I fell into CS by accident.
The only reason I took a single, intro CS course my 1st semester of college was because my big sister told me I should try it out, since “Tech is the future.” Man, did that change my life.
The thing about UMD is that it’s undeniably a “tech school”. Computer Science is the most populat major, and from my perspective of a freshman in engineering-undecided, going CS was just the default thing all my peers were doing. So, I signed myself up for the 2nd CS class to test the waters a little more.
That second semester, I attended my first hackathon. I wanted to see what CS is really like, and building your own app actually seems super cool and fun. You could build something out of nothing but your brain and the internet! Things that work, that affect peoples’ lives.
And that’s why I kept going at it. I realized how cool it is that I could make a product used by millions of peoples. That, and building new things were the two things that made me decide on continuing to study Computer Science as my major.
Where I am today
Entering my 3rd year of undergrad, I suddenly realized that I don’t particularly like my major. I mean, in high school I knew I didn’t particularly like Math, but since I can think logically I figured I would be fine in CS. This semester, I realized I also don’t have a passion for programming.
And… isn’t that my whole major? Coding + Math?
My passion for building is driven by my passion for impact. Yes, I still love building apps, but perhaps the appeal is buried underneath my lust for design and usability. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a “bad programmer” in any regard. In fact, I would call myself rather remarkable for a 19 year-old. But software engineering isn’t my passion, and I think it would be a waste if I were to enter the workforce with my soft-skills and design abilities gone unused. Which is why I think I resonate so soundly as a PM. And that’s my next goal – to become an excellent PM that maximizes a product’s impact and makes it truly wonderful for its users.