Why did you Decide to Start Studying Software Engineering? | Starting Flatiron School

Higher pay, higher job security, better work/life balance (sometimes), a “real” job.

They’re all valid reasons for deciding to start studying software engineering in hopes of improving your current situation! While those all hold true, my biggest reason is the challenge.

If I’d just wanted to simply earn more money, I’d likely double down and work tirelessly on my businesses while living off of my savings instead of attending school. If I’d just wanted higher job security and a better work/life balance, I’d go do some soul-crushing 9–5 office job where I could always leave work at the office. No, that’s never been my goal. I need more.

More, to me, is not settling for less. Not being comfortable with underachieving. Not coasting through life, living for 5 o’ clock and the weekends, and dreading Mondays. I need to grow and learn and push myself. I do don’t do well when I’m the hardest working person in the room, but I always try to be that person. I feed off of others who want to be better, work harder, and reach goals that many wouldn’t think possible. The uncommon people. I get that not many others think that way, but that’s just who I am. I have to give 110%, and, when others don’t, it frustrates me. As David Goggins, retired Navy SEAL, puts it, “I want to be the uncommon of the uncommon.”

That’s what drew me to software engineering. Not everyone has what it takes to become a software engineer, especially through more “unconventional” means. I find joy in the fact that it’s difficult, and I’m not immediately talented at it. I’m a bit self-competitive that way. If I can make it through this program with the skills to become a software engineer, I will have done something others think impossible. That’s what can help make me uncommon. And if I excel at it? Well, maybe someday I’ll become the uncommon of the uncommon.