I worked in mortgage servicing for about eight years and decided I wanted to do something more challenging. My mom’s husband is a data analyst and recommended taking some SQL classes. I took the beginners SQL, and Intermediate classes online at the community college and really liked it. I reached out to the data analyst group at my work and was able to sit and watch them work to see if it’s something I would be interested in pursuing. I was planning on asking what I could do to get transferred to the data analyst team when the company shut down basically the entire Texas office, and I was laid off.
I took that as an opportunity to start looking into what I could do to get more experience and education with SQL, and came across some bootcamps. I noticed a lot of bootcamps offered software engineering as well as data analysis, and after a ton of research I decided to reach out to Flatiron School and jump into the software engineering free course. After a while of taking the free course my whole view changed on programming. It was definitely something I never expected that I could do!
Other than the free course from Flatiron, I didn’t have any experience in coding except for some minor HTML things like creating online journal layouts when I was a teenager. I really fell in love with the challenges of coding and that you are able to use your creativity when creating apps. There is always something new to learn- that’s why I decided to enter into the full time online Software Engineering program. I’m at the end of the course and I have learned so much, it has been a crazy journey.