Maybe It Was Fate, Maybe It Was YouTube’s Algorithm

After graduating from The University of Texas at San Antonio with a Bachelor of Arts (concentration in Technical Communication), my plan was to work a little, study for the LSAT and go to law school. I wanted to go to law school, not because I was in love with the law and everything that comes with it, but because I was expected to do so.

See, I am Nigerian and if you are familiar with Nigerians and our culture, you might know exactly what this means. You must become a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or any profession that will earn you respect in the world and give you the ability to take care of yourself really well. So out of the list, I chose to become a lawyer.

Maybe it was fate, maybe it was YouTube’s algorithm, but on this fateful day, I came across a video probably titled “How I Became a Software Engineer Without a Computer Science Degree” and because I am a very curious person and probably looking for a way out of law school by this time, I clicked and watched. More videos like that kept getting recommended to me and I watched. I watched and listened to how these people from all walks of life changed their lives and their career paths. So, I decided to take a closer look at this amazing career everyone was talking about.

After researching and understanding what a software engineer does, who they are, how incredible their jobs are, and making sure it was something I will enjoy doing, I decided to start my own journey and become a software engineer.

With just a few weeks in, with the help of some amazing resources: https://www.freecodecamp.org/ (literally, the best! Love!), https://www.codecademy.com/ (love you too), YouTubers that taught and explained topics (you guys are wonderful) and a curriculum to follow and mentor (made everything so much more easier and not overwhelming) from http://rootstechnology.info/ , I was in a new student heaven.

So far, I have learned a lot about HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Git, and GitHub which has allowed me to work on two projects involving placements of items and my professional website. Up next is JavaScript, which I am excited for. Learning how to code is definitely invigorating.