Introduction

After several years of working in roles outside of software engineering, I’ve decided to transition back to what initially inspired me—creating software solutions. Here’s why.

A bit about me

Education: 3 years at University of Central Florida, another 2 at Florida International University (B.S. Computer Science).
Experience: QA Intern, DSA Tutor, Business Intelligence Developer, Technical Business Analyst, Senior Technical Business Analyst

Where I started

My interest in technology began early, back in my freshman year of high school when I took a web development course. It introduced me to the basics of web design—nesting DOM elements and applying styles—but what really fascinated me was the power of reusability. I loved how I could make a single change to an attribute and see it reflected across multiple elements.

This was the only computer-related course offered by my curriculum up until senior year when AP Computer Science was introduced. I enrolled, and within a month, I knew I would be majoring in Computer Science.

I enrolled at the University of Central Florida, seeing that they were reputable in the field. I did most of my undergraduate there, then finished at Florida International University. The highlight of my studies was the last course in the curriculum, one dedicated to working with a team of 4 (myself included) to deliver incremental features to an existing Forex trading platform. Adapting to a new tech stack (.NET), working in feature branches, and integrating team contributions after merging made software delivery an exciting and rewarding process.

Professional experience

Business Intelligence was rising in demand in the late 2010s, and working with data was a new challenge that I took interest in. As a Business Intelligence Developer at Resia, a local construction/property management company, I gained experience in understanding business processes and delivering solutions using Power BI.

After graduating, I joined Allvue Systems as a Solutions Engineer on the Business Intelligence team. My role involved working with SSRS reports, developing increasingly complex Power BI reports, and writing the underlying SQL powering them.

Two years in, an opportunity opened on Allvue’s cloud data team for a Technical Business Analyst. This role allowed me to make a broader impact - helping refine the requirements for the company’s future data products and collaborating with engineers to ensure that legacy products were migrated to the cloud seamlessly. It also enabled me to continue leveraging SQL for requirement analysis and diving into client-specific needs.

A year later, I transitioned into a leadership role, driving product vision, scoping epics, prioritizing sprint tasks, and managing daily operations for the team. This was an opportunity to gain further experience in software delivery, and I was fortunate to be given it.

By the end of my time at Allvue, we had successfully onboarded 20+ private equity clients to the new platform, with an ARR exceeding $1 million.

Thank you, product management

Working in product management allowed me to see firsthand the impact of the products I helped deliver. Delivering cloud-based data products was challenging—especially in a market where 200+ private equity clients relied on thousands of reports that needed to work flawlessly post-migration. This experience underscored how much I value delivering solutions that directly improve people’s workflows.

Product management has been an invaluable chapter in my career.

Hello, SWE

Over the past year, I came to realize that my most fulfilling work happens in engineering. As rewarding as it was to see clients using the products I helped deliver as a PM, I realized that my strengths lie within the realm of engineering. This is where I can make the most impact throughout my career.

The process of exploration, design, implementation, and delivery excites me the most. I thrive in the exploration phase—learning new programming languages, design patterns, frameworks, and optimization techniques. What drives me is applying these skills to build products that people find valuable and want to use.

There’s also the emergence of AI - the future of engineering is open to a level of exponentiation that is just beginning.

I’m currently revisiting fundamental software engineering concepts, and building a portfolio to explore different domains. I’m curious about dev tools and the potential for making my own contributions in the area. Just last week, Typescript was ported to Go, leading to drastic performance gains in code editors and 10x faster build times. Where else can the limits of technology be pushed further?

I look forward to growing as an engineer every day and to the moment when people are using my contributions to enhance their lives.