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- Year Of Graduation: 2024
- College/University: Pennsylvania State University
- Major: Computer Science (minor in Mathematics)
What do you do for a living? Can you share what a typical day at work looks like? Do you enjoy what you do?
If I were to give you my super official title, I’m an Associate IT Infrastructure and Operations Analyst, but I can’t really go to many people and say that, it doesn’t mean anything to them. So, I just tell people I’m a data analyst because that’s pretty much my job. From a day-to-day standpoint, it varies. I don’t work for a tech-oriented company. I’m in the food and beverages industry. A lot of what I do is infrastructure for apps and websites that we create. I don’t help business in terms of “I have something wrong with my computer.” My job more so encompasses app maintenance and development, like portal website maintenance and development, and then sometimes microservice development as well. The best way I can phrase it is I work with the people in our backend database to help integrate that into our existing softwares.
In terms of enjoying it, sometimes I get to do things that feel really good, but in all honesty, I think it only feels good because the feeling of success feels good. You know what I mean? Especially in this environment where I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. My manager said something to me ad hoc once. She hit me with, “Hey, so we knew you were coming, but we don’t have anything for you. I’m just going to throw you in a bunch of different areas of the company, and we’re just going to see where you stick.”
So yeah, the days that I’m able to fight tooth and nail and succeed at something that felt impossible a week ago, that’s really cool. I love my job when that happens. Aside from that, though, I definitely don’t think what I’m doing in my current state is what I would want to do long term.
Why did you choose your undergraduate major? Do you feel your time spent in college was valuable? Why or why not?
In my mind, I was like, “I don’t really care what I do for work as long as it allows me to sustain my standard of living.” I don’t even need a lot of money, I don’t go crazy with my salary or anything like that. I just want something that will allow me to live my life. So when I went to college, I thought if I had to choose something to major in, I kind of wanted it to be useful to something that I think is interesting. At the time, I was really big on game development, and I was like, “I’d love to be able to develop my own game.” So, a large portion of the reason why I went into computer science was just wanting to be able to program. Computer science is broad enough that I don’t have to be a solely dedicated software engineer or a developer or anything like that.
I will say college in terms of the people that I met, college was 1,000% worth it. It was a great experience. I met a lot of really nice people. But separate from that, the only thing college is worth, in my opinion, is just to get a piece of paper that tells you that you’re qualified enough. Truly and holy, there are probably people out there who are self-taught who are so much more talented than I am from their own self-studies, compared to what I learned while I was in school. School is just a way for you to get into a job that pays well.
Can you tell me about your experience finding a job after graduation? Are you happy with where your journey has led you thus far?
My background is a little unique in that I was a part of a scholarship that was very research-oriented, and the idea was that you would do all of this research in order to pursue a PhD after undergrad. It wasn’t a requirement, but like everything that they did for you as a part of the program set you up for an academic career. So when I went into college, I initially thought that I was going to be a researcher, but my god, I don’t know if you’ve done any kind of research in relation to algorithms and data. It’s so boring. I’m sure it’s someone’s yum, but it is definitely not mine!
I was required to do two summer research experiences as part of the scholarship. They padded out my resume, but none of these research opportunities really helped me to get internship experience. I kind of had to lowball in terms of what internships I could find once I was finally free from those summer obligations. I had to find companies that would take someone who basically had no real industry experience.
I was fortunate enough to chug those two summer experiences out freshman summer and sophomore summer. Since I got those out of the way earlier, I was able to get an internship at my current workplace, and that’s how I got my job. I went through the internship, I did well, and they offered me a position. I had been applying for other places and wasn’t hearing back at all, which was not an uncommon experience. And, when my company gave me the offer, it was literally, “Okay, two weeks or no dice.” I was hoping for a month to decide.
In all honesty, looking back, it was definitely the right move. In the moment, I was like, “Damn, I shouldn’t have done that.” I didn’t even really like working there during that summer. I mean, it was fine, but it was just okay, you know? I didn’t love it. But after continuing to apply to companies and then also my friends applying and getting absolutely nothing, I realized it was probably the right choice.
Do you see AI as a threat to those pursuing computer sciences and associated fields?
If AI gets better at coding, it could be a problem. But right now, things like ChatGPT really suck for coding help until you really talk to it. It can draft very simple things, but I would say most real-world use cases aren’t necessarily that simple. The amount of effort and context you have to pour into ChatGPT before it can write something worthwhile isn’t often worth it.
