Debugging My Way Through Life.
Finding my passion has always been a tug of war game. During high school, I was conflicted between what I thought was best for me and what I really enjoyed doing. Due to my interest in the tech world, I decided that I should pursue an Electrical Engineering degree.
I never really thought much of how I felt at the moment except doing the best I could in terms of academic achievement. There were some subjects I really enjoyed especially the ones that included coding.
Compile, Error, Debug, and repeat.
Many hours later…
“It worked! …but how?”
I simply enjoyed it and didn’t really think much of anything else — such as further pursuing it… not until I realized Engineering as a whole wasn’t for me. I worked for three years in the construction industry. From site visits to following up with certain projects, I couldn’t help but feel like my career with Engineering plateaued. I no longer felt challenged.
Taking that major leap and letting go of what I believed was the set path for me, I decided to dig deep into my passion by asking myself:
What do I enjoy doing? Can I practice it and if not, what skillset do I need?And lastly, does it add value to people?
Experimenting with various hobbies, I signed up for an introductory fashion course just to get a taste of how it was like in the industry but I just did not enjoy it and my mind kept going back to the moment when I worked on my programming skills. The thrill of writing a code and having it come to life. Spending hours deciding how to tackle the project and then problem-solving as you go.
In Feb 2020, I was planning on moving to Toronto and after thoroughly researching WebDev courses around that area I came across Juno (formerly HackerYou) I felt it is the best fit for my personality and goals.
I connected with them to better understand their offerings and I then decided to sign up for an introductory course to see where it would lead me to. After completing the 2 weeks course I felt that I was part of a family. I loved the amount of care and attention that was given by the instructors, which is why they have a limited number of seats per course in order to be fair to everyone.
Initially, I had planned to join the Bootcamp in May but due to the pandemic, I had to move back home. I was confident that I wanted to choose Juno as the first step to my new career journey. Therefore, I was persistent in rejoining and I did in Jan 2021.
I always believed that a growth mindset came from discomfort. Stepping out of my comfort zone and quitting my comfortable day job in pursuit of programming was a huge risk worth taking. I am currently in my second week of the Bootcamp and excited to see where it will take me.
