I was always good with computers growing up and my family considered me the technical support staff around the house. I remember playing video games, updating the PC and fighting with my parents about access to the phone line – I loved all things tech. We didn’t have cable TV, so playing Doom on the computer always seemed like a better option than watching Barney & Friends on PBS. Also, my handwriting was so bad that in 6th grade, my teacher pleaded with me to type long essays out on the PC instead.
When it was time to go to college, I didn't really think about computer science or engineering because I thought it would be too “heads down.” I envisioned sitting in a dark room staring at a screen. Computer programming wasn’t as defined as a field as it is today, so I didn’t think of it as a career option. I was a good student, and I was taking AP economics, which I found interesting at the time. So, I chose to pursue a career in finance.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science in 2010, I worked at two different finance companies, and frankly, I hated the work. My job felt like what I had always dreaded - “heads down” spending my days staring at screens! I saw a lot of repetition and business-as-usual job tasks that could be automated. A lot of the manual work involved transposing Excel spreadsheets, which I thought was tedious. At the time, I started learning VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code on my own. One weekend, I figured out how to automate emails through Excel. Though this wasn’t part of my job duties, I felt good about being able to solve a problem and make a task more efficient. At that point, I knew I had to make a career change.
At first, I didn’t tell my parents that I quit my full-time job to go back to community college for computer programming. I knew I was taking a risk. But it was worth it. I love the process of writing code. You write the code, it doesn’t work. You write the code again, and it doesn’t work. And then there is a point where you hit the button and it works. I get such a sense of overwhelming satisfaction from that. After graduating from college (a second time), I received a wonderful opportunity with L3Harris and have been here five years. When I first came to L3Harris, I had no professional experience in a technical field, but my manager believed in my earnestness about why I wanted to be a programmer and became my mentor. She’s been such a big influence on my career and plays a huge role in my time at L3Harris. I’ve learned that engineering is anything but “heads down” – it’s very social, requires coordination across a variety of teams and I find it more interpersonal than any job I’ve had. I consider myself very fortunate in my current role and I get to be part of a great team.
It’s important that you find satisfaction in your career, and we have lots of opportunities for that here at L3Harris. Do work that you find interesting and don’t be afraid to take risks to get into a position you want. You’ll be much happier.
