I have been an avid gamer all my life. Sometimes a bit too much some would say, but my love for gaming is what helped me discover coding. It wasn’t until recently(about a year ago) that I became interested in Software Engineering.
I’ve been working in pharmacy since I was out of high school and for a little over 10 years now. After that time in the pharmacy, I realized that I was not happy there. Long story short, pharmacy was not my choice of a career.
So I decided to start looking into new careers. This time actually choosing something that fits my interests. Something within video games possibly.
At some point, I remembered that I was always interested in how menus and interfaces were created in video games. Some games have the most beautiful and fluid user interfaces, they make a perfect connection between the gameplay and the menu. While some have horrible ones that seem to not make any sense about color choice or pattern choice.
So over time, I decided to check out some of my favorite video game company websites to see what kind of positions they hire for. One of the positions I saw the most was “UX/UI designer” or “UI”. I researched UX/UI and I soon noticed it was what I had an interest in all this time. After some more research, I also noticed that there are many ways to break into the game industry but no one straight shot. However, learning to code could be a start.
So I decided to learn to code first, before learning the design aspect. That lead me to a website named TeamTreeHouse that teaches many types of coding languages. Immediately after I wrote the first line of HTML I fell in love and so I continued the learning process. In a way, the design part fell by the wayside for now(maybe), I felt like I made a better connection with coding. I know HTML/CSS are not considered programming languages, but it felt like it gave me a good taste of what was to come. I continued into CSS and then JavaScript and PHP. I have really enjoyed learning so far, almost as much as I enjoy gaming. So I made the choice to stick with coding to see where it takes me, maybe in the future I can jump into design or gaming but for now, my interest lies with Software Engineering.
Learning on my own hasn’t been the smoothest road, it’s had its bumps. Some days you’re all over the place because you don’t know exactly which route to go. I did that for about 7-9 months bouncing between JavaScript and PHP and all kinds of tutorials and websites, somehow ending up at the beginning again. Which led me to realize that I needed help. Then that lead me to find Career Karma(check it out), which then lead me to discover Flatiron!
Thankfully, Flatiron ended up being a perfect fit and after going through learn.co and the Bootcamp Prep Course, I was sold.
I am excited to start my new journey with Flatiron. It will be hard, but if I stick it out I know that I can find a career that I love and will allow me to take care of my family.