The Allure of an IT Career

What fuels a person’s passion to work with computers?  Many people have fond memories of when they were kids and received their first computer.  From that point on they knew they didn’t want to work in anything but IT.  My route to the IT field wasn’t as clear cut as that, but my desire to work with computers brought me down that path in the end.

I’m not old enough to have worked with an Apple II or Commodore 64, but I do remember an age before home computers and the internet were commonplace.  Our family purchased our first computer in 1997, back when they still cost around $2000.  (Although that may seem steep in an age of super-cheap computers, in hindsight you’d expect to pay about that or more for a top-end gaming rig or Ultrabook today).  I certainly had an interest early on, but I can’t say that I always knew that I wanted to work with computers.  I lived in a small farming community, and IT careers just weren’t something many people moved into.

For me it was more of a slow progression as my knowledge increased over my high school years.  Basement LAN parties began to be a regular thing, with me lugging the family computer around (despite my mother’s pleas).  I began upgrading the family desktop when it no longer met my expectations.  My first personal computer was a custom-built desktop I had a friend build when I was a senior.  I moved off to college and was surprised that I was one of the few people who had their own computer.  For many of my high school friends, that was just something you had!  

Once I became a serious student in college I didn’t have time for my “hobby”.  My desktop computer became unstable with hardware and software issues that I didn’t know how to fix (I was still an amateur).  My desktop became a paperweight, as most of my work was done on my university-issued laptop.  This was how things progressed for most of my college years.

Thankfully, shortly after graduating and entering the “real” world, my hobby resurfaced, and this time it really took off.  I built myself a brand new custom rig.  I reconnected with my old LAN party friends.  I worked through my own issues and resolved them myself, rather than relying on customer service.  I started overclocking my GPU and CPU to boost performance.  And I was having a blast!

After graduating with a degree in Engineering Technology I worked in the field of energy conservation.  After five years I took the time to reevaluate what I’d done and if I was happy with the direction I was going.  As one of the few industries that saw growth during the recession, it was a fine career and an exciting industry to be in, but something seemed to be missing.

It finally hit me that I’d never explored computer science as a career.  In fact I was fairly ignorant of the careers that were available.  I wrestled with the idea for a while and finally realized that I just wasn’t excited about the prospects that my current career path was taking me on.  I spoke to some friends in IT about what they’d gone through and the work that they'd done, analyzed which path would be best for me, and decided to go all-in on a new career in software development.  I signed up for the associate degree program at MATC (Milwaukee Area Technical College) and came up with a plan to switch careers.

The decision to switch has been one of the best decisions of my life.  I’m blown away by the wealth of opportunities available to me and am excited about the work that I will be doing.  I look forward to what lies ahead for me and can't wait to move forward in my career.