Fork in the Road

(Yeah, today's picture is really lazy.)

A couple of years ago, I met a student who asked me about my job. I told him about it, and he confessed that he wasn't very good at programming, despite being enrolled in a technology-based course, and seemed quite concerned. I shrugged and said that there are all kinds of roles in the technology area, and not all of them involve programming. I asked what he liked, and it sounded like he wanted a project analyst / project manager path. I didn't really know much about what that job was like, but I introduced him to someone from work who had that role, and that was the end.

Or so I thought. A couple of weeks ago, he emails me out of the blue. From an internal email address (internal to the company I work at). It turns out that met up with the person I introduced him to, ended up being in charge of the internship program, and encouraged him to apply (and also apply at other places). She also suggested that maybe project management wasn't really what he wanted to do, and set him on another path instead - one that he really seems to enjoy. He had a couple of internships at other companies where he got to try this other role, is nearly at the end of his internship at the same company as me, and has an offer for a full time role at another large company.

It sounds like he's having a great time, and he's doing a good job, too. He has a great mind for optimisation, and is still really enthusiastic (I didn't have the heart to crush his soul this early).

He said that he wanted to thank me, as he felt like meeting me was what set him on this whole new path.

It actually felt really nice to have someone come back and say that to me. To be honest, I had almost forgotten about him (I used to see some of his posts on Facebook before I stopped using it). I'm glad he has found something that he loves doing, and he seems a lot more accepting of the fact that he'll never be a great programmer, but that doesn't matter, because there are other things he's amazing at.