52 Virtual Cups of Coffee: A Developers Journey for Navigating Uncertainties

I have been trying to work out life's riddle for the past 8 months. After having a conversation with my roommate on how lost and clueless I felt in my job search, she recommended that I read the book 52 Cups of Coffee. The book is about a girl who embarked on an experiment to having 1 cup of coffee each week for a year with someone she wouldn't normally meet.

"Who you are in five years depends on the people you meet and the books you read."

This quote was on the first page of the book. I started pondering on it and realized how much I resonated with it. It's true, you are made up of the people you surround yourself with and the words you consume. Parts of who I am are made up of the inspiring people I've met in my life. My perspective in life has broadened because of the books I've had the opportunity to read.

My background 👩🏽‍💻

I am a Software Engineer looking for my first role in the tech industry! Earlier this year, I saw an opportunity to leave a career path that I was deeply unhappy in to finally pursue Software Engineering. I've been thinking about this path since 2017 when I went to a music festival in New York City and got to experience interactive art, sound systems and robots all created with code. I didn't have the guts to do anything about it then.

In May 2020, I got accepted to General Assembly's Full Stack Software Engineering Immersive Program. Since then, I've been committed to putting my 100% into making this career-transition. And in the future, I'd like to get into robotics and hardware or just something extremely cool with AI and machine learning.

Prior to this, I was working in Events & Digital Marketing and acquired a very heavy client-facing background. This is where I've developed a lot of my soft skills in working with people and being around different personalities. I love people and collaboration so I'll never turn away an opportunity to talk to others.

This Project ☕️

As I was reading "52 Cups of Coffee," I decided that I want to have a (virtual) cup of coffee with someone too and pick their brains about what they're up to in life. I'm inspired by all kinds of people doing all kinds of interesting and cool things, so this wouldn't be restricted to just engineers. I want to get to know entrepreneurs, creators, people who are on untraditional paths to doing amazing things and learn to ask good, insightful questions.

But HOW? We're in a pandemic! How do I message people I want to talk to — who are probably getting other messages from other people — and ask to have a zoom coffee meeting with them? How do I ask without the conversation sounding so transactional? I could use LinkedIn, Twitter, maybe Instagram?

I've absolutely made genuine connections on Twitter. I think the tech community is supportive and wonderful and I learn new things all the time. And I've also had some luck on LinkedIn. But I wanted to branch out and I wanted to have genuine conversations with different kinds of people to gain perspective and navigate my own uncertainties. I decided to join LunchClub.

I have my first video call with a founder of a sparkling wine brand on Friday at 9 a.m. I'm going in with the expectation that I will learn something from the choices he's made in his life and take them along with me on my own journey.

I'm excited, I'm going to jot down questions to ask 🤗 So until next week...we'll see what happens!