The Employer Relations team is working with employers to highlight different aspects of their organizations, from applications, to culture, to diversity, and more. We plan to showcase employers from across all career industries throughout the semester, so check back soon for more Employer Insights!
Veeva Systems
At Veeva, we build and implement enterprise cloud technology that powers the biggest names in the life sciences industries. Our customers make vaccines, life-saving medicines, and life-enhancing products that make a difference in everyday lives. At Veeva, we are dedicated to building the careers of new university graduates. We are looking for driven and energetic associates to join one of our four development programs in Engineering, Consulting, Business Consulting, Analytics, or Sales. If you’re interested in avoiding the herd and trying something different, join our diverse group — we’ve got career opportunities for you!
Curious about the field of software engineering but not sure where to begin? Hear from Devin Pontious, Veeva Software Engineer, below. The full blog post can also be viewed here.
How I Became a Software Engineer Without Checking off All The “Boxes”
I never imagined I’d be a software engineer. A teacher? Maybe. Physical therapist? Quite possible. But never a software engineer. In high school, I thought that software engineers were people who spent hours playing video games and started coding when they were 10. I spent my time outside, playing sports and hanging with my friends, and I had never even seen a line code in my life. I didn’t fit into that box, so I didn’t think it was for me. I never even considered it as a possibility.
So I went off to college thinking I was pre-med, but after a few months at UC Berkeley, I realized that I didn’t even know the first thing I had to do in order to be pre-med. Clearly, I was not that passionate about it.
My second year at Cal, I had to take an introductory computer science course as part of my major requirements for Cognitive Science. Everyone dreaded that class, but I was actually pretty excited. I had always loved math, and it seemed like everyone always lumped math and computer science in the same category… even though I only had a vague idea of what computer science was. I not only ended up loving the class but was invited back the next semester to help work office hours and lab sessions.
So okay I enjoyed computer science and I didn’t suck at it — that doesn’t mean I could have an actual career in it, could it? I only got A-’s in my computer science courses and took only one computer science course per semester. Surely if I had as heavy of a course load as a real computer science major, I wouldn’t be doing so well. I made excuse after excuse for myself for why I didn’t belong. For why I wasn’t “really” qualified to be in this industry.
When I was younger, whenever someone would ask me, “what’s your biggest fear?” I would answer, “Graduating college and not knowing what I wanted to do with my life.” So as it became time to apply for jobs, I slowly realized that I would be coming face to face with my biggest fear, and there was nothing I could do about it.
To keep myself sane, I applied for job after job. Everything from product management, to consulting, to neuroscience research, and even the occasional software engineering job IF I met at least 95% of the job requirements.
After countless rejections, coffee chats, mock interviews, and resume reviews, and by some miracle that I attribute to good networking and lots of studying, I finally landed the Associate Software Engineer position at Veeva. This was something I never thought was possible. At Veeva, I never felt ostracized despite my unique background. In fact, I knew more about the life sciences industry than my peers who only had computer science backgrounds. This understanding helped me quickly grasp the business use case behind what we were building and sparked excitement. Sparked my curiosity. Because of my genuine interest in making our product the best that it could be, I asked question after question soaking up all the knowledge that my mentors had to offer.
It would have been easy to follow the path of the familiar. To do something in the healthcare field, like my parents. But I have always been drawn to the uncomfortable, the unfamiliar, the uncharted territory. I’ve found that that’s the only place where you can truly be challenged to grow. I pushed aside my preconceived notions of what someone like me could succeed at and dove into a career where I knew I wasn’t the best. Where I knew I didn’t have the most experience. But with a hunger to learn and a willingness to get outside of my comfort zone, I have grown to be a key contributing member of my team — and almost two years later I’m still loving every second of it.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Veeva.
