I am currently striving to get a Software Engineering position in the United States. But I have to admit that it is one of the most challenging experiences I have encountered so far. I would introduce what American workers possess, but I didn't use to have. I would also share what I have been doing to be professional using my experience as an example.
I was grown up in Japan. I was aiming to be a medical doctor and have been studying all day to pass the entrance exams for Japanese medical school. To make the long story short, I failed everything. I was very disappointed because I was devoting all of my life preparing for it. I wasn't sure why I failed. But now I know what I was doing wrong. I was very passive.
I was the student who tried to follow all the advice that the teachers were telling me. When I was doing homework, I was trying to follow what the given answer was doing as much as I could. I was always afraid of making mistakes. I thought the shortest way of becoming successful was to follow the best way that other smarter people had came up. It wasn't fun, and of course, the tests weren't reflecting how much I had studied. I always found people did better but spent lesser time studying. I thought I wasn't studying enough and continued the same studying style. I didn't believe the way I was studying was "memorizing" instead of learning. Finally, my scores started to stop growing because I kept this style of studying. I thought it was too late to change my style. Studying for the entrance exam became a huge pain for me, and I was hopeless. Then, I failed the entrance exams.
So, why did I become that passive? I loved studying and thinking when I was an elementary school student. The problems that I solved were more interesting for me because I could answer more creatively. I was one of the top students at my elementary school. Finally, I took an exam to get into the top middle school in Japan, which I failed. Then, I lost confidence in what I was doing. This is the moment that I started to believe following the "best way" was the key to my life. Instead of challenging to solve problems by myself, I began to follow the answer and ask many questions.
I don't think life is that simple. I don't think there is any best answer that everybody can be successful by just following it. Everybody needs to find his/her own interest and what he/she is good at. In my eyes, people that were grown up in the U.S. had already found one and somewhat knew their approach to proceed. They came to college to train themselves and gain more familiarity with it before starting the career. I came to the U.S. without having any of the above skills.
I started studying Computer Science. I thought it would be so cool if I could use computers very well. It was a very shallow thought. Writing code was way harder than I thought because I didn't have a habit of thinking and solving problems until the code compiles by myself. I had to understand how to code and apply the knowledge to create something new. In the beginning, I was very struggling. But I was also struggling in English. I didn't know how to search my questions, and it took me a while to finish my homework. I asked many questions to other people and professors. I wasn't capable of doing any projects or internships. I was preoccupied with catching up with my peers.
I always tried hard, and finally, I gain the habit of solving complicated problems by myself and help other people. I have been making an effort to be good at engineering by doing many projects and internships. I can go one more step ahead now. According to my interview experience and many people working in competitive companies, indicating that what values I can bring to the company is significant. Companies are making money by doing business. The business is what the workers in the company create. I have to be the one that creates the service instead of receiving the service. That's why it is essential to do projects and internships to demonstrate that I can be successful at the company that I would be working. In order to become a service provider, outputting is one of the most significant things. This is why I started this blog. I would keep sharing what I have learned throughout my life to help other people, while I am learning how to convey my thought by outputting instead of reading books or asking questions. I have written this full-stack website by myself. This is also learning through outputting. I am learning a lot from this process. Besides, how I have been learning computer science is helping me solving problems and gaining new skills. I think it is the best time to share this because I have met many people who were stuck in my old process of studying. I know changing the learning process is challenging.
I would share more thought in the other posts. If there are any questions for me, please message me. I would love to give advice to people. Of course, I am open to any advice and criticism. Thank you very much for reading my first post!