My Journey on Becoming a Software Engineer

During my last semester of college, I failed my computer science class, Advanced Data Structures and Algorithms.  

I failed for the following reason: I did not understand the material. When I went to the professor for help, he said, “I am not going to help.  You should know how to do this at this level.”  So I did not have any help, and I also failed because the professor failed me. The professor said, "If I do not feel like you have the right to work in this industry, I will fail you." He put it in context like this: "If you're working on software where someone's life depends on it and you make a mistake, you will kill someone. The company will look at where you got the degree,  and then the school will look bad, which makes me look bad."  My professor is right, though. So he failed me. I could not take the class again because it was the sixth time. The school has a policy that a student cannot take a course more than six times. I had to change my major from computer science to information technology.

At this moment, I LOST CONFIDENCE  in my ability to become a software engineer.  

My dream of becoming a software engineer was dead. To further destroy my confidence, generative AI was release and tech companies started massive layoffs. Big Tech companies such as Google was laying off employees, and the job market became flooded with  tech professionals who had tons of experience, making getting a job as a new college graduate harder, especially for entry-level software engineering roles.

Despite these setbacks,

I REGAIN MY CONFIDENCE because of my friend who kept encouraging me to still apply and because of reccent codding test I took. My friend reminded me of the difficult challenges I have overcome in school,  specifially my physics  course, which I failed twices and finally got A on my third attempt.

During the coding test I ran out of time and could not submit the answer.  After the coding test, I kept working on the problem. A few minutes later, I solved the problem using the brute force approach. I was so happy that I solved the problem. My joy was back.  Solving problems is what makes me happy! Because I was able to solve the problem, I knew I had what it takes to become a software engineer.  I just have to practice more and work on my data structures and algorithms so I can become sharp.

The ability to solve problems is what makes a software engineer, and I have that skill. I will bring my problem-solving skills, ability to learn, and my strong work ethic of not giving up until the problem is solved.

Thank you for taking the time to read my journey on becoming a software engineer.