Why I Chose Software Engineering

Technology is everywhere. It’s at our fingertips, in our homes…it fills our daily lives with information and yet, there are barriers. Social, political, and even personal barriers to technology. Everyone doesn’t have access to those endless possibilities to free themselves from their social dilemmas. I had access and currently do have access so I decided to use my privilege to open doors for others. I chose Software engineering to break down some of those barriers through representation, to grow my career, and to embrace those endless possibilities that the technology field could offer me.

Career Growth

I decided 4 years ago that design, art, and technology were my babies and that I would nourish and care for those babies as if they were alive, growing sentient beings. So, the next viable step for me was to figure out “the plan” so to speak. I had already crushed my school goals of graduating Best in Show at my portfolio show, I had just achieved a killer first job and my life was in a weird transitional period.

That transitional period led me to UX and the joys of web design and how you could create solutions for people not only visually, but technically. So the first reason truly for choosing software engineering was to expand my current skill set. I already had the visual side down and now I need to grow my technical skills. By extending my skill set, I also increase my value and increase my income.

Although this was a determining factor, I don’t think it would have made or broken my decision. It was a happy bonus and I’ll take the extra where I can get it. Besides that, expanding my current skill set and increasing my income would offer me more career flexibility, which I’ll talk more about later, but was a huge determining factor for myself.

Representation

Technology, in general, is a man’s world. Women are not equally represented in the field and only represent about 26% of the computing jobs. However, only 3% of those women are black. As a black woman in America, I want to bridge the gap and prove to other black women and People of Color, that they too can achieve in the technology field.

Often times we are overlooked for more sinister reasons, things out of our control, race being at the forefront. I’ve always seen myself as truly black, but I do realize that benefit from colorism and colorist ideals as a light-skinned black woman. Even if I have two black parents, my skin makes me less of a target, and I must acknowledge that in order to represent my community fairly and properly. If I can open doors for other women and POC like myself, then I would be reaching some of my ethical goals as a designer and, soon to be, as a software engineer.

Representation matters, whether it’s a team role or the role of a leader. A little black girl growing up, wondering how she may make it out of her less than perfect circumstances, could see me and think, “Hey, I want to do that too when I grow up!” and I think I need to be conscious of that when pursuing my dreams. I could potentially fuel the dreams of another and that was a big reason for my pursuing a software engineering certificate on top of my degree.

Endless Possibilities

The last reason for choosing to be a software engineer were the endless possibilities I could unlock for my career. I could work from anywhere, I could start my own business, I could work in a corporate setting if I wanted to. Coding provides a major opportunity for career flexibility and mobility.

Working for myself is a dream of mine, it may not be yours. However, I dream of sitting on a beach with my laptop and hotspot, coding a site, while looking at the ocean, okay? The average entry-level salary for a software engineer is $74, 532. If you set your own hours, freelance, etc you can make even more! With software engineering, career options are endless.

Software engineers are in high demand, thus the extreme price point for the entry-level salary. Every successful company has an even better website — attracting sales, attracting customers, and gaining revenue. By creating a client's first impression for their customer, being a software engineer and a visual designer was a no-brainer for me. I offer the best of both worlds. In reality, becoming a software engineer was the most obvious next step in my dreams for my life.

Conclusion

Overall, my choice to become a software engineer wasn’t an easy process, it wasn’t something I thought of overnight, and it definitely has been an adventure learning and exploring a new world of technology. I am confident in the months to come, I will flourish into an exceptional engineer with my design background. With the chance the represent my community, continue learning and growing as a designer, I look forward to the many possibilities my future holds.