The answer is kind of difficult. I’ve been past-due on this post for a while. It’s partly because of ignorance— I honestly didn’t realize that I had to register for the blog portion and for some silly reason, I was expecting some kind of email reminder prodding me to do it. When I finished my CLI gem blog post it was like- “Hey- you’re late on all your blog posts.” That’s a big oops on my part. The other part of it has been hesitation.
You see- I’ve written this post before. I started classes on development a while prior to starting with Flatiron in January. I had learned a lot. I enjoyed my time in those classes and they were truly wonderful courses but I still didn’t feel prepared or confident that I could make the bridge from there into a career in tech.
Initially, it had never dawned on me that I could even pursue a career in tech. We didn’t get a home computer until I was like eleven or twelve years old. Even when we did get the computer, our time on it was very restricted. My parents- bless ‘em- are kind of old school when it comes to technology. Their computer got a virus once- they just replaced the it. Recently in telling them I hoped to make a career pivot and pursue tech, they encouraged me to become a school teacher or a nurse— I’ve been a school teacher and I absolutely 100% would never be one again and its embarrassing, but I admit that I vomit or pass out at the notion of anything medical.
I started learning code a couple of years ago- a few exercises here, a teeny, sad website there. I initially had been hoping to help my current non-profit employer in adding content pertaining to our collection on the website. The small museum struggles on a deficit and has some pretty severe budgetary limitations in terms of tech— especially dev.
I was and continue to be very grateful for my job but I grow weary. I have had the good fortune of working closely with some of priceless, weird, and wonderful items in our collection and to maintain the collection’s software. I’ve gotten to study first-hand some of the great artists I learned about in school- Gilbert Stuart, Gustave Courbet, William Hogarth, and even Picasso. I’ve also gotten to work with a falcon sarcophagus, taxidermied birds, bronze Indian foot scrapers, and ancient Roman and Greek pottery. I’ve worked with thousands of objects and on dozens of exhibitions. Truly- some neat, wonderful stuff. Unfortunately, it all comes at a cost. The majority of the time I have been there I have worked two jobs to make ends meet. To make matters worse- I’ve been grant funded.
I lost my job in December. With some really incredible and weird luck, a week after I was laid off a donor contributed the funds to keep me on for one more year. I’m still grateful but in those brief couple of months I knew I was losing my job I looked for other work— other non profits and educational institutions but even with four college degrees and years of experience I scarcely even received a call back— I only had one interview. The job market is incredibly competitive and there’s no shortage of MA candidates with a liberal arts degree(s). And crazily, it seems that compared to me, people are either more willing or better prepared to make next to nothing. That and, well- although I like many things about my job, there have been a whole lot of sad, boring, and desperate days. I want out. I screwed up somewhere- this is not success in any stretch of the word. I tried really hard but I’m exhausted. And I only have ten more months before I’m potentially out of a job again.
The more I learned about tech the more viable it seemed. I was also finding that not only was I able to learn to code, I was also enjoying it. I hesitate to make this blog post because it confirms, beyond doubt, that it is my intent to follow this and sculpt a new career. Even if I fail, I’ve already had a couple failed career starts and stops— and my experience at the museum is only the most stellar pitfall yet— $80k in school loan debt and a temporary job that pays me so little I have to specifically budget for things like underwear. I still struggle with my confidence, but I am getting there and learning so much. I find the challenge in coding incredibly compelling and I’m excited of the prospect it might bring with a new career. I still look forward to helping my museum with dev issues and the database but I can’t wait to do it from another perspective.