As someone who came into the University of Hawaii as a Finance major, seeking to just waltz through my college years for the sole purpose of getting a diploma to be able to qualify to be an airline pilot, it is amazing to see how far I have come, in my academics, my personal life, and my new pivot into Computer Science.
As time went on, I realised that technology was a huge pillar of my life, from becoming technologically literate at 6 years old, to spending hours on a machine for the past 16 years of my life, always telling myself I should learn to code but never taking that first step. Around my junior year, I decided that I want to use this passion and interest in my career, and thus took the step to add Computer Science to my college plan.
I have always had a five year plan, spanning all the way from the third grade, it was just a part of my personality. Without this plan, I feel lost and become more and more stressed when facing the future. However, this does not mean that this plan was not flexible. At least twice a year, I will review where I am, what has happened, and where I want to go, and revise this plan to better fit my path. Because of this, I have a clear pathway for my career as a Computer Scientist.
As someone who is not a Computer Science major, but rather a Business (Management Information Systems) major with a minor in Computer Science, I have found that there is so much more I have to do to keep up. In the classroom, I have switch from a business mindset to a technical one as I bounce in between classes. Outside of the classroom, I have to study harder, and supplement what I learn in the classroom with other resources. Although sometimes I wish I had come into college as solely a Computer Science major, I do believe that the first three years as a Business major has opened my eyes to such a broader spectrum than if I had done that.
These are the pathways that I have laid out for myself. With the mix of my business and computer science education, I believe that these pathways are viable and fit my skills and interests.
For some time in 2020 - 2021, I worked as a Project Coordinator at a local solar start up. This was my first job that was not in the food or service industry, so it was quite a big step. This role was similar to a project manager, but with slightly less responsibilites to accomodate a bigger team. It was an amazing experience as I got to learn so much about business, the way projects are handled, different project management methodologies, all before I took a single note on the topic in a classroom. At this point of my life, I was only studying business, and believed this was going to be the pathway I was going to take.
From 2021 to today, I work under the Research Computing Facility here at the University, and do Computer and Network Support for the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. Although, I quickly learned that IT and security is not for me, it taught my lots of skills that were relevant in my future career path and personal life. I learned more about UNIX systems, using command-line, user permissions in Linux, Windows, and MacOS. I also got hands on experience with things such as mail, networking, servers, etc. It was very valuable experience that I would not have gotten if I had only tunnel visioned towards my end goal.
This past Summer of 2023, I secured my first internship in the field, as a Software Engineer intern at Decision Research Corporation. At this internship, I worked with another intern, along with their AI/ML team, to create from scratch an application for their clients, that would take in an insurance form in PDF, JPG, or PNG, then use Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, via Azure Document Intelligence, to pull all the data from the forms, validate that information, then create a customer profile, and finally a quote. During this internship, I worked solely on the backend, in C# ASP.NET. I enjoyed this internship so much as it gave me a taste of what Software Engineering really is, not just coding, but designing, presenting, testing, and writing. This internship solidified my interest in Software Engineering, while also giving me an idea of a specialization, which would be backend, or full-stack.
As I near the end of my career at the University, there is so much more that I want to learn. My formal education may end here, but I will spend the rest of my life learning and growing. I wish to get stronger with databases, SQL or NoSQL. I hope to expand my knowledge around real applicible development, the fundamentals of the Software Development Life Cycle, and what makes an application stand out amongst others. I want to reinforce my technical skills through things like algorithms and datastructures so I can not only pass technical interviews, but produce efficient and clean code. There is no end to what I want to learn, and at this point, I have realised that even if I have the slightest interest in something, there is no risk in taking that step to reading more and trying to learn, little by little.