Introduction
During my time at Texas A&M, I was able to acquire some skills that will be very useful in my career in software engineering. I will list them all out below:
Skills
Algorithm Design
Though I have learned a lot at Texas A&M, I realized that one of my best skills is coming up with simple and efficient algorithm design. This is seen from success in algorithm-based courses (like Data Structures and Computer Organization), high placements in hackathons, and curiosity to learn the deeper why on how things work. This skill has helped propel me to not be a hinderance when I am working with professionsal in the field.
Competitions
Like I said above, I have placed highly in a couple of hackathons hosted both on campus and online via organizations like Leetcode. Being apart of these events and the Aggie Competitive Programming Club has developed me in a person who can be confident and calm-minded when faced with a task that seems overly complex. It has trained my ability to see solutions and patterns in completely foreign context and situations, and has also helped me learn how to debug efficiently.
Quick-Learning
Along other things, being a math tutor for over a year and a half has taught me how to learn. More specifically, trying to explain concepts of lower-level math to those who not math-minded has enlightened me on how I should internalize concepts in my own classes. I am able to gage myself on how clueless I am on a subject, then truly diagnosis what concept is causing me the most issue. This has, in turn, made me a very quick learner which is useful, since technology moves like no other job market. I need to stay fast if I want to keep up.
Communication
Lastily, I want to mention how many group activities I have been apart of thoughtout my life. Most notibly, I was the Assistant Director at my church's IT department for my entire time in highschool. In that role, I was able to gather so much experience, including on what it means to be a good leader. The most important attribute I found is being able to lead through example and have solid, consistent communication. This was also made evident in my E-Sports time and competeing with/against my peers. Now, communication feels almost effortless, which is essential in this day & age of continual team and department meeetings.
Software Engineering
For these reasons, I have a strong desire to go into the software engineering field after graduation. The thought of working everyday on creating new code or enhancing existing ones sounds like a blast. It is also great to move as one accord as team, department, and organization, and trying to make sure all the moving parts work correctly at launch is something I want to be a part of. Most specifically, backend development is the most interesting to me because there is so much to consider to make sure that you have fallbacks for all the different edge cases. Doing the research for how to design APIs, databases, and more optimally is a rabbit hole that is lowkey pretty cool.