Dungeons and Difference
Of Catalysis and Change
I was reminded that I have a blog, and so I read through its few posts—the first of which I just missed the two-year anniversary of—and chuckled at how some of the facts, as well as the ways I thought of myself, have changed.
So, first of all, I am not a computer scientist, developer, coder, data scientist, machine learning engineer, etc. I’m actually a chemist.
Not quite true anymore, thanks to the work detailed in this post. A few days after presenting the linked project, I was approached by my department manager and was told he had arranged for me to meet with the head of our engineering department’s automation/analytics group about a job. By the end of November, I was splitting my time with that group, and by April of this year, I was promoted to a technical software engineer position.
Rolling the Dice
I can’t say this wasn’t the intended result. I was responsible for running our distillation lab operations, which, in a way, had been quite insular. The job stressed me out. I had a manager who challenged me in ways both good and bad, so I took some calculated risks.
After falling under the spell of embedded electronics, I had given two similar presentations prior to the previously referenced project. During that time, I was also writing more robust VBA applications (laugh if you must) to help manage my lab’s workflows. Luckily, my gambit paid off, even if it was faster than I had originally anticipated. In a sort of exit interview with my immediate supervisor, I was almost brought to tears because I was recognized for transforming the culture of the lab and actually building a team.
Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire
Despite taking risks and putting myself out there, I was suddenly stricken with my first real case of imposter syndrome. I was changing careers after a decade, with a family to support, based on a hunch that this newfound hobby would stick? I felt comfortable enough to express this concern to my new boss, and he immediately put me at ease. The truth is—perhaps for better or worse—my new group isn’t filled with traditional software developers. Until my arrival, they had all been chemical engineers who happened to write and maintain fit-for-purpose applications.
The good news: I had domain expertise in my first assignment and was able to meet expectations. Without going into specifics, I delivered high-impact work to important stakeholders with minimal effort. Many of my former colleagues in lab operations are now my user base!
The bad news: a week after my official promotion, we were informed that our site would be shut down and all research would be co-located with corporate headquarters. Ultimately, that’s a move I’m not willing to subject my family to. On the other hand, I feel very vulnerable having changed careers after 10+ doing something entirely different.
Which Way, Western Man?
I honestly can say I do not want to go back to lab work. The work I do now feels more natural and doesn’t induce the stress that physical lab work did. For example, I had an issue I was trying to solve, and I went home empty-handed, but when I sat down on the couch, I had an epiphany and solved the problem. With lab work, I would go home unable to address the increasing backlog of distillations or testing.
On the other hand, I might only be able to squeeze a total of two years out of my new position. I have to assume that a career change at a Fortune 500 company lends me some credibility, as opposed to getting a fancy new title at a mom-and-pop shop. The uncertainty is an opportunity for me to make my mark by modernizing the codebase I inherited, so that whoever takes over after me will have an easier time maintaining and extending it.
That’s where I’m at today. It’s been a strange journey: starting off by playing with Jupyter/Colaboratory notebooks being passed around, to programming microcontrollers, to becoming a software engineer.