Welcome to my blog! This being my first blog post its probably best that I introduce myself. Hi! My name is Lester from the sunny Orlando, Florida. I was born in Canada but have been living in Orlando for almost 20 years! I graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology. Since graduation, I held a couple of job titles. After graduation I was a pharmacy technician for a year, after that a server, and more recently a Technical Support technician for Microsoft Office 365.
Now for the million-dollar question, what made me decide to study Software Engineering? Going into university I had full intentions to graduate and go off to Pharmacy school. When I graduated, I got a job as a Pharmacy Technician, thinking it would be a great resume builder and good experience before I go off to pharmacy school. During this time, I learned a lot. Not just about the job, but about myself. The job that I was working towards for my whole college career was not the job for me. I can go on and on about how the job wasn’t a right fit, but ultimately it came down to me not being happy in what I did. I didn’t have the passion that I thought I would have going into the job. So, I left the position and started to do a little soul searching.
I started to take classes at my local college to see what interested me. One class in particular caught my intention, Introduction to Computer Programming. Growing up I was the “tech guy” in my family. I was the go-to person if something was wrong with a computer. Now before this class, I never really knew how much work goes into programs and applications. I didn’t know that the programming world was so massive and complex, and I wanted to learn more. After taking a couple more programming classes, I found what I was looking for! The feeling of achievement when a line of code works, the creativity you can use to create a program, the realization of how complex programs are, the excitement of learning a new language. By this time I had only taken a few programming classes but every day was like a new puzzle to me. And I loved it!
During this time, I was presented a job opportunity to work as Technical Support Engineer for Microsoft’s Office 365. I decided to take this job opportunity. And it was amazing! The job taught me so much, but I utilized little to none coding skills. By the end of 2019 my contract with Microsoft ended. Which brings me to the now. I took the contract ending as some sort of sign, that maybe I should be pursing Software Engineering as a career. I did my research online and found that FlatIron had an amazing program that perfectly fits what I want to do. So, after speaking with my friends and family I applied and got accepted to the Online Full-time Software Engineering Program!
So, that’s my story of why I decided to study Software Engineering. I am so excited to start this program and kick off this new chapter in my life!