Journey of Returning to Work

This is a tough one. Along the way, it’s filled with self doubt and rejections. I am still on the journey, but I feel I should write something down. It might help other stay at home moms some day.

Here is the background. I have a bachelor degree in computer engineering, a master degree in engineering. I stopped working when I had my first child, which was 12 years ago. Now that the children are more independent, I want to see if I can be back at work. Lead by examples, right? I want to give my daughter a real life example of the complexity of being a woman today, balancing between family and career. So far, she has been witnessing the stay at home mom part, which I do believe it’s a good option for some.
I started by searching on the Internet, searching for companies and programs that help women/men to return work after a long break. After some failures on job applications, I realized I should update myself with the current technology and environment first! Well, the easiest thing for me was to join a coding boot camp. The boot camp would let me know what’s more relevant to learn, and more importantly, I hope it helped ME and others to think that I am serious about returning to work.

Two coding boot camps that stood out for women in the Seattle area were:

• Ada Developers Academy. Unfortunately, I did not qualify as I studied computer engineering.
• Kal Academy. The tuition is relatively much cheaper than other coding bootcamp. After I met with the instructor, I knew it would be the place for me.

Frankly, last time I did any coding professionally was almost twenty years ago. If I had kids earlier, many classmates could be my daughters! Luckily, I still have the joy of problem solving and learning. Despite intense schedules and COVID, I enjoyed the boot camp. In fact, I was a bit sad when it came to an end. Some knowledge I had previously also allows me to pick up the materials quickly and appreciate how technologies have evolved.

I had a lot of difficulty updating my resume. I don’t know what’s still relevant and what’s not. For the longest time, I was resistant to my husband’s help. I feel it would make us not equal. I was afraid that he might poke fun and I would be very hurt and embarrassed. What made me finally come around was I realized my lack of confidence was dominating my thoughts. I was intimidated by what professionals might think of me, my resume, my life.

Hiring practices have changed. There is now a business behind aceing coding interviews. There are books. There are websites where you could practice problem solving. There are YouTube videos on coding problems.

Another thing I found a bit unsettling is now there are coding competitions, hackathons. It felt quite testosterone driven. It’s a feeling, I have not joined one, so I could be completely wrong here.

My job hunting criteria is very different from before. As a co-op student and new graduates, I would take on any job that pays. When that’s taken care of, I applied for jobs in big companies for stability. There was no career planning. I moved from places to places. Now? I want a job that’s meaningful, and close to home.

I don’t know if this journey would have a happy ending or be abandoned. Either way, I would have a peace of mind that I tried.