About Me

I've had a winding path to get to my current job as a full-stack developer, especially since I come from a background in organic chemistry.

I've made this little timeline to summarize my journey, starting with my first CS elective course in college.

• Discovering Programming

  September, 2018

  At my best friend's request, I take an introductory computer science course in Java. I don't think I'll enjoy it (spoilers, I do) since I'm mostly there to hang out with my friends in computer science degrees.

  I write my first "Hello World" program and grow to appreciate computer science. At this point, I declare my degree as Bio-Organic Chemistry and decide to pursue more CS courses as electives.

• Pursuing Chemistry

  May 2019

  I'm accepted into a prestigious pharmaceutical internship at Merck's headquarters in Kennilworth. I pack my bags and move to New Jersey for the summer of 2019.

  Merck's offices in Kennilworth, NJ - my home for the summer of 2019

  I get to work with incredible chemists in Merck's Drug Discovery division, and meet with several professors in New York whose labs I plan on applying to in the fall for PhD programs.

• Deciding Against A PhD

  September 2019

  Having finished my internship at Merck, I come to a crossroads. I feel grateful for my experiences in chemistry, but I can't shake the feeling that I don't want to work in another lab for 5 years, the average length of a PhD program.

  I decide to give myself a year to pursue tech as an alternative and see if I like working as a developer more than as a chemist.

• Going All In On Tech

  October 2019

  I use the rest of my senior year in college (2019-2020) to learn as much as I can about web development and apply to tech jobs.

  I learn the essentials of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, as well as more advanced concepts like software design patterns, unit testing, backend technologies (Spring/Hibernate for Java).

  After several rounds of interviews in the spring of 2020, I get an offer to work as a full-stack developer at Sponsorium, Inc.

• Starting My First Developer Role

  May 2020

  In late spring 2020, I start a full-stack developer role in Montréal, the city where I went to college.

  I may be biased, but I think Montréal is one of the most beautiful and fun cities to exist and I was glad to start my tech career here

  I was hired to help build the new version of my company's software, meaning a modern tech stack (Vue.js and Java) and a completely refreshed UI. Full-stack paradise!

• Moving Forward With Tech And Sharing What I Know

  May 2021

  Once I got the hang of my tech job, I didn't look back. I knew I liked software development more than I did chemistry, and I was thankful I took the leap to try something new.

  Still, going from a hard-science degree to a tech job without any internhip experience was stressful, to say the least. I wanted to share what I discovered from the journey so that other people in a similar situation could know what to expect.

  And so, my developer blog was born.

  

  The name, Happy Healthy Techie, comes from the fact that I also wanted to write about health and fitness (something I will drone on about to no end unless someone stops me).

  Eventually, I decided to go full-blast on tech-related articles to share what it was like landing my first tech job and what I do now as a developer.

• What I'm Up To Now

  June 2022

  I've started a new job at Google Montréal working on WebProtect, a security service offered within the Chrome Enterprise product family. To any developers (or soon-to-be developers) based in Montréal, feel free to reach out! I'm always open to chat :)