I think it’s only an existential threat if your job is easily automated. I don’t want to call out certain job titles or stuff like that, but I recently learned about this role in my company. It’s this guy who literally just adds and removes people from the company email groups and spam boxes. I would say if your job requires some level of physicality and you have to interact with people, then it’s fine.
If I asked you three years ago, what goals would you hope to have achieved in life or your career?
I’m gonna be honest. I didn’t really have many goals. I had the goal of getting a job, which I’ve achieved. I have a job! I don’t think I had the capacity to even envision what my life could look like after graduation, though. I guess my worldview of true adulthood was so narrow-minded that all I thought was, “Yeah, I’m going to graduate. I’m gonna get a job. I’m going to get a place. That’s gonna be my life. It’s going to be awesome, and I don’t need to set any more goals or fulfillments for myself at all down the line.”
I guess I was so blinded by what I had in college. College is such a microcosm compared to the real world that in my mind I was like, “Everything’s going to be the same except I’m just going to have a job and a salary so I can buy more fun things to do with my friends.” Then I moved to a new city, didn’t know anybody, and started working this job that I’m only moderately satisfied with. As the days started settling in, I kind of realized I needed more. I needed to do something with myself, or I was going to go crazy.
How important is it to have a purpose-driven life? Why or why not? Do you think you’re on a path to do that? If not, what needs to change?
1,000% you should have a purpose-driven life. I had kind of burnt myself out to get to where I was coming out of college, so having my job felt like the first time I could really breathe. But then you kind of breathe a little too much, and you look around and you wonder, “Damn, what am I even doing?” Relaxation was nice until it got to this point where I felt like I was relaxing a little too much. I didn’t feel a sense of accomplishment in myself. I didn’t feel any kind of drive or ambition.
I think when it got to that point, I realized that, for the first time in my life, I was truly in charge of my own destiny. Up until you graduate from formal education, you kind of have these guardrails set for you, but when you hit your first adult job, there’s no path. You can truly do whatever you want. Having to wrestle with the vastness of that was really difficult. Setting personal goals for myself outside of work really helped me focus that energy.
What’s your biggest struggle right now? What led to it? How are you moving forward?
I think my biggest struggle is being okay with just being average at my job. Not to say that you shouldn’t be ambitious. I’ve had a lot of time to be introspective, and I started going to therapy when I finally had access to money. A lot of those sessions with my therapist kind of made me realize that I was always just chasing the next thing. I was never letting myself take in the moment. So for my job, I kind of need that stability of just taking in the moment and learning what I can, and just being average for now.
What interests/hobbies bring you the most happiness?
When I was in school, I stopped playing games that I enjoyed. Games were more of a social thing at that point. I would play multiplayer games to keep in touch with my friends or have bonding moments with them, but I would never take the time to just play games for myself. Now that I’m in my job and it makes me feel miserable some days, I’ve started picking up solo games again.
I finished Spider-Man Remastered, and right now I bought the Kingdom Hearts trilogy while it was on sale. That’s been really nice, honestly, because I couldn’t remember the last time I enjoyed a solo gaming experience.
I’m a big Pokémon fan too, so I buy the cards. I collect them. That brings me a lot of joy.
What do you want to spend more time working on? What is stopping you?
Honestly, building up my technical skills, and I am doing that just by being on the job. There are things that I think are inherent to my co-workers just because they have years of experience on me. I want to beef up my skills technically in terms of different softwares and tools that I can use.
Developing my own game is still a dream of mine as well. But I guess I do other things right now, like my friend is making a YouTube video, and I offered to help edit it for him. I really enjoy working in Premiere. It’s therapeutic, like almost meditative. Game development is a little daunting, too, honestly. I think that’s why I probably haven’t started it. I wouldn’t really know where to begin.
If we traveled three years into the future of your life, what do you want to achieve? What would you hope has changed?
I hope that I will have achieved a job that I don’t necessarily need fulfillment out of, but I feel really good about. I feel fine-ish in my current job, but I don’t feel confident in it. I hope that within the next couple of years, I start to feel that level of confidence in my role.
What’s the biggest lesson or piece of advice you wish you had known earlier?
I feel like it’s very easy to come out of college and think that because you have this degree, you should be qualified to do everything. Realistically, you don’t know much about how things really get applied in the context of a job. I think coming into the workplace, it’s better for you to just be the most clueless sponge. If you have an ego about your ability to perform in a new role, you’re just not going to be as accepting of learning.
Connect With Emily:
- LinkedIn: @EmilyHamrick
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