Software Engineering for the Soul
01 Sep 2022
What To Do In Life?
Throughout my childhood, everyone would always ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. How was I supposed to know? For the longest time I wanted to be a veterinarian. However, I learned that they had to go to school for a long time and I decided to change career paths. In intermediate school, we were introduced to different careers that were grouped together by “pathways”. In order to find our pathway, we would take tests on what type of person we were. I found that I might have an interest in engineering and realized that as a child I always loved building things and playing with computers. My fascination with technology grew throughout high school where I learned my first programming language: Python. It was then that I decided I was going to become a Computer Engineer.
How I Am Doing Now
During my freshman year I learned C and I still loved to code. In sophomore year I enjoyed learning C++ and how Object Oriented Programming worked! Then came junior year and coding became hard for me. Somehow the concepts just would not click as well as they did before. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed learning new languages and how to become a better software engineer. Finally, this past summer I had an internship where I had the opportunity to learn JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It was rough for me because we had to learn a lot on our own, but it was still fun.
Moving Forward
This semester I am taking ICS 314. After learning about what that class is really about, I realized that it would have been beneficial to me to have taken it earlier. It could have really helped me not only in my internship, but also in my professional life because we are learning soft skills that all software engineers should have, such as writing. I hope that as I learn more about software engineering I gain the skills to develop projects that make an impact on society. For my summer internship I worked for the navy in a project that would potentially aid the warfighter. I realized that even with the little experience I had, there was an opportunity for me to influence society. When I become more knowledgeable about software engineering, I know that I will be able to help my community in even bigger ways!