As with everyone graduating from college during or after the Great Recession, I constantly questioned the worth of my 4-year Bachelor’s degree.
My path to and from college was very typical. I graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in Marketing and Management and was able to find a job immediately after. I felt that the value of my degree was important but also that I barely gained any real world or transferrable skills.
I chose a career in software sales because it aligned with my field of study. What I particularly enjoyed about software sales was competing against my peers, the challenge of communicating and understanding the needs of a rotating cast of prospects, and most importantly the money.
I steadily rose through the ranks, starting off by cold calling and sourcing leads for an Account Executive then being promoted to a fully cycle seller where I closed business. Unfortunately, due to circumstances out of my control, I was laid off by two different companies within a span of a year.
What initially led me to the world of software/web development was my last sales role where I was selling a SaaS-based platform for developers. In order to get a better understanding of the day to day of my prospects, I used Codecademy as a resource and attended some free classes from General Assembly. Before that, I learned a little bit of HTML/ CSS and even SQL during grade school and college.
Growing up, the avenue to being a software/web developer was never visible to me. I was under the incorrect assumption that developers were ‘Brainiac’s’ and math geniuses. Though that avenue seems open to many students in grade school today who were being taught how to code.
After I was laid off from my last company, I decided to use my free time to take a deeper dive into coding. I learned JavaScript through YouTube tutorials, and enrolled in a JavaScript class.
Initially, my plan was to go back into sales but coding eventually took over my daily routine. So much to the point that It was hard to pull myself away from solving problems on Codewars and HackerRank. When I did eventually have the will to take a break, I envisioned how I would be solving those problems . In short, coding consumed my life.
Ultimately, this led me to pursue a career change and I thought a web development course would be the best move to give me direction to what I was learning.
Specifically, what I liked about the career path of a developer was the continuous learning involved, this line of work never gets stagnant and makes you stay on your toes because technology needs and demands are always changing.
Most importantly, like a golf swing, jump shot, or the way I managed my sales cycle, the aspect of taking your code apart and seeing how it worked fascinated me.
Since I started my web development course with Flatiron School, I am more assured that I will be gaining some lifelong and transferrable skills that I felt weren’t there after I graduated college. I anticipate a challenging road ahead.