My transition into the world of tech was an accidental one. I graduated from university in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in special education but with my desire to teach in the classroom snuffed out. Simultaneously overqualified (because of my master’s degree) and underqualified (because I had no work experience, especially in anything that didn’t have to do with teaching kids), I made my way to New York City and began looking for a job. It took half a year and hundreds of résumés, but I managed to land a job as an IT helpdesk engineer (I applied to be their in-house recruiter). While I had never envisioned a career in tech for myself, I suddenly found myself surrounded by computers, servers, printers, and frantic phone calls from coworkers that all required my attention.
A few years later, I began my exploration into Amazon Web Services and was immediately stuck. I had promised my manager at the time that I was going to take the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam, but two weeks prior to the exam date I was no closer to understanding even what AWS was than I was before I begun studying.