I was very focused when I made the decision to switch careers into computer science, with a single field in mind, but as I worked through the program my eyes were opened to how many incredibly interesting fields computer science encompasses. This really split me into many directions and led me to dip my toes in a variety of those fields. As I come to the final term for this program, I have really bunkered down to consider how I want to move forward.
This brings me to my current struggle, choosing between two areas I feel very passionate about.
The first and one that I have been enthralled by since childhood is gaming. I absolutely love tabletop and pc gaming, from how it feels playing the game to thinking through the reasons for decisions the developers made. Prior to starting this program, I had spent countless hours working on Dungeons and Dragons homebrew and campaigns, as well as playing through video games of all genres. I continually make notes about game systems (particularly MMOs) and write down thoughts on how some could be improved. I have started working on my own board game and have made an RPG style adaptation of a tabletop war game called Warhammer: Age of Sigmar.
The second and the one that convinced me to change careers was artificial intelligence. This field has so much potential and is something I feel is the key to the next age. Every opportunity during the program to take a AI/Machine Learning course or participate in an event I have taken. I have a library of papers from the field that I am continuing to read through and add to. As someone who loves to learn about nearly any topic and see the inner workings of many things most people don’t think about, working in a field that has applications in so many other fields is very appealing.
However, I understand that both these fields have their difficulties.
Many gaming companies (especially the big ones), do not treat their developers well. Being pushed to long hours and dealing with high levels of criticism from their customers is something that can be very draining.
Nearly all AI/ML positions have minimum qualifications as a PhD with some experience, or a Masters with a significant amount of experience. It is a field that is constantly being expanded and requires a significant amount of time to stay up to date on.
This leads me to my current plan. Find an engineer roll to get my feet wet in industry (ideally in an organization that has AI/ML roles) while continuing to develop games and work on ML projects on the side. After a couple years I will decide whether to pursue a PhD in an AI subfield (hopefully with assistance from my employer), strongly push into the gaming field (potentially getting a Masters), or look for other opportunities.
