The Journey Part 2

So now it’s the beginning of 2021 and I felt hopeless and regretful that I got a Master’s Degree in Marketing because marketing jobs were not what I expected them to be. I was hoping to work a job where I could utilize my creative talent and do some psychology work by dissecting consumer behavior. But these jobs aren’t what they used to be. When it comes to the creative aspect, many jobs are outsourced for cheap labor such as graphic design because you can simply go to Fiverr and hire someone for less than minimum wage to create something a company will use forever. Also, consumer behavior now is all about analytics and KPI (key performance indicators) and frankly, learning Google Analytics and trying to be great at using these analytical tools were extremely boring to me.

I take full accountability for this because I didn’t do any proper research on what marketing jobs really are, what were the job roles, and what they entail. I didn’t learn fundamental tools, no one wanted to hire me because I didn’t qualify for “entry-level” marketing jobs that also require 3 to 5 years of experience. And to boot, we’re still in a global pandemic. I decided to change careers because my 10+ years of experience in visual merchandising and my degrees weren’t helping me financially.

I was listening and watching women and men of color on YouTube talk about their journey to the tech industry. I live in the middle of Silicon Valley (right in-between San Francisco and San Jose). I never thought I could make it in tech because I am a minority and a woman. I never thought I was smart enough to get into tech and I was terrible at math. All the things I thought I should be, I didn’t have to be. My road to tech wasn’t a straight and narrow path. I put my foot in many things until I narrowed down my interests.

The most crooked road to tech:

• I started to learn A+ because it was the total newbie certificate to start a career in tech. I was overwhelmed by the fact that it was 1 test split up to take twice. I wasn’t interested in A + because it was boring to me.

• I searched for what creative jobs there are in tech and found out about UX Design or UI Text. I always knew I was a creative person which is why I got a degree in Marketing. I bought a course to study and build a portfolio on UX Design and more than halfway through it, I realized it was not for me. Personally, I stopped enjoying it because it didn’t have the creative freedom I wanted. UX is a team effort with many meetings, discussions, and critiques about your designs. I can see how it could be a fun career but it just wasn’t for me. I was especially discouraged when I was reading a few UX Design hiring managers on Reddit talk crap about how “everyone’s portfolio looks the same” and how “they can tell where they studied UX Design based on the projects in a person’s portfolio”. I thought that was rather rude and pretentious. It looked like effort wasn’t appreciated at all in this industry. It left a very bad taste in my mouth.

• Deep down inside all along, a hunch in me always said to try out Cybersecurity. I ignored that hunch because my low-self esteem got the best of me again. I thought I wasn’t smart enough to be in such a “prestigious” and important career as cybersecurity. Come to find out, I was wrong. I passed the Sec+ after 2 months straight of studying. I realized I have a passion for CS and was really into what I was learning. I also loved that there are so many jobs, roles, and opportunities for CS. The possibilities are overwhelming and endless. So, this is where my crooked journey ends. I found out where I feel I belong and what I wanted with a career in tech.