Why I Chose Software Development?
To be honest, I don’t know. I ask myself that question every time I’m stuck on a lab 😂.
The fact is, technology is everywhere today and only growing. To be able to have a skillset and the knowledge necessary to contribute to any part of this ever growing industry is humbling.
Don’t get me wrong, I definitely see many things in the world of coding that resonate with me. I am very detail oriented, organized and have a knack for finding easy to miss errors. I also have a background in problem solving from my studies in Talmud which (as I’ve been told) can be a useful asset with programming logic.
But I think there’s a lot more to this whole software engineering thing. There’s got to be. And that scares me! The vast amount of knowledge out there is overwhelming and you can really get lost in the “analysis paralysis” or “tutorial hell” of programming. So if there was one thing I would want to walk out of Flatiron School with it would be learning to be comfortable with not knowing, embracing that and then having the courage to dive right in and learn something new I didn’t know yesterday (ok i guess that’s technically 3 things).
This “Emotional Journey of Creating Anything Great” graph below 👇 really illustrates this point quite well. We’re all excited when we start new things and that’s the easy part. To stay persistent in our goals even when things get tough is the key to our success.
This is actually my second go at Flatiron School (so I guess you can say my stay in the “dark swamp of despair” has been a bit extended). I now have a taste of what lies ahead (the abstract concepts, broken code, imposter syndrom, not knowing everything/anything) but I feel better prepared this time around.
To finish off this blog (1st one ever btw!), I’d like to suggest to anyone reading this that now is the perfect time to learn something new. New skills that can literally change your career. Doesn’t have to be coding but if that interests you, maybe start with codecademy or freeCodeCamp (no i’m not being paid to promote these sites). We’re all stuck at home anyways and for a lot of us, it means more time on our hands. So try it out. Can’t hurt. See if this is something that remotely peaks your interest and see where it takes you.
