CS Career Transition

At age 30, it is not fair to expect the journey through career transition to be absent of barriers and pot-holes. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of misinterpreting the lack of early obstacles as a good indicator of future smooth sailing. Now, nearly two years after beginning my first quarter in the OSU Post-Bacc CS program, I find myself wishing I had the discipline to do things differently.

The beginning of my journey felt like a dream come true – not to be confused with everything being easy. I chose to resign from my employer of 10-years to ensure I focused all my energy on my new endeavors and forfeiting +80% of household income is never comforting. Despite this, the transition felt amazing. Balancing CS161 and CS225 was a steep drop off in responsibility relative to all the plates I was spinning working in Finance. Moreover, the course content was well defined and exciting. I actually found myself energized by the hours studying – not unlike a hobby. The quick feedback on assignments did a fantastic job of satisfying my need for affirmation. It is worth noting that these feelings intensified as I progressed through the more difficult courses in the program. I found CS344, CS325, and CS271 to be just as interesting as they were challenging. I made, and achieved, the goal of earning  ~100% on class assignments. Unfortunately, in review, it appears that I may have missed the forest for the trees.

With the benefit of hindsight, I would have completely rearranged my my priorities. My intense focus on a 4.0 GPA sounds like a solid approach, but it led to neglecting peripheral responsibilities. Outside projects, LeetCode, and career preparation were given minimal attention between quarters. It’s not that I wasn’t aware that these things are important, it’s that they were so easy to push to the margins. The gratification that came with a good grade was not present in the case of projects and outside studies. As a result, I had completely shot myself in the foot with regards to my job search.

Due to my early my early missteps, I am extremely close to graduating, but unprepared for a job search. Having done only a handful of LeetCode problems, I am very far from instilling a deep sense of intuition regarding the techniques discussed in CS325 (Algorithms). In addition, my lack of meaningful projects (outside course portfolio assignments) has left my resume looking baron. Not dedicating time to these early has left me a bit frozen with regards to ‘best’ next steps. I’m left questioning whether I’m best off focusing on LeetCode, working on an interesting Machine Learning course, starting up a fun solo project, or jumping around learning whatever language is emphasized in the latest job posting. At times, the catalog of options can feel overwhelming to the point of paralysis. I’m often left thinking, “can’t I just find a low-paying job and focus a somewhat well-defined task?”. I’ve proven that I do well in structured environments in my previous career and in achieving a 4.0 in the OSU CS program (I am not confusing this as being as difficult as achieving a 4.0 at an Ivy). I realize I appear to be fairly aimless, but I working on clearly defined next steps.

I believe that the most productive way to proceed would be to balance CS467 alongside studying with self moderated built-in accountability. I’ve already mentioned that I thrive in situations where I feel that my work will be presented to an audience. Similarly, on could say that I flounder in the absence of an audience (outside myself). In an attempt to materialize an audience, I will be publishing results of my studies on a personal website and Youtube. Simply knowing that my work will be available to the masses introduces a synthetic review process. The feeling of vulnerability inevitably results in an increased desire to understand concepts and take great care in presenting.

Throughout CS467, this blog will most likely focus more on Capstone Project specifics. However, I will make a conscious effort to devote some time to updating readers with regards to the topic of this post. I apologize if this post reads too much like stream of consciousness or a therapy session. Lucky for me, the prompt left things rather open ended with regards to content.