Making The Switch

I started off working in finance (specifically risk management) right after finishing my bachelor’s degree in economics. This wasn’t a field of study I wanted to go into, but it was the only path that would allow me to attain a bachelor’s degree without taking on a large amount of student loans or struggling to pay for housing. (I may tell this story one day.) Regardless, I graduated and went to work for a large company, spending 10-14 hours a day analyzing bank references and requesting loan verifications—basically, typical finance stuff.

The more I worked in finance, the more I realized that the field was not a good fit for me. The work was the same from day to day, I had very few opportunities to be creative or innovate processes, and the work-life balance was extremely poor. I was also noticing how, within this large company, as well as in many parts of the public and private sector, engineers of all types had better benefits and work-life balance compared to finance employees.

I knew at the time that I enjoyed both discrete and continuous math, as well as art and design. I decided to use what little free time I had outside of work to learn about writing code and web design. Immediately, I was hooked. I truly love to create things—whether it’s sewing my own clothes, watercolor painting, needlework, or writing code—all of these things satisfy my need to create and make me truly happy.

(Okay, but hear me out—crocheting amigurumi things is just for loops, and sewing things technically requires waterfall testing.)

After building a few small programs and web apps, I began to weigh my options for transitioning from finance to tech. Most importantly, since there are many paths into this field, I started mapping out what this transition would look like for me.

I was able to find an in-person graduate program that accepts students from non-CS backgrounds on the condition that they score a B or higher in their prerequisite courses. I enrolled, took the prerequisites, and jumped right into my graduate-level studies.

In 2021, I graduated with a 4.0 GPA with a Master’s in Computer Science. For reference, my GPA upon completion of my undergraduate economics degree was a 3.2. That should give you an idea of how much I enjoyed learning about CS in comparison to economics. #noragrets

Before starting my current position, I was freelancing as a developer and working as a lab instructor for the institution where I was attaining my master’s—all while taking a full-time course load.

During my last year of graduate school, I made it a priority to participate in as many projects as possible. I also worked in the on-campus software engineering lab writing software that analyzes geochronology data. This job was an absolute blast for me because I was obsessed with Dinosaur Adventure 3-D as a kid. (I know, I’m a nerd.)

Needless to say, while this time was fun for my ADHD brain, I was working all hours of the day and night. My days consisted of squeezing in homework and essays around writing code for a given sprint and teaching my undergraduate students. The team I was on at the time for my freelance gig was also international, so I was usually working as early as 4 AM or as late as 11 PM to account for the difference in time zones.

I knew after I graduated that one of the most appealing attributes to look for while applying for jobs would be work-life balance, as well as a company mission that aligned with my values.

I now have a job, which I love, that has all these things. I discuss my job hunting process (as well as a few other things I mention in this post) more in-depth on an episode of the Remote Ruby Podcast.

Daily Life

I start my day by waking up around 5 or 5:30 AM. I like to begin actively working by 7:00 AM, if not earlier, but I use the time before I begin my workday to walk my dog, run, read, or work on a craft or personal project.

Recently, I’ve just been using this time to hang out with my dog on my back deck and drink coffee. I’m very fortunate that my job is 100% remote and we have very few set meetings during the week.

I like to start my workday by responding to any Slack messages I received after ending my previous workday. After this, I take a look at my bullet journal to see what tasks I have left from the day before. I also add notes and additional tasks if needed. These tasks can be anything from an idea of how to debug something, an issue number associated with a feature I need to write, a question to ask someone, or a code review I need to get to that day.

Then I start tackling things on my list. I use my own spin on the Pomodoro method throughout my workday. I usually work in 2-4 hour chunks, broken up by walking my dog, running a quick errand, or just stepping away from my computer for 10 minutes. The length of these chunks and the frequency of my breaks depend on what tasks I’m assigned, whether I need to hop into a Slack huddle with another member of the engineering team, etc.

I like to take pretty short lunch breaks, but sometimes I’ll squeeze in a 30-minute power nap (power naps are my actual kryptonite).

After lunch, I might do some pair programming if needed or jump in a huddle to discuss something. Usually, these are in the afternoons for me due to my relative time zone and the time I start my workday.

For my team, these are usually short sessions that aren’t set on a calendar. Our team culture is more of “is anyone available to talk about X?”—which I enjoy because it allows me and my ADHD brain to be more creative without the hassle of meeting fatigue.

I end my day by adding what I call my “deltas” to my Evernote app, where I keep my personal documentation. These are usually things I’ve learned that day. I call them deltas because, in math, the delta symbol represents a change—and my deltas are things I refer to in order to complete a task more efficiently in the future.

For example, one of my most recent additions was something I learned from changing a route in our codebase. I then add any notes or tasks to my bullet journal that I’ll need for the next workday and sign off.

I usually try to wrap up around 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM, depending on when I signed into my work machine that morning.