From There to Here

What got you started with computers or software?

I first started with programming in 2017 when I bought a book (Intro to C Programming) and basically coded along with the examples. The book ended with a program for playing a card game, which kinda blew me away at the time. It wasn’t a large program, and it was all via the terminal, but it still held the logic properly for playing the game.

Current job or internship

I am currently a full-time student. This past summer I interned as a SDE at Amazon in the Alexa org. I wrote a couple APIs from scratch in Java using the REST framework. I am currently applying for new grad roles and hoping to get an offer before the end of this course (this is my last quarter at OSU).

Journey with OSU

My journey with Oregon State University started in January 2022. I took CS161 and CS225 at the time. It was definitely an adjustment having to find 15 – 25 hours a week for coursework, but I realized how much I needed the structure of the program. Before joining OSU, I went to a coding bootcamp (the now closed 42 Silicon Valley) and worked on self teaching web development using the Odin Project. I would have bursts of productivity followed by weeks of stagnation. When I would inevitably come back and open my code editor I would be incredibly rusty, kinda like going back to the gym after a year off.

For the majority of the program I worked full-time as a valuations analyst at a fintech startup in Seattle, WA. It was nice learning in the evenings and then finding small things I could do at work to improve my efficiency. I wrote a script to help create a note doc and organize it in the correct subdirectory using Python, saving myself many clicks and a non-trivial amount of time. At this position I was able to work with our engineers and get my first exposure to a company codebase. It was very difficult to get the environment setup and get to the point where I could start to make changes to the code, but I had the basics down from my coursework at OSU that with a little help things turned out okay.

I am currently in my final quarter at OSU. I am taking capstone (CS467) and Intro to Programming Languages (CS381). This upcoming week our projects will be assigned, so I will have more to say next week.

Thanks for reading!