As I look toward my final course in the OSU PostBacc CS program, I can’t help but take a moment to reflect on how much my life has changed since it began. I started this program in 2019 when I worked as a beer merchandiser in grocery stores, hoping that it would lead me somewhere besides the service industry purgatory I toiled in throughout my 20s.
My first degree was in Philosophy (shocking, I know, given the service industry purgatory comment), so I knew this program would be a very different–and in some ways, much more difficult–experience. The biggest question mark for me was the thought of remote, asynchronous learning. Was I going to have the discipline to sit down and work on OOP or tedious Web Dev topics after spending all day busting my hump in beer coolers? Would it be worth the ~$2000/course I paid out of pocket the whole way through? Could I have gone the self-taught route peddled by a seemingly-infinite stream of Youtube “personalities?” As it turns out, this program would be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
As I pored over increasingly nuanced and difficult CS material, I started to realize that this was the field I wanted to make a career in. The perpetual gratification of solving problems, the greatly increased efficiency, and the near-limitless potential for self-learning projects all reinforced my positivity about a career change in the direction of computer science. As all of this was going on, I was able to help more and more with my company’s tech needs, particularly SQL nuances often lost on folks without direct database experience. This led to a couple promotions and a huge amount more responsibility and autonomy. I’m now the first Data Analyst at my current company, and will likely have the opportunity to hire and train even more folks!
This program has already paid for itself many times over, and I’ve met some incredible friends along the way, some of whom I’ll be capstone-ing with. Now the only question I find myself asking is: What’s next? I could stay the course I’m on and likely end up running a team of Analysts, pursue a Software Engineering-type role, or even go and get a new degree (Masters in Data Science, perhaps?). All of these options are super appealing, and I feel incredibly grateful to be where I am. Here’s to one more quarter!
