July 5th, 2023 and I am still not the engineer that I want to be. The journey is harder than hard. It's beyond improbable it feels impossible. I got a job offer from Accenture in October 2022 as a Technology Consulting Analyst with total compensation of $93k. They said however it didn't start until next year sometime in May, June, or July (I had an official date in early 2023 that I would start August 7th). However, I then stumbled across the recession and tech layoffs. Unfortunately in late May 2023, I got a call from Accenture wanting to push my start date to March 30th, 2024! They offered to compensate me $25k on top of my original offer contingent on me working for Accenture for a year or I'd have to pay it back. Let's rewind to October 2022. I didn't want to stay at the job I had even though I got that offer from Accenture so I looked into ways to switch to a good-paying position within IT. I didn't have any certificates or any credibility really to be able to work in IT. However, my supervisor was able to email the IT team and ended up getting me in contact with the people in IT and I was able to get a job as a IT End User Support Associate in November 2022. The job is great, but after seeing Accenture push my start date to March 2024 I wanted to double down on my programming to see if I can get a better job offer before then.

I had realized early on during my Endpoint job that I didn't want to pursue security or networking. I had realized quite strongly that programming was for me. I didn't want to build web applications however I want to build complex applications and work on difficult thought-provoking projects in the industry. I know that security and networking are great for development and job-acquiring aspects. With my long history of self-studying and doing my research, I was able to create a concise plan for studying these programming concepts. I used Ali Abdal's google sheets calendar template to plan for myself. I'll share it below. In March 2023 I used it to study until Accenture called me regarding my start date push in May 2023. I decided to pay off most of my debt with the 25k. I saved the rest and since I am living with family I don't have too many monthly bills. So I calculated how much I had left over and saw that I could live off the rest of the money for the next few months. At this point, it is July 2023. I have from July 2023 to March 2024 to learn the material, build projects, get certs and get the job. In my original plan before the Accenture start day push, I was anticipating a job acquired by the end of December 2023. However, I am hoping with this exit from my current job as Endpoint Support I can double down on this. I don't recommend to try to study programming in 3 months but in this case, I have been programming for 2 years on and off also I have experience within IT and I have grown into a person who can study hard after a difficult day of work. I do hope this new plan works, one thing I've learned is that 'the process will most likely be harder than you originally predicted'. I am a bit nervous because I can't afford (literally) for this not to work. It's a lot of gambling I am doing especially during a time when tech layoffs are still going on and there are hiring freezes. I've seen online that people haven't been able to get jobs for months. I am only hoping that if things don't work out I still have an Accenture position waiting for me at the end of the road. If I am smart with my Finances I shouldn't run out of money before then. I am planning to study like it's my full-time job. My current boss warned me that going back to work is harder than 'when you stop school is hard to go back.' I understand his advice I do think it's a concern but I don't believe the person in my situation who already studies during and after work needs to worry about this too much. There are a lot of loose factors in my plan, but I think there's a heavy amount of pressure on me to be able to put in the work necessary.

Since I learned a lot about myself; how I work, how long I can study, what I need to work on, what I should focus on, types of projects I should do. I think I have a very solid plan, but it depends on me being committed to it for the next 3 months. Can I do it? We shall see