I am excited to be at the end of the program! I originally decided to get into computer science back in the summer of 2019. I had been working in banking for a little over a year and could already see that it wasn’t what I wanted to do long term. I took a little time and researched different options, and ultimately ended up starting at OSU in Winter 2020. Fast forward two years, and I am finally at the end of the program.
A lot has changed for me personally over the last two years, the biggest being my son. He was born in fall 2019, right before I started the program. It has certainly been a big adjustment, but has also been the most rewarding experience of my life. Also, my wife and I have moved from a city to a farm. After we had our son, we decided to raise our new family somewhere with space, so we sold our house in the city and moved to a cattle farm in the country. It has been a fantastic experience for the most part, we love being isolated and working in the gardens and with the animals (20 cows and their calves). However, as with most things in life there are always downsides, the two biggest being the added commute times, and the worst… the horrendous internet. I knew what I was getting into, and I have learned to cope, but it was a huge adjustment going from broadband to cellular hotspots.
Some things have remained the same over the past two years. Unfortunately, I still have the job that I had when I started the program. I recognize that it is silly that I have a well paying, easy job and that I despise it, but it just isn’t what I want to do. I also feel disappointed because I believed that I would be working my first job in the industry by now. This has sort of compounded with the already existent imposter syndrome that every new graduate seems to posses, and hasn’t been great for my mental health.
However, there is room for optimism! Over the past couple months, I have finally started getting companies and recruiters to acknowledge me. In fact, at the time of reading this, I have a phone interview scheduled in exactly 77 minutes. I’ve also began to assume that different regions likely have different standards for entry level people based on competition and need. For example, I see lots of people in cities that have huge numbers of tech companies and likewise openings, that get hired relatively early in terms of where they are in the program. And in my situation, where there aren’t near as many tech jobs, I can tell you that when I talk to recruiters, there is very much an emphasis on my graduation date, as if it is mandatory for employment. Whether all of that is actually true or not, I don’t know, just an observation that I’ve made.
All in all, I am excited to finally be nearing the end of my journey with OSU, and am excited for what lies in my future as a software engineer.
