What I want to do

While I have very supportive friends and family, many of them were confused about why I would want to go back to school to study computer science when I already have a successful career. They are more confused because I don’t have a clear goal of what I want to do with this degree.

Sometimes I myself want to ask myself these questions! So here are some of my thoughts on what I hope to accomplish here.

1. I enjoy learning, and I enjoy working towards a degree by itself.

It doesn’t really matter for now what I want to do with it, but I’m hoping I’ll start to figure it out part way through.

2. I don’t know enough about the field of computer science. It seems to me like I’ll learn more by jumping in and doing it.

Just yesterday, I was discussing math classes with a friend who just finished a math PhD at GT and one who is a Mech E PhD, and they were telling me that Multivariable Calculus will be really useful for Computer Science, so I should try to take it sooner rather than later. This conversation brought home how far from the realm of science and engineering my past experience is. I have no idea what Multivariable Calculus is used for, or why it’s useful for CS, so how can I sit here at the beginning and predict which parts of this subject I’ll like the most?

3. I like solving problems in practical and efficient ways.

As an accountant, part of my job is solving problems for people. The solution is often either a new app that will help their workflow, or training them how to better use existing software. Part of my interest in computer science is that often the app I could find is too expensive for a small business, or doesn’t accomplish all the things I think it should. Plus, I’m only solving the solution for this one client at a time. By developing a better app, I could be helping many people have better workflows.

One thing of note here: I feel that I’m good at solving these particular problems, in part due to having training in accounting. I know what should be possible, which makes it easier to understand how to use accounting software. I don’t currently feel at all good at solving computer science problems, but that seems natural since I have very little training in this field (and learning coding seems a bit like learning to be a QuickBooks expert but not understanding the underlying accounting.) I’m hoping the more background I get, the more I’ll start to see solutions to problems here.

The field of computer science has much more to it than the field of accounting. (Although of course, there are endless possibilities for specializing and going in depth on various topics in accounting too, so there is plenty to learn here. None of those specializations seem that interesting to me though.)