I have to skip ahead a couple weeks in the modules but I thought I would discuss the interview process. Having coming from a completely related field and transitioning later like many post-bacc students, the entire interview process felt a little alien to me. One question in particular in my most recent interview that I got (and didn’t see in the list of common questions) resonated with me: where do you see yourself in 3-5 years?

First, this question gets asked a lot, so I did prepare for it. But that question gives you a lot to think about and hides a lot of deeper meaning. I don’t think I wake up any given day and know what I want to eat for lunch. If I can’t figure out something that will happen in 4 hours, how could I even being to know 4 years from now? In a job interview, we can usually limit our self to the scope of our professional life and things adjacent to it.

Even that leaves us with a plenty of open ended questions. My recruiter asked me about school. I basically am just finishing going back to school, convincing 4 years of CS education in a two year span, do I really want more of that? Would more school help me? When thinking about the question though, I did go back to something module mentioned earlier: passion. I obviously want the company to know I about my passion for computer science and software development. So I would really like to work with some amazing developers and gain some real world experience. And I wanted to communicate that I am ambitious and wanted to develop myself into a position where I could lead a team.

Ultimately, I have no idea what the future holds for me. And outside of this context, I would probably say I could end up anywhere, both literally and what my focus on life is. But at least I know I reflected a bit more upon my professional goals and can explain what I want to do.