In December of 2020, I graduated with a degree in Computer Science from The University of Wisconsin-Madison. Why am I now a Flatiron student, you ask? Here’s my story.
Since I was a kid, I always loved technology and became interested in coding when I was able to edit HTML on MySpace, Tumblr, etc. Whether it was changing the color of my profile background or hiding certain elements on the screen (i.e. that bulky music player that didn’t match my aesthetic), I found it fun and exciting to manipulate my own webpage and express my creativity on the internet. So, once I found out you could make a living out of something that I loved to do, I was all in.
When I initially decided to go into the field, I was under the impression that it would be relatively easy to find a job as there are endless opportunities in technology. However, throughout my college journey, I came to realize that that was certainly not the case. While I worked hard to keep up with my highly intelligent classmates, I learned how tough competition can be within the job market. Since I was so focused on passing my classes, I put internships aside and by the time I graduated, I failed to obtain any professional experience. Moreover, up until my final semester at UW, I had forgotten why I fell in love with programming in the first place and failed to find my passion within the field. Thankfully, during my 9th semester as a CS major, I had the opportunity to take a Designing User Interfaces course and I rediscovered my love for web development. Unfortunately for me, one course wasn’t going to cut it and I didn’t learn all of the necessities for web developer positions.
After facing many difficulties during my job search, I realized that I had more learning to do before I would feel confident in my web development skills. So, after tons of research, I came across Flatiron School and I couldn’t be happier about my decision to enroll. I can confidently say that I finally feel like I’m where I need to be and I’m so excited to learn the necessary skills so that I can soon become a successful web developer.