From Psychotherapy to Coding — How I Transitioned to a Career in STEM

“How on earth did you transition from being a psychotherapist to a software engineer?”

This is a question I get often and I love telling people about this process! I am Eve Denison, a Software Engineer here at Ethos, and I am so excited to talk to you about this transition. I want to give you some background on me before we dive into how I made this big career change.

I grew up in the Southwest, with most of my time spent in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Both of my parents were artists, so, needless to say, I didn’t have any inclination that I would someday be pursuing a career in coding! I first set my sights on a career in art.

As many of us are familiar, our plans can change drastically sometimes! When I was a teenager I started to struggle quite a bit, and spent time in some settings that illuminated how desperately young people needed competent and safe service providers. I was able to conquer the difficulties I was experiencing and fell back in love with art.

I worked diligently to get into art school for my remaining years of high school. Faced with the “what am I going to do with my life” question in my senior year I reflected on whether or not I wanted to pursue a career in the arts. I felt determined to maintain my passion for art, but knew I didn’t want it to become a source of stress. Motivated by this idea and inspired by my own experiences during my adolescence, I began to see a career in psychotherapy as a sensible path.

I went on to get a bachelor’s degree in Counseling Psychology with a breadth in Interdisciplinary Arts, followed by a master’s degree in Clinical Social Work. I was moved by the incredible examples of human resilience I saw in addiction and trauma patients, which prompted me to specialize my work to focus on addiction and complex and severe trauma treatment. I loved what I was doing and got to have so many amazing experiences as a psychotherapist.

Near the end, I was working as a Clinical Director of an intensive outpatient program, running group therapy sessions, and conducting individual therapy. I continued to love what I was doing but the content of my work was heavy. Eventually, I felt like I had accomplished what I set out to do in the industry and determined I needed to make a change. Enter: Coding!

Coding was never discussed as a career option when I was younger and there was not a lot of encouragement offered to women and girls about entering STEM fields. As a result, I never considered it as a possibility early on. I didn’t even know what code looked like before I decided to make the jump!

I knew someone who went through Code Fellows, a wonderful coding bootcamp here in Seattle. He didn’t have a background in coding and ended up creating a really nice life for himself doing this for a living. My decision to do this was so big but the realization that I wanted to try it came simply while having coffee with a friend. If he could do this, why couldn’t I?

I went home and started researching this as a career and began a Javascript tutorial shortly after. I built a web page with a picture of a dog and a few random facts about dogs, truly groundbreaking work! Although this wasn’t an epic creation, it felt epic that I did this thing I never envisioned I could.

Within a few months, I signed up to go to Code Fellows and began planning this huge life transition, including walking away from being a psychotherapist, and moving to Seattle! Initially, many people struggled to see how art and psychotherapy could work together with coding. Understandably, they seem so different! However, having an eye for design and a deep understanding of the human psyche could be incredibly valuable skills in this industry.

In fact, before I had even completed my advanced iOS course, I was given my first job opportunity, with a company that was interested in my background in art and was intrigued by my knowledge of psychotherapy.

My time at Code Fellows was wonderful and challenging. There were plenty of moments where I questioned if I was making the right choice or if I had made a mistake. However, I pushed through those feelings, recognizing how these doubts were an inherent part of changing careers. I was so fortunate to have the support of the school and got to get my feet wet through various classes and coding projects.

That first job was really hard because it was all so new and I was going from being at the top of my industry to the bottom of a new one. I danced with “imposter syndrome” my fair share of times but learned that is part of this process and even the most seasoned engineers experience it. My second job gave me an opportunity to grow my skills and benefit from a lot of strong mentorship.

As time went on, I continued to see how my eclectic background was an asset to this industry, that at one time I never believed I could be part of. Now, I get to enjoy my new role at Ethos and bring this wonderful and unusual skill set to this amazing product. I am so excited about being part of such an incredible company, and having the opportunity to grow with an important product. I can’t wait to see what can be accomplished here and I am so glad that I decided to become a software engineer.

Eve Denison joined Ethos in January 2022 as a Software Engineer. When Eve isn’t coding new products or maintaining existing ones at Ethos, she enjoys dancing, drawing, and adventuring with her dog, Tito. Interested in joining Eve’s team? Learn more about our career opportunities here.