Welcome to my blog detailing my journey deciding to enroll in OSU, what I’ve learned during my time here, and what I will be doing next.
Two years ago I was working as an auditor at a big CPA firm. While it was the job I dreamed of in college, it did not take long for me to realize that it was a career I would not be happy with. The hours were extremely demanding and the work was mundane at best. I was hoping that auditing financial statements would be a fun challenge that would allow me to use my critical thinking and problem solving skills. However, most of the time I was manually parsing through an endless stream of excel spreadsheets, copying and pasting numbers, and capturing screenshots for documentation. The work was neither challenging nor rewarding and given the nature of a CPA firm, I was expected to work long hours leaving me with almost no time for my personal life.
I knew I wanted a change so I began saving money to return to school. At the time, I had been dabbling with simple python challenges as a hobby. Coding seemed to have everything I was looking for; it was interesting, challenging, and there is endless potential to build something awesome.
It didn’t take long for me to find OSU and it’s post bacc program. Given my recent interest in programming, I knew it was my best shot at switching to a career that I would be interested in. After two years of working as an accountant (as someone in their early twenties with few major financial obligations) I had finally saved enough to begin taking classes. I promptly quit working at the CPA firm, began working at a paint store where I wouldn’t be expected to work more than 40 hours a week, and enrolled in classes.
This was the beginning of my journey at OSU. At the time I was both nervous and excited. I had quit a well paying job to take on a role that didn’t make much more than minimum wage and I was about to invest my entire savings into obtaining a degree and career that I had virtually no expertise in. Despite this, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to pursue a career in software engineering and eager to learn as much as possible.
