My decision to dive into software development has brought much joy and excitement to my life in that it very much aligns with what I am looking for in terms of continuous learning and meaningful work.
Getting to this point, however, was difficult and plagued with doubts.
To give a brief background, my degrees are in business. I have undergraduate degrees in finance and marketing and a MBA with a concentration in supply chain management. Given that my education was not necessarily abstract-thinking or technical in nature (and also that grad school was nearly eight years ago), I truly did not believe I had the right kind of mind or study skills necessary to pursue software engineering. Through an accretion of poor habits and loss of motivation, I found myself always low in energy and at a point in life where I had a dead-end job and was in a state of complacency.
Take Massive Action
I knew I needed a change, but it had to start with managing my energy levels and procuring a major shift in mindset; I had to take massive action. I had been thinking about enrolling in a bootcamp for well over a year but I kept those thoughts to myself largely due to a deep-seated fear that I lacked the ability to succeed. I had a number of mental obstacles to overcome or at least have subside in order to even feel as though I was making the right decision. This in part, led me to take a deep dive into personal development. To start, I began listening to audiobooks and podcasts within the areas of self-development, I implemented a consistent workout routine, and I registered to run the LA Marathon. Within a span of seven months, I had listened to about 35 books, hundreds of podcast episodes, and ran a marathon. I had completely changed my habits and this was nothing short of life changing. Through these actions, I gained tremendous perspective in multiple areas of life and saw a huge difference in my energy and overall happiness.
I began removing many distractions in my life to focus on getting the wheels in motion for this transition. As the saying goes, “if you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes the sacrifice.” I later progressed to listening primarily to programming related podcasts and dabbled in a few prep classes in order to be more immersed and excited about the topic. At this point, I still had lingering doubts but I was going to go for it anyways. I went from telling those close to me that “I am thinking” or “I want” to “I am” enrolling in a software engineering bootcamp.
“I can be fearful and do it anyway. I don’t have to get rid of the fear, I just have to dance with it.” - Tony Robbins
Fast forward a couple months, here I am, enrolled in Flatiron School’s Software Engineering program and loving it!