A few months before I was supposed to graduate from undergrad, I literally stopped sleeping for about two weeks. I was interviewing for jobs and I had this horrible feeling I had chosen the wrong major and computer science was not the right field for me. I eventually worked through this confusion, but this sense that I had taken a wrong turn gnawed at me for many years to come. No matter what job I was in, I felt like I wasn’t being myself, that I wanted work which felt more meaningful to me.
After I left Intel and started trying on different jobs for size, I realized that actually computer science had a lot of characteristics I liked: depth, analysis, problem solving, creativity, an element of bringing about change, etc. That brought me a tremendous sense of relief. When I talk to people who are just beginning their career transition, I can see how relieved they are to hear that they haven’t “wasted” all of their years in the wrong career.
