Being a software engineer was what I decided I wanted to do for the rest of my life since my first computer science course during my freshman year of high school. It ticked all the boxes for a perfect job, I get to sit down in a nice air conditioned room all day, I get paid over 6 figures, I get to do what I love, and apparently software engineers are in high demand! That was until I got into college and I learned the truth. Most fresh out of college software engineers don’t get jobs until around a year after graduating. Most are stuck just trying to get an internship, nevermind an actual job. On top of this, my young naive self learned that coding is a lot more complex than just if, else, and for loops. There’s a reason why they get paid so much. On top of this, I have to take all these discrete math courses which make no sense to me, I found calculus more understandable and enjoyable as a matter of fact. On top of this, one of my favorite things about coding is building something from the nothing to something amazing. However, in the real world, software engineers don’t actually do that much coding at all. It’s mostly just write ups. Despite this, my goals have not changed. I am determined to be a software engineer no matter how long I take in internship hell. One branch of computer science I really want to learn is artificial intelligence/machine learning. This is a field that blew up over the course of last year with chatgpt and other ai. I can tell that this is something that’s new territory for most people and will be heavily implemented into all technology. It’s better to get into a field when it’s young since the more senior software developers will be on a similar playing field. Not only that, I just find it so cool! I watch videos on youtube all the time about these guys who make AI that beat games for them. The AI start off really dumb but after each iteration, they get smarter and smarter, little by little, and at the end of the video, they look like professionals and surpass what the average person could do. It’s so fascinating! While I mentioned that my goal was to become a software engineer, the main reason for this is because I want to in a financial situation where I can provide for my family without my wife or kids ever having to worry about money issues. I want to be able to live comfortably in a nice house with a nice car and buy things I want just because I can afford it. That is my end goal in life, and that’s what’s getting me through ICS 311 right now, that class is horrendous.