward to 2016: I was a Biology / Pre-med major at Loyola Chicago (after changing my major 5 times). As my graduation approached, I realized that although I excelled in the sciences, medicine wasn’t my passion, and I ultimately decided not to pursue a career in medicine.
After receiving my undergraduate degree, I explored the non-profit realm in both marketing and project management roles. I wanted to save the world (don’t we all?). While in project management, I had my first experience working with programmers to develop a website. I took on somewhat of a Product Manager role (although at the time I didn’t know what a PM was), using marketing insights to improve upon our website and volunteer processes. This was the first time in my career when technology - programming, specifically - piqued my interest.
I decided to move to San Francisco in September 2018 in search of an opportunity within the technology sector. I quickly found WeWork and was hired onto the technology operations team. Little did I know I’d have the opportunity to learn about back-end programming, spending my day-to-day with hundreds of programmers.
Programming was indeed a phenomenon to me, but I knew I had discovered something that I was completely enthralled with. Finally. I immediately wanted to learn to code. I wanted to be the woman in the room, calling out problems, making decisions, creating solutions, and building shit. And that’s why I’m here.
In the end, it all comes down to my yearning for greater technical challenges in my day to day. Through the Flatiron Bootcamp, I plan to gain the technical knowledge and skills I need to make a bigger impact on my teammates, my customers, and ultimately my company. Here goes nothing.