Hello, I’m Eric Sanchez and welcome to my blog, I’m glad you’ve found your way here. I’ll be writing weekly updates on my capstone project, past and future career experiences, and how I am staying caffeinated in the process. This week I’m happy to share a little bit about of how I’ve arrived to where I am now.
Where is that, you may ask? I’m currently located in Seattle, WA, the city I’ve called home since 2006. I originally moved here to attend the University of Washington where I studied geology. In 2012 I started working in environmental consulting. As a consultant, I traveled Western Washington and worked on petroleum remediation projects along the way. However, I also realized that this was not an industry where I wanted to spend my entire career.
A New Direction
A little over two years ago, a friend mentioned that he was studying computer science in the Oregon State University Online Post-Baccalaureate program and casually suggested that I look into it. At this point I was over a decade removed from the last time I had thought about computer programming. The curriculum and job prospects piqued my interest, but it would also be a leap to make such a drastic career change. I decided to test the waters a by first taking a series of Python tutorials then registering for CS 161 to see if I had enough interest and aptitude for the unfamiliar subject. After finding that I enjoyed learning the material I decided to continue with the program, initially taking one class per quarter, then two.
In January of 2020, I informed my previous employer that I was working on a new degree with the intent to change careers cut my work hours back to part time. When the reality of COVID-19 came to fruition in March 2020, I was able to continue working for a few months, but was ultimately laid off in August of 2020. Since then have focused full time on school and landed an internship with a large tech company during the summer of 2021. At this point, I have two classes remaining before graduation and starting work next March as a software development engineer on the team that I interned with last summer.
With all that said, this couldn’t qualify as a Code and Coffee blog post if I didn’t share what I’m currently enjoying. I tend to gravitate towards dark roast coffees towards the middle of the quality spectrum. I most frequently brew coffee in my Moka Pot which has been my go-to for nearly 10 years now. This week I’m finishing a bag of Peet’s Major Dickason’s Blend prepared in the trusty Moka Pot with a splash of half and half. This is one of my favorites since the flavors stand up to the Moka Pot well. Most important, it is satisfying when paired with working at the computer.
