What is a software engineer and how to become one

Software engineering was never my plan A; I kind of stumbled into it. High school me dreamt of being a chiropractor, a personal trainer, or an athletic trainer.

Because I was in high school just before research was easier on a computer than through books, one summer I stumbled into books on Fermat’s last Theorem and philosophical musings by Spinoza and Descartes. That rerouted my academic compass towards philosophy and mathematics.

With Fermat's last theorem, it was just fascinating that a math problem could be a mystery over centuries, and that a solution could merge to distant branches of mathematics, and also impact physics along the way. With the philosophy texts, I was fascinated not just by the contents but with the words and sentence structures — a skill I valued even when I didn't understand the content.

Despite average grades early on in high school, I was able to right the boat enough to be able to be accepted into a few colleges. I began at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, soaking in mathematics and existential philosophy, before transferring to William and Mary to stay closer to home. College was a whirlwind of courses for me -- partly because I was so curious, and partly because I had no idea what I wanted to be. I kept a fully loaded schedule just to try out courses, and, though it didn't really help my GPA, I kept trying things because they were just interesting -- like I took a dance class, A history of the English Language Course, A course on Shakespeare, even the first physics course I took (and loved) were out of curiosity.

From the first couple physics classes I was hooked, partly because of the theories and partly because I had learned the math separately so it wasn't as much of a learning curve for calculus. I took several physics course as electives, and decided to stay an extra year to finish the major.

Even with that scramble of working towards three different degrees, Post-graduation I still had no idea what I wanted to do, and had no job lined up. I returned to work serving tables at a restaurant that I'd worked at through college. Fortunately, after applying to positions through the summer, I was able to take a leap into federal contracting with Accenture. I was so grateful to have found a role, but after a few years, I realized I was missing the feeling of the novelty and new challenges from college.

## A Code Awakening

It was at the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Offi