Career Path of a Software Engineer at Redemption Games

My first job in college was an internship with the facilities department at Northwestern University in Chicago. It was for a building renovation, and I worked with the people managing the project and the contractors. I found the posting through my school's email listserv.

Originally, they told me the role was filled, but then someone dropped out, and I luckily got the position. I hadn't made other plans for the summer, so I was happy to have something to do.

The work itself wasn't directly related to my studies, but learning management skills, like dealing with various parties such as the school and contractors, was valuable.

After that, I got close with a professor through a social network analysis course. A few friends and I approached him about working in his lab, and he hired us as research assistants. This was a pivotal experience for my career path.

In his lab, I taught myself programming by working on research projects that involved statistical analysis in R. While R is great for statistics, it's not typically considered a primary programming language for computer science. However, you can accomplish a lot with it, similar to Python.

Learning R through hands-on experience boosted my confidence in my programming abilities. As I continued my coursework, I decided to pursue a minor in computer science.

After my facilities internship, I also interned at Nielsen, a data company known for TV analytics. There, I worked as a data analyst intern and taught myself Python. Moving from R to Python was a significant step.

This led to me feeling much more comfortable with programming and genuinely enjoying it. While I didn't always love data analysis, I loved the programming aspect. This was my last internship before graduating.

I feel I rushed into getting a full-time job as school was ending. If you have the flexibility, it's often better to take your time. Most people don't love their first job out of college and end up looking to switch.

Northwestern is known for pushing students into consulting. Consulting can often be a less-than-fulfilling job, especially for new graduates who may not be doing deeply thoughtful work. This was particularly true for the big tech consulting firm I joined.

I was hired as a data analyst consultant but was placed in the SAP practice. SAP is a large, complex enterprise software with an outdated and confusing user interface. None of the new consultants in that practice understood what they were doing.

While we could manage some aspects and talk to people, I really disliked that job. I was fortunate to have it during COVID when job opportunities were scarce, but I hated it. A lot of the time, I had no work to do, which was frustrating after working hard in school to learn technical skills.

Eventually, I felt I needed a change and started looking into graduate school. I considered many master's programs in computer science, as it seemed like the best path to utilize my technical skills across various industries, as nearly every company needs computer science expertise now.

I chose USC because it's in California, close to home. This meant I could live with my mom, though it created a long-distance relationship with my girlfriend in Chicago. Still, I believe it was the right decision for me.

I did very well at USC, graduating with a 4.0. I assumed that achieving this level of success in a master's program would make finding a job easy. However, the job market, especially in tech, is very challenging right now, particularly in 2024.

I was able to get my current job through some fortunate connections. I like to think I earned it as well, as I believe I'm a good programmer. Nevertheless, it's a difficult market.

I truly love the work I do now at a game studio. It's a great place for programming, and I never have a lack of tasks to work on. I'm very happy with where I've ended up.

Sorry, that was a long answer, but I tried to be thorough.