BIOS Awaken
I'll never forget the Christmas when I got my first laptop, as it would end up being the beginning for my interest in Computer Science. As I used it my curiosity of wanting to understand how it works grew, I wanted to push my laptop to the limit and see what it could handle. So over time I used it and grew comfortable with it, once I felt ready to get tech savvy I wiped the drive and installed Ubuntu Linux on it. I did so because of my curiosity for Linux at the time, mainly due to Epic Rap Battles of History, and wondering what makes Linux so good. Having dabbled with it for some time I grew to love it for being a nice operating system for some that actually enjoys technology. As I learned more of what Linux was capable of and what I can possibly do with it, is where my desire to wanting to be a good programmer began.
Growing up I was always a gamer, and even at one point wanted to make a video game with my cousin, since we enjoyed video games so much. So by going to ASU West and getting a degree in Applied Computing (Cybersecurity) I know that I have a way into getting into the tech scene for many different sectors that I wouldn't have even imagined prior to my coursework. I remember L'Oréal holding a seminar about how they were looking for people in tech to help expand their brand and networking; it didn't even occur to me a beauty brand would have much need for people in tech. Mostly because I felt like the most a beauty company would seek in tech is for someone to make an aesthetic webpage and do some SEO (search engine optimizations) to drive traffic to their site. But as I sat and listened it was like I was hit with a rush of clarity that technology and software engineering is needed in such a wide scope. It's always been drilled into me to pay attention to FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) and other big tech companies like IBM, Honeywell, or Microsoft as these are the companies that are most sought after in the field. However, it became apparent with seminar after seminar that banks, hospitals, energy companies, retail, etc. rely just as heavily on tech and are looking for top talent as well.
My time at ASU West has proven fruitful in me honing my programming skills and to understand that there is more to programming than just coding. Coding is vital skill to get into programming but programming as a whole is much higher scope. I used to think writing a program to say "Hello World!" was an accomplishment but then as time goes on there is logic that has to be applied to programming, such as how do I make a simple rock, paper, scissors program? how do I optimize Tic Tac Toe so that the computer always beats the user? how do I help a company with creating a program, that can balance a roster to account for two or three people calling off to not affect productivity? These are some of the questions I've encountered during my programming lifetime at ASU West, and through these hurdles it helped me become a better programmer. It made me reevaluate my thought process and what I currently know. For example, I started programming with Java and had to learn how to incorporate concepts such as for loops, if-else statements, and data structures in order to make an unbeatable Tic Tac Toe game as a course assignment. This proved difficult as it involved having to use the Tree data structure and make it to where the computer would pick the best move based on the spot the user picks first. Understanding the data structure was fine but optimizing the algorithm to know the best next move was the hard part as this required understanding how many possible win conditions there are and ensuring that if a win was not possible that a tie occurs. This assignment really tested me and although I got it to find the many options, it wasn't until after the due date that I learned how to make the algorithm always pick the best option. So though I was unsuccessful this assignment taught me to understand code better, understand the relationships of the calls in the programs and designing the program to run as efficiently as possible.
With the rise of AI and how it is helping and dismantling certain sectors of the world. I do have concerns on the state of software engineers needing to become more credentialed and gather more experience before they are able to comfortable be in the tech workforce. This is only because ChatGPT, even with it's errors from time to time, is capable of spitting out code easily and this is definitely a cheaper means for an enterprise than paying for another programmer. Not only does this seem like it affects tech workers but there is even talk about AI replacing artists, lawyers, and more. However, even with this concern I'm confident new graduate students will still be a competitive asset for a company. The reasoning being that students are able to not just learn new programming techniques and higher levels of programming, but now they're exposed to AI and are able to turn it from a industry crippler into a tool. Then even for those outside of tech, I'm certain they'll find a way to maintain a human advantage in their fields even if AI encroaches, as AI isn't the end all to be all, it is a new technology and we're just beginning to adapt to it.
It's almost graduation season for me and it's almost time for me to actually be working as a programmer, I'd like to continue being curious and learn as I work, this is really important to me as it drives me to not only be more productive but to also become more savvy too. So as long as my workplace challenges me and makes me grow as a programmer that's all I can really ask for. Working in Arizona would be a bonus but not completely necessary.
Comments
Post a Comment