An Update on My Journey
Failures and In-between Times
During the time that I was volunteering at the headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses in Wallkill, NY (in the COVID-19 pandemic), I studied machine learning and data science like crazy. I learned calculus and how to apply differential equations to loss functions to building machine learning models that can do some really cool stuff. It was a period of deep study where I would regularly talk to doctors of AI on twitter and share things I'm learning or discuss the limitations in the field, and read lots of white papers that were being published.
While I was hoping that all of my study and work in doing projects would turn into a machine learning or data science job after I was finished volunteering, it didn't work out that way. It was very difficult to get a job in machine learning and data science without experience under my belt.
I got back into the field of network engineering once I left my volunteer assignment. I had worked as a network engineer for the USDA when I was 19 and 20 years old, before I began working as volunteer. At the same time as getting back into the field of network engineering, I also was building websites as a freelancer. Here are some links to my work:
If you were following my blog before, you will see that I was also working on diving into web3.0 technologies. I did for a time, and had some hefty projects that I wanted to work on. When crypto crashed not only was it demotivating to work web3.0 projects, but also it was a treacherous time legally in the U.S. for policies on crypto and if they were considered securities or not. It was not certain if it would be a yes or a no. So, for so many reasons, I let those projects drift off for a time (but I still hope to bring them back someday soon!). Web3.0 makes some very cool things possible, so I would love to make some social tech with it.
Learning What I Didn't Want (Big Lesson #1)
I had a lot of options. And honestly a lot of things I was good at. I was pretty well educated on machine learning and data science with Python and SQL, I had experience as a network engineer, I was actively building and selling websites, and I had a foray into web3.0. It was somewhat of a confusing time in regards to my career once I left my volunteering.
What I came to realize, and perhaps something that may be useful to you, the reader, is that there are a lot of options in tech. You can go work in cybersecurity, cloud, machine learning, data science, software engineering, and actually much more. All of these can pay very well, can be done for an employer or as an independent endeavor, and be technically stimulating and lots of fun if you enjoy them.
With so many good options, it can be daunting to decide where you fit in because they're all good. What you have to ask yourself is: "What do I want to spend my days doing?" "What role do I want to fill on a larger team?" "Which career path aligns with my core purpose?"
Good and hard questions all of these. For me I learned that:
I did not want to be a web dev (I'm not a visual artist, so it seemed like I would always be building something to that effect and I wasn't drawn to it)
I did not want to be a software engineer (the goals were too open-ended for my taste, even though I do enjoy problem solving in code).
I did not want to be a machine learning engineer (I'm honestly not fond of the direction that the field of AI is going in as it all doesn't seem very human friendly in its aims).
I did not want to work purely in cybersecurity (all of the job roles seemed to require constant attention to the latest threat vectors, and the intensity of always being to blame if some unknown attack occurs seemed unenjoyable).
While I loved the heavy math of data science and machine learning, I think I may use this in my personal projects (like solving P=NP), but I don't want to do data science as my day job because I want to create, not just work with pieces of data made available to me.
Learning What I Did Want
I had a lot of discussions with good influences in tech, like my friends Du'An Lightfoot and Derrik Campau who told me that cloud was the way to go. They explained to me that because money is made by the creation of new products (created by deploying cloud services) when you work in cloud you are working closer to where the money comes in and you will naturally make more. Network engineering they explained, is somewhat of a dying field. The value proposition for a network engineer is to reduce costs. Also, with technical advancements like software defined networking (SDN), there is less need for many skilled network engineers. They both advised me to consider moving to cloud and working as a solutions architect or an SRE soon.
Another good friend of mine, Lorenzo Fife, suggested cloud or security as being viable paths that are still constantly growing fields (and quite lucrative). Lorenzo suggested that I consider working in security as I already had a leg up on the competition with my background in networking.
After looking into the day to day life of various tech professions, watching Derrik do his work, and study using AWS online materials (well into my solutions architect certification prep), things became more clear.
I really enjoy working in cloud and I realized I want to be in the flow of a fast paced team working as a DevOps engineer to some capacity.
I reviewed the certification paths available with AWS (https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs/AWS_certification_paths.pdf) and felt like not only could I combine my current skills with my desired career goals, but also could be more valuable to a team because of my work experience working as a DevSecOps Engineer.
That's my current direction.
I know that will evolve over time. Eventually I want to work in overseeing technical teams, so that I can make bigger creative decisions about what choices are made for an organization instead of purely working on technical things. Also, I would like to eventually consult in tech instead of working for a corporation for my whole career. Time will tell how these goals shape up.
Core Purpose (Big Lesson #2)
I spoke to another good friend of mine about getting out of corporate, Anayo Nworjih. He is a successful entrepreneur and honestly just a really warm person in general. One of the pieces of advice that he gave me was find your core purpose and your why and align with it. Take some time to think about what you really want, he said. Everything not aligned with your core purpose is really just a waste and you'll eventually stop doing those things and get closer to what you ultimately actually want.
After consideration for some time, my core purpose is really just to serve my God, Jehovah, well. This means time spent in field ministry and volunteering in different capacities. Thus, my career goals are just serving the end of helping me sustain myself with the resources that I need in order to keep giving to my God. As time moves on, I would really like to live a simpler life. Maybe not work at all for long stretches of time (like 6 months or more) and just live on savings in a very impoverished area like Africa or the islands.
So the way that I'm currently aligning with my core purpose in my journey (that I'm hoping you will follow me on in this blog) is by learning a lot and growing in different technologies, so that I can achieve my life goals (serving God) by making more money, with less effort and time (because my education will make my time more monetarily valuable). Thanks for reading and catching up with me, friend! Til soon.
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