Coming from a liberal arts background (East Asian Studies major), I had no prior experience in computer science. Right after college, I moved to Japan to teach English for two years, but soon focused my energy on searching for a more challenging and rewarding career. After stumbling across a YouTube tutorial on Java, I became intrigued by the syntax of the language. That’s when I began learning how to code as a hobby.
After my teaching contract ended, I began to shift my focus on programming as a potential career choice. In 2012, I applied to and was accepted to Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Informatics. This is an institution well known for its strong engineering program, and is one of the most competitive schools in Japan.
Although I successfully completed my master’s degree in late 2014, I knew that I still needed to further deepen my knowledge of programming. Upon my return to the U.S., I began to take various online courses through sites like Coursera and Udacity, avidly learning to program in languages such as Python, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, etc. From these experiences, I began to enjoy the process of problem solving while continually honing my coding skills. I particularly like the idea of dissecting a big project into smaller manageable subtasks, and then integrating the components back together. Using these skills, I hope to embark on a new career creating web applications that are creative, innovative, and robust.
It has been a few months since I started Learn, and I have to say it has been quite an adventure! Despite several frustrating moments throughout my learning experience, I have become less averse to flashing red error messages, seeing them as clues towards a working solution rather than as signs of failure. As I spend the next few months wrapping up the full stack development course, I anticipate encountering many more hurdles along the way, only to strengthen my resolve in persisting towards finding the right solution.