Exciting prospects, uncertain future
Like many of my peers in OSU’s post-baccalaureate program, I began seeking a new degree knowing that it could change a lot about life as I knew it. This sort of change was pretty scary at the time as I was already lucky enough to have a well-paying job that involved interesting work, and I wasn’t sure how my performance at work would be impacted by my studies, or when/how I would quit my job to get experience as a software engineer.
That latter issue is something I struggled with a lot over the past year. While I was incredibly thankful that my employer was reimbursing me for my classes at OSU, I couldn’t forget that leaving the company within 2 years of that reimbursement meant paying all of that money back. Needless to say, this was a huge complication when faced with the need to acquire job experience. I wasn’t sure how, or if, it was even realistic for me to quit my job for something like an internship. While it was certainly possible for me to quit and simply pay my employer back, it was a risk I didn’t feel comfortable taking given my need to meet certain obligations like my monthly mortgage payment.
Light at the end of the tunnel
Thankfully, things have gradually worked out in my favor. Earlier this year I had the opportunity to interview with another organization at my current employer. After talking things through, they extended me an offer to work with them as a software engineer this past summer. While the transition has been difficult, requiring me to take on new responsibilities while still fulfilling prior obligations on my old work, it’s been incredibly rewarding. I still can’t believe I get paid to sit in front of my computer to write code and design software.
Though I’m still only working at a beginner-level, these past few months have enabled me to work on a diverse set of projects like decision-support tools for government contracting, DoD supply chain analysis platforms, as well as learn the inner-workings of what it means to be a DevOps engineer by fleshing out CI/CD pipelines.
Moving Forward…
Hopefully, over the course of the next year or so, I’ll be able to focus solely on these new responsibilities and fully leave my old work behind (and embrace much, much more free time by going back to just 40/hrs a week). Until then, I’ll remain thankful that I’ve been able to successfully navigate this career change thus far and excited at the future prospects that await me.
