A Future In Software Engineering
24 Jan 2021
A Look Into The Past
Have you ever asked someone how they ended up doing what they’re doing for a living and they reply with “I just kind of fell into it”? Growing up I’ve heard that line more than a handful of times and never could quiet understand or wrap my head around how can someone just fall into a job, that they may or may not even like. A follow-up question that I usually ask after hearing that said line is “do you enjoy your job?” more often than not the reply is usually a resounding “yes”, which to me is even more mind blowing.
You might ask yourself “what was the point of that?”, well the point is, that is how I found myself in the field of software engineering. The younger version of me was wide eyed and full of dreams, out of high school I wanted to get into corporate law, because at the time in the news Abercrombie and Fitch were discriminating against people who did not see them a fit for their brand and I wanted to stand up for those people because that wasn’t right. However, I started taking class related to law and it was just not that entertaining to me. After Law, I decided to dip my feet in engineering, at first, I found it very interesting because I know for a fact that the world would not be where we are right now without engineers, then the math came, and I wasn’t prepared for it and really hated math (I don’t anymore) and I decided to drop out. I asked myself if I’m really ready for a lifetime of doing math and I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t, so I left school for a few years and worked random jobs and hung out with my friends and just enjoyed life.
With all good things, there must come an end to it. It’s really hard for me to put a specific date and time on when I decided it was time for me to go back to school but let’s just say one day a switch just kind of flipped in my mind, that I needed to go back to school. When deciding in what to major in at the University of Hawaii. I saw that the school very recently started to offer Computer engineering as an option, and I was excited for that. I knew that the future of the world will always need computer engineers considering that we rely on it so heavily and I knew job security will always be there, so I enrolled and just kept my head down a rolled with the waves and here I am on my last year of school.
Currently In Time
My Interest in engineering began when I was a kid, and I would see my dad work on things in the garage. For example, when our computers would get virus’s or our computers would do things it just wasn’t supposed to do, my dad was always there to the rescue. We would just hand him our computers and later in the day or the next we would get it back with our issue resolved and all is right with the world again. My interest really sparked when my dad would take old machines and pull-out specific parts from those machines and put it into a hollow one and build a better version of it, it was as if my dad was Dr. Frankenstein and the computer was the Frankenstein monster, it was awesome to watch him work and that’s where my interest in engineering began. It was known that I can help my family out and people help them better their life and make it just a little bit easier.
My interest in engineering was built up when I got hired to work for Verizon and was able to take a tour of their main server here in Oahu. It was amazing to me the protection that Verizon built around the servers just so when push comes to shove the customers would they be able to rely on their service to communicate with the outside world. Another fascination for me was the fact that all the data, voice, and text received all over the world would first pass by the server farm and from there it would then reach its final destination all with in a fraction of a fraction of a second. Till this day after my visit to Verizon’s server farm in Oahu, I’m just left in awe.
In 2015, I was so very honored to get hired for apple to me at the time I felt like it was a lead up to where I’m supposed to be at ultimately in my life in the technology sector. I loved the feeling of being able to help people resolve their problems. When they walk in very angry or very frustrated and asking them questions and finding a solution. What makes it all worth it is the feeling of gratitude that the customer gives to you after you have helped them resolved their issue. However, sometimes you can’t resolve their issue, but nonetheless, they are still grateful because you gave them options and plainly laid out the “next steps” in their journey to getting their issue resolved.
The icing on the cake for me in my interest is the amazement when I introduce them to a program or app that would help simplify their already complicated life and the look on their face when you know you have sparked something from within the customer life. It’s really unfortunate that software engineers don’t really get to see that. That the work they put into creating a program has ultimately helped somebody. Such a great feeling.
The things I mentioned above is the lead up and an explanation on why in the end I ended up in software engineering. In the beginning it was just to follow in my dad’s footsteps and the fact that I felt like I was running out of time and wasn’t getting any younger and really needed to pick a major. To the jobs and opportunities that was introduced to and learned both the front end and back end of each companies. To finding the real reason behind my interest is being able to help just even one person simplify their life. I may not be a doctor or nurse like my mom or my sister and help save lives. I am however helping people live their lives in a better way.
The Future Is Bright
Considering its my final year in college and will soon receive my degree. The future is fast approaching for me. There are so many things that I would like to learn still. However, while doing my research in potential jobs. I’ve narrowed down my future prospects to learning more about web design, a freelance web creator, or programmer.
Web design gives me instant satisfaction on what I’m creating, and a potential that, though they may not know it, is a design I helped create. For example, when creating my professional online profile. It was nice to see how beautiful my profile came out after the amount of time I put into it. Learning web design will allow me to always be in demand, just as all things change, so does design and maintenance changes. Lastly, being in web design it will allow me to further explore my creative side by traveling the world and being inspired by different cultures all the while still working without being tied down to a desk and will reflect in my work.
Freelance web creator will allow me to still help my fellow people and keeping my life mantra of “Leave this world a little better than I found it.”. With web creation it will allow me to empower my clients mainly small businesses that can compete with bigger businesses. There are a lot of people out there, with many great ideas and are being hindered by the lack of available resources that they have when compared to big established companies that have and can hire an army of programmers. I would like to see myself helping them and being a part of their journey. This is where my true passion lies.
Lastly, being a programmer, will always be at my core. Programming to me is a real love hate relationship. To be completely honest I’m not the best programmer in the world, but I tend to keep going back to it. I would like to further refine my skills in C, C++, Java, and JavaScript. I know that my education doesn’t stop once I get my degree, education will always be an ongoing situation in the technology.
The future looks bright, I’m looking forward to learning anything and everything that I possibly can in software technology. With practice I will get better and will then give me an edge in the industry. A project that I just started working on and is currently in the research stage is helping my sister create a website for her business. An undertaking of creating a website for a business will help me grow, learn, establish my portfolio. I know it’s just the start but it’s a great start for a potentially great future.