Approaching 8 years with Uber. It's been a long ride.

    When I was young, personal autonomy was something intrinsically instilled in me. This was a necessity because my single mom was constantly busy working. She also had to raise two and a half children, and to be honest, there's just not enough hours in the day to do it all. This meant that my brothers would often make lunch or dinner, and we were responsible for things like doing our own laundry once we hit thirteen. While this might sound difficult (it certainly felt that was a child!), it was a blessing later on in life. When I entered college, providing for myself wasn't a new concept. This enabled me to focus on my classes and the job I needed to hold down, without becoming overwhelmed with the transition to college life.

   Since I decided to go to college, I've taken satisfaction in choosing my own path. After completing my third year of psych, on track to graduate the following year, I took a long, hard look at where I wanted to be, and why I wanted to be there. I'd pursued psychology because I knew I wanted to help people. Eventually this feeling overwhelmed me that I could benefit the world more, if I could help more than one person at a time. That's really hard to with psychology. Furthermore, as my best friend graduated early from a more prestigious school in Psychology, I realized that it wasn't a financially viable path for me. Fortunately, I'd been taking advanced courses in math, physics, & biology to keep my options open, had I ever decided to change paths.
    I decided the most utilitarian way to help the world and earn a living was biomedical engineering. I spent weeks researching schools and job opportunities for individuals with this degree, and found that most positions sought a masters in this field. In fact, very few reputable schools even offer an undergrad degree in biomedical engineering. I determined the most valuable undergrad degree to get into a biomedical master's program was electrical engineering. Fortunately, MSU Bozeman was just a few hours away, and has a great undergrad program in this field. Weeks before what would have been my senior year started, I decided to make the switch. Two weeks before start of fall semester, I changed schools and moved to a new city, leaving my friends, my job, and years of schoolwork behind.
    I wish I could say I excelled in engineering... but maintaining a full courseload in a competitive discipline, while working a fulltime job proved extremely difficult. I sacrificed nearly all of my free time in my early twenties towards studies or work. Finally my senior year came, and I was one of 13 electrical engineering graduates in 2013. We were all incredibly knowledgable in our discipline, but I had an edge the other dozen did not; I'd been working in tech for years at this point. While others had one or no job offers, I lined up three, which spanned the gamut of opportunities; network, systems, software, and electrical engineer. The reality of my GPA didn't make me an obvious candidate for any biomedical engineering master's programs, and honestly, I was tired of being broke while working 80 hour weeks between my job and schoolwork. I chose the opportunity that fit the best. This took me to Alaska to develop software, and opened up so many career opportunities.

   How is all this relevant to my job today? Up until the past year, I've made choices - the choice to leave my last job, the choice to hold out for the right opportunity, the choice to transition from systems to software engineering. Even at Uber, I've been able to choose what projects and what teams I've worked on. Until the past year.. changes in company management mean I no longer have the flexibility to choose what I want to work on. I'm starting to feel like I no longer have control over my career path.