【From Software Engineer to Career Consultant】
In my first career, within the high-tech industry spanning over a decade, I made major career pivots at least three times. Afterward, I stayed home to focus on raising my child for a few years, then returned to school for a few more years, and eventually started my own business working as an organizational consultant and coach.
Looking back, it has truly been a colorful journey. To be honest, the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows along the way are definitely not as simple as outsiders might imagine. I only hope that these real-life experiences of mine can bring unique inspiration to people with different identities, in different stages of life, and in different workplaces.
Part 1: Silicon Valley New Elite
My career as a software engineer actually began in Taiwan. Because I returned to Taiwan right after getting my master’s degree in E.E. from UT Austin, and my first job was in the Hsinchu Science & Technology Park as a software development engineer. Two years later, due to personal reasons, I relocated to Silicon Valley, California.
From 1998 to 2008, I spent a total of ten years at Cisco in Silicon Valley (San Jose), California. These ten years can be divided into three phases.
During the first phase, I worked as a software engineer, primarily coding for network system equipment. I stayed in this role for about five years.
While working as a software engineer, I always felt I was somewhat different from those engineers who truly loved this work. Although my performance was fine and I got along well with my boss and colleagues, I found myself constantly looking forward to vacations. Planning where to travel for my annual leave seemed to become the thing I anticipated most. And every time I came back from a vacation, I would feel unmotivated again. Being not even 30 years old yet, I shouldn’t be experiencing professional burnout so quickly, right? I couldn’t help but ask myself: Do I not like my job? Am I not getting the sense of satisfaction I crave from my work? So, what gives me a true sense of achievement? Where am I going to find it?
At that time, entering the new millennium, Silicon Valley at the dawn of the new century saw a rapid springing up of numerous startups. Business opportunities were everywhere, and the future of Silicon Valley looked incredibly bright. Cisco, a new company growing at a multiple-fold rate every year, was a constant winner in the stock market. All employees and investors made buckets of money because of it.
Meanwhile, at 29, I was starting to seriously consider my career path for the next 30 years.
Today, over two decades later, when I look back, I finally understand why, while everyone around me was content with their jobs or happily making money, I felt like there was a hole in my heart, constantly wondering where I would be in 10 or even 20 years. It turns out that as an INFJ, my expectation for work is to be driven by inner passion. Since career is something that I’m spending so much time in life, it’s important for me to make sure it’s something that will align with my passion, and realize my self-worth by using the best of my strengths.
I noticed that whenever I went out for lunch with my colleagues and listened to them enthusiastically discussing the technologies and the stock market that excited them, I had little interest. What I was thinking was that I couldn’t imagine myself at 40 or even 50 still sitting in front of a computer writing code every day. I was very certain that I did not want to waste my life doing a job that I already knew would not bring me fulfillment.
So, I started actively searching for other opportunities within the company. Because Cisco was a large enterprise, there was a vast array of departments and roles. Within the same business unit I was in, something relevant to my work that I was relatively familiar with and could immediately apply to transfer to was a Technical Marketing Engineer. Although the title still had “engineer” in it, I wouldn’t have to sit in front of a computer writing code every day. Besides being able to set up the entire system in the lab, a larger part of the job involved understanding market needs, giving technical presentations to clients and the sales team, and educating them on internal technical issues of the products. Being able to interact more with people and learn new knowledge from different perspectives—these two points alone had already helped me take the first step out of the monotonous job of a programmer.
Compared to a software engineer who is responsible for relatively singular tasks, a Technical Marketing Engineer has to look at a broader scope. The group I applied to transfer to at that time wasn’t just a single product, but the top-level systems team for the entire technology line, covering over a dozen products. Every single person in that team was a highly renowned, super impressive architect within the company—the kind of level that made people look up to and admire them. When there was a vacancy in this team, a huge number of people applied, fighting tooth and nail to join the team. I felt incredibly lucky to be selected (and being the only female among all the applicants). Being able to join that team at that time was a matter of pride and honor. For many years later during my time at Cisco, no matter where I went—especially when I moved from software engineering departments into marketing and sales, engaging in higher-level work where the environment immediately became predominantly white and I was often the only Asian—whenever I mentioned my “giant” colleagues from this team, people would instantly look at me with newfound respect: “So you were their colleague,” they would say, immediately giving me looks of reverence.
At the age of 32, I finally left my seven-year career as a software engineer and turned a new page.
<to be continued>
