I was not involved in tech growing up. In high school I was more interested in sports (XC/track, wanted to run in college) and science.
I did my undergrad in neuroscience with the intent of going to grad school and getting into research. After getting some research experience in undergrad (genetic research on DNA transcription patterns of certain bacteria), I realized that I didn’t really enjoy research. It might’ve been that the professor I worked for was an awful mentor and it might’ve just been the nature of the beast.
So I broadened my horizons and decided to apply to PA schools as well as grad programs. Wasn’t accepted to any of them, so I spent some time getting healthcare experience in nursing. I got a job in a critical care unit at a hospital. I disliked the job (for a lot of reasons, I like to think I’m not a terrible person for disliking it) but I learned a ton about working with people well, dealing with hard situations, and prioritizing what is important in crises situations.
Another round of applying to PA and grad school got me nothing even when talking to profs who were interested in my work and helping with theirs. At this point I was so frustrated I decided to go a different route. I was really good at stats so I started teaching myself “data science” and Python. I contacted the nearby university about what it would take to get into a masters program for software development with little to no prior experience. Thankfully they let me in and my life changed pretty dramatically.
In school I ditched data science and instead got interested in security. I got really interested in exploit development especially in kernels. My masters work actually was still a data science tool because I partnered with a local security company, but now I work in R&D at another security company and my current project involves developing applications with BPF in the Linux kernel.
I feel like I’ve come a really long way, but I gained many skills along the way that I noticed many of my coworkers don’t have. Namely, because of an academic history I’m better at starting projects from ground zero knowing little to nothing about a technology and I tend to have stronger communication skills. I have some ways to go to be as solid of an engineer as I’d like, but I’m very happy where I am in life and I’m happy to be in tech :)
I did my undergrad in neuroscience with the intent of going to grad school and getting into research. After getting some research experience in undergrad (genetic research on DNA transcription patterns of certain bacteria), I realized that I didn’t really enjoy research. It might’ve been that the professor I worked for was an awful mentor and it might’ve just been the nature of the beast.
So I broadened my horizons and decided to apply to PA schools as well as grad programs. Wasn’t accepted to any of them, so I spent some time getting healthcare experience in nursing. I got a job in a critical care unit at a hospital. I disliked the job (for a lot of reasons, I like to think I’m not a terrible person for disliking it) but I learned a ton about working with people well, dealing with hard situations, and prioritizing what is important in crises situations.
Another round of applying to PA and grad school got me nothing even when talking to profs who were interested in my work and helping with theirs. At this point I was so frustrated I decided to go a different route. I was really good at stats so I started teaching myself “data science” and Python. I contacted the nearby university about what it would take to get into a masters program for software development with little to no prior experience. Thankfully they let me in and my life changed pretty dramatically.
In school I ditched data science and instead got interested in security. I got really interested in exploit development especially in kernels. My masters work actually was still a data science tool because I partnered with a local security company, but now I work in R&D at another security company and my current project involves developing applications with BPF in the Linux kernel.
I feel like I’ve come a really long way, but I gained many skills along the way that I noticed many of my coworkers don’t have. Namely, because of an academic history I’m better at starting projects from ground zero knowing little to nothing about a technology and I tend to have stronger communication skills. I have some ways to go to be as solid of an engineer as I’d like, but I’m very happy where I am in life and I’m happy to be in tech :)
Sorry for the essay! Hope someone enjoys it!