aaron_mota

Oh ya, I don't know your outside of work life obviously, but it sounds like you can potentially get a lot of time in to make happen what you want to make happen, then! How long have you been practicing, or how long have you been programming?

I'm an optometrist but I wish I would have become a software engineer (or at least have discovered programming prior to graduating optometry school :/).

I got advanced with Microsoft Excel over the years, then started learning Python in my first clinic after graduation to automate some stuff the front desk was doing every day. Didn't know anything -- what exactly Python was (my friend told me to learn it based on what I wanted to do), what front end or back end were, etc. But I started and quickly fell in love with it (and became a little obsessed). A little over two years later, I'm still programming almost every day, currently building a full stack JS-based web app of my own with modern technologies (T3 stack, MUI design system, etc.). Still loving it as much or possibly more than when I first fell in love with it, as I become more “powerful”, capable, and efficient with experience/knowledge.

I realized that while I always enjoyed learning about biology/science (and actually just anything… math, graphic design, etc. etc.), and even optometry while in school, the actual day-to-day life of a clinician is not very enjoyable for me, or at least not the right fit for me. My mind/sense of satisfaction/etc. is much more suited for programming type work. That reality stressed me out for a while, having “wasted” all of that time and money, but I’ve been learning to handle that while also realizing that I can still make big career changes if I keep working hard to make them happen. I believe in myself enough to be able to make that happen if I put in the work to do so.

I'm in my early 30s, and while I do plan on fulling transitioning to SWE in the near-ish future, having optometry as a default or backup is actually nice. It pays well overall, is decently flexible, and both of those things allow me to currently be part-time while I work on my programming. Not only that, but I now have a unique perspective and experience, and am the "expert" in the optometry niche, so I know where there are good opportunities for new software AND intricacies about how the UX should be for the end user. The app(s) I’m currently working on are optometry-oriented, and having full control over building them feels very rewarding so far.

Main points: if you became a doctor, you can (still) become a SWE. Your time becoming a doctor was highly unlikely to be completely wasteful. My personal perspective/experience. I love programming.