Back in high school, when asked what do you want to major in college? I always answered with software engineering. However that plan was pushed aside because I felt I did not know much about it and it would be too difficult of a career choice to pursue. I felt that I would not be able to succeed because I felt others knew more about computers than me.
So I decided to pursue Physical Therapy, which I felt I knew a lot about being that I was injured a lot from skating and had to attend physical therapy sessions occasionally from those injuries. I ended up slacking off and once I found out my girlfriend was pregnant, I decided to defer getting my Doctorate in Physical Therapy and pursue a Physical Therapist Assistant degree to get into a career faster and be able to provide for my family. I always believed I would end up going back to school to get my Doctorates. However when speaking with several of my colleagues, I started to look into various other careers that I would actually see myself enjoy being in.
I played with the notion of going back to school for my software engineering degree, but felt I was going left field with my career choice. From healthcare to the tech world, I kept researching my options and felt my dream of becoming a software engineer/developer was something that kept popping up. Once I saw that coding bootcamps were available, I did my research and asked friends within the software engineering field about them. It ended up being a no brainer, especially when I considered the debt, stress and time needed to get into another career in the healthcare field.
I can finally pursue my passion and actually do something that I truly enjoy. Not to say I don’t enjoy my current career or that I regret my career path, I feel it is a better option at this time in my life especially now that I have 2 boys. I want to be able to tell them in the future to pursue whatever it is they want, so that going to work doesn’t feel like work. I am excited to continue learning more and more about coding and to finish this program knowing I get to pursue my passion!