Never Give Up

My paternal grandfather often said, “never ever give up”. This sense of perseverance was instilled in me and is something I have carried throughout my life. Most recently, it has paid off in achieving my goal of transitioning out of education and into the field of data analytics.

Yesterday was my last day working in the education industry. I have wanted to be an educator since I was in middle school and I actively worked toward achieving that goal by first starting to tutor other students. After high school while studying mathematics at university, I also began taking education classes which included how to teach mathematics and other pedagogical strategies.

I participated in an internship where I taught a university-level course. I continued tutoring. I continued studying. After many years of perseverance, I completed my credential program and entered the workforce as a teacher. I taught full-time at the high school level for five years. Then I taught online and internationally for another five years.

In the final year and half of my education career, I had the distinct privilege of passing on my programming and pedagogical knowledge to other teachers. This enabled them to teach programming and robotics directly in their mathematics classroom. I’m so honored to have had this privilege and watch their excitement as they learned programming and their students learn how to program as well.

Yet, as grateful as I am to have worked in education internally I knew something was amiss. So I started to look for other things that peaked my interest. One of those things is computer programming. In December 2020, I started learning how to program in Python. This eventually led me to take some online certifications in programming, including a certification in web development and another in data analytics. For a while, I looked around for some sort of web development position, but unfortunately didn't find anything.

I came to the conclusion that while I enjoyed working on various web development projects it was really the combination of mathematics and programming that truly intrigued my interest. And so I continued to focus on developing my data analytics skills. Most recently I have enrolled in a graduate program at Sacramento State where I am deepening my knowledge of both programming and data science in the Masters of Science Business Analytics program.

Through this unwavering perseverance and continued dedication to my studies, I have finally achieved the goal I set for myself years ago, which was to transition into a technical oriented career. I am very happy to announce that I will soon begin my career as a research data analyst at the California Department of Healthcare Services.

I know the job market has been particularly rough and challenging to many people who are looking for jobs in the tech industry. To those people I just wanna say that I have been where you are. You send out countless applications and oftentimes hear nothing back. And on the rare occasion where you do hear something back it's usually a letter of rejection.

This is where the power of perseverance comes into play. If this is something that you truly desire, then you will find the inner strength to get there.

In the meantime, you need to focus on whatever day-to-day things you need to do to get by. Whether that's working a job with a toxic boss or working multiple jobs to pay the bills. Whatever it is, keep in mind it is just a stepping stone to whatever comes next. And sometimes – as difficult as it is – you have to let the path in front of you unfold on its own.

On this path it is better to focus on what you can control.

You can control your reaction to the world and events along the path.

You can control how often you study or put into practice your newfound skills.

You can control how many applications you send out.

You can control how many networking events you go to.

You can control how many authentic connections you make.

If you keep focusing on what you can control instead of what you cannot control, you will end up in a much happier place.

I say that both as someone who has done both. I know when I focus on what I can control I feel much better and I am much happier. As opposed to when I focus on the things I cannot control. When I do that, I am miserable. This is a lesson I have learned countless times and I hope I’m further along the way to internalizing it completely.

If you're reading this post and looking for any piece of advice, it would be that. Remember to focus on what you can control. And if it's something you truly want and truly believe you are capable of, then keep going. Don't stop. And never ever give up.