Greetings
Hi there! My name is Richard and I am entering my last quarter as a post-baccalaureate Computer Science student at Oregon State University. This is the first of what is to be many blog posts created for my capstone CS 467 course. I plan to share my thoughts on coursework, tech, hobbies, or whatever musings that happen to pop into my head. For my first post, I will go over my brief history and explain why I am here!
My First Degree
My first degree was a Bachelor’s of Science in Biochemistry which I received in 2018 at UCSB. Originally I had planned to proceed to move on to pharmacy school and go on to be a pharmacist. This was a profession that I pursued more from a lack of direction in life than anything else. Many people urged me to pursue pharmacy as a comfortable, well-paying job. At school however, I found myself to be unhappy spending long hours in lab doing research and working with things on a microscopic level – often I felt like I was a zombie going through the motions.
As I was in my final year before graduation at UCSB, I increasingly dreaded the prospect of pharmacy school. Deciding to do a complete career change was an immense decision to make, however. I had great fear of being “put behind” in life, and that it would be a waste to throw away my Biochemistry degree and start from scratch.
Ikigai: A Spark for Change
A Japanese concept called ikigai helped with some of my introspection about what I wanted to do with my life. Ikigai is a Japanese concept referring to one’s sense of purpose, and is a union of four components (as seen in the diagram above). I reflected on this and ultimately decided that while pharmacy fulfilled most of the components, I would not find any love in doing it. Despite the feeling of sunk-cost with my first degree, I decided that I wanted to make the most out my one life and pursue something that actually made me happy. Thus, I took the plunge towards a career switch.
Why Computer Science / Software?
I wanted to switch to a career where I didn’t feel the inertia of a mundane day-to-day job. I think software engineering is a profession that appeals to me because the landscape of software is ever-changing and continuously presents new, challenging problems. Thus, it is necessary to be adaptable and always be learning new tools and technologies to solve things. While this is something that may be uncomfortable for some, I believe that this feeling of moving forward and continual growth is essential for my happiness.
Additionally, I enjoy working in a team with other people of diverse perspectives and skillsets. I think that working in a team environment is a great opportunity to propel both technical and personal growth.
OSU vs. Bootcamp vs. Self-Taught
I think most people attempting to switch into software development struggle to decide which path they want to take. While I think that bootcamps and self-teaching are perfectly valid paths towards becoming a Software Developer, I ultimately decided that going back to school was the correct choice for me. While it is true that most of the information needed to become a Software Developer is available online for free, I believe that it would be extremely difficult to learn the necessary material without any sort of organized course structure. Additionally, I feel that the Bachelor’s degree is still worth a significant amount to most employers. Pursuing a degree is necessary to apply to internships (which is often noted as the easiest way to get into a software role via return offers), and a Bachelor’s degree is listed as a requirement for most entry job listings.
Regarding 467 and Future Content
On the topic of jobs, my CS 467 group has decided that we will implement a Job Tracker as our capstone project! This will be a web application in which users will be able to track their applications to various intern/full-time positions, as well as add contacts.
This is a project that I am excited about because I can see it being extremely useful for anyone on the job hunt. I personally spent 6+ months sending 200+ applications this past year before landing my first full-time Software Engineer role. Perhaps the tribulations of my interview prep would be a good topic for a future post!
That’s it for now. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please comment below!
