I’ve enjoyed math and logic from a young age, but it’s not something I was ever encouraged to do. Based on my grades, (if that’s a good metric), I was actually probably better at math than I was art art, but art was what I was always complimented for and encouraged to do, so my impressionable young self pursued the arts all through high school, and then into college.
After college, I got work in illustration and theater, but never found my jobs especially satisfying, which was pretty baffling to me. I still enjoyed the arts as a hobby, but it wasn’t something that I wanted to do all day.
I inadvertently discovered what I needed when I went into tech as a day job when I was 26 and needed health insurance. To my surprise, I was in a job where I wasn’t constantly looking at the clock, wondering when I was going to leave. I was engaged, and interested, and that was only scratching the surface of the hard problems. Still, I couldn’t put words to what was making me feel good - I chalked it up to being at a good company with people I admired and got along with.
I continued working and moving up at this job for several years, but didn’t realize how much of the problem solving aspects of my job were what I liked until I made a fatal error - I found a new job. I was at the point where I wasn’t getting many new problems and I figured I should move on with my career, and I applied for and got a job as a project owner at the same company I was working at.
It was terrible. I was simultaneously bored and stressed, tasked with doing work that didn’t having any of the things going for it that kept me interested before. I was surprised - I was at the same company, so I should be happy. But I wasn’t. It was working in that job that made me realize that it was the variety of puzzles and problems that I got through my Support Analyst role that had been keeping me engaged. I began looking into programs that would give me the ability to solve more challenging problems, deeper puzzles, while still working with the kinds of people I like working with.
Turing ended up being a place where I could do that. While it’s up there on the list of the most challenging things I’ve done in my life, I’m incredibly engaged and feel lucky to be here, doing something I enjoy that I can see myself doing day after day for the rest of my career.
Allison, great start here! Love the narrative and the connection to making the change to software development. Consider adding more to what you enjoy about software development now and where you might see yourself in the future. Would you want to go back into health care? Would you want to build in opps for your illustration and theater experience? Consider tying that back together!