From Classroom to Codebase: Adriana Mendoza’s Career Transformation Through Penn Engineering’s MCIT (Now MAS-CS)
For professionals considering a transition into technology, the path forward can feel uncertain—especially without a formal background in computer science. Penn Engineering’s online Master of Computer and Information Technology (MCIT Online) program—now evolving into the Master of Applied Science in Computer Science (MAS-CS)—was designed to change that.
After nearly a decade in education, Adriana Mendoza made a bold pivot into software engineering. In the Q&A interview below, Adriana reflects on her journey, her experience in the program, and how MCIT helped her build a new career from the ground up.
What was your professional background before enrolling in the MCIT Online program?
“I had been working in the education sector for about 8 years. Right before enrolling, I was teaching history and humanities in high school and had recently taken on the role of Head of the Humanities Department, which involved leading a team of teachers.”
Adriana’s background reflects a common starting point for MCIT Online students—strong professional experience, but outside of computer science.
What initially sparked your interest in computer science? What were your career change goals?
“I was initially interested in the intersection of education and technology and was looking at ed tech design programs! I wondered though: How do I design an app without knowing what is technically feasible? To begin bridging this knowledge gap, I enrolled in a MOOC on the python programming language. It was exciting to see my first mini-program printing the legendary ‘Hello, world!’ in the console and I was happy deepening a novel set of skills and developing other ways of thinking. From then on, I made up my mind to pursue a technical career and become a software engineer instead.”
That moment of curiosity—paired with hands-on exploration—became the catalyst for a complete career shift.
Why did you choose Penn Engineering Online over other programs?
“One key reason was that Penn Engineering offered a program tailored to students without a computer science undergraduate degree. This was exactly my case! When I decided to change careers, I was looking for a challenge, but I wanted to ensure it was within reach for someone starting from scratch in this field. Penn also has a reputation for academic rigor, so I thought this would be an ideal mix of challenge and support. The flexibility of an online program was an advantage for me too. It allowed me to continue working full-time at home, in Peru, while taking my core classes at Penn.”
The MCIT program’s structure—rigorous yet accessible—continues to define its evolution into the new MAS-CS program.
How would you describe your experience in the MCIT Online program?
“Rewarding and challenging! The program offered a variety of ways to connect with other students through Slack, group projects and during teaching assistant office hours. Teaching assistants were great at helping you work through persistent, mysterious bugs and I learnt a lot from these interactions on how to debug. Similarly, professors also offered office hours weekly. I remember telling Professor Naik that I was not quite understanding one of the modules. He opened up his whiteboard and guided us, with enthusiasm, through the week’s content highlighting the most important connections, bringing us concrete examples and asking us questions to make sure we understood.
Having support from all these people and company from fellow students kept me motivated and focused, especially when the coursework got tough.”
What were some of the most impactful skills or concepts you gained?
“One core skill that I developed in the program was writing readable code! Tips on how to make it readable were shared in the video lectures, but I understood it best when I wrote a long, long convoluted piece of code to parse data for a final project. It mostly worked in the end, but only after spending way too many hours trying to detect where the problem was. Lesson learned: Whenever code starts getting hard to read, it’s a sign I need to refactor to avoid problems down the road.”
Can you share a project, course, or moment that really changed how you think about technology, AI, or problem-solving?
“A really important moment for me was learning to code in a distributed system. How do you get multiple machines to communicate with one another? It pushed me to think about how my code was behaving in each one in order to make the system work together. It was also a project where we had to code an algorithm published in a research paper. This experience made me more aware of the importance of research in driving industry-wide improvements in technology. It illustrated to me how different human actors in the field of technology depend on each other.”
How did the program help you move beyond “learning to code” to thinking like an engineer? Did it help you achieve your career goals?
“The collaborative nature of projects lent itself to promoting an engineering mindset. Through encountering different approaches to solving the same problem, group projects made me realize that technical design was more subjective than I had previously thought. Similarly, as I moved to more advanced coursework, the learning objectives went beyond making the code work. The course on algorithms, for example, was centered on mathematically justifying correctness but also analyzing efficiency.
I appreciated being able to set my own pace through the program, which gave me the opportunity to establish connections across concepts, ultimately strengthening my understanding. This program helped me achieve my goal to change careers. Soon after graduating, I was hired as a software developer!”
Adriana’s experience highlights a key outcome of the program: not just technical fluency, but a true shift in mindset—and a successful transition into the tech industry.
How has the MCIT degree influenced your career path or trajectory? What are you doing now, and how are you applying what you learned in the program? Can you share an example of how you’ve used your skills to solve a real-world problem?
“It completely changed my career path — a 180-degree change from education to software development! I am currently working as a full-stack developer and involved in migrating a codebase to a new language and architecture. I have designed a database and optimized queries using the principles learned in the program. In my work, I also apply different software development practices that I developed throughout the program, such as writing readable code, testing it thoroughly case by case, documenting and explaining my work to colleagues. I’ve used my skills to centralize notification logic into a new microservice, which solved two problems: it ensured reliable performance as user demand grew and made future changes easier for developers.”
How would you describe the value of the MCIT (now MAS-CS) degree to someone considering it today?
“This degree provided me with a structure and a community that kept me focused and committed to the goal of becoming a software engineer. Most of the projects I showcased in my first technical resume came from university coursework. The conceptual breadth and depth in the curriculum also gave me a solid foundation to understand new and unfamiliar systems. I’m finding this very useful in the age of artificial intelligence when knowing what to ask the AI and how to evaluate its responses is key in boosting productivity without sacrificing code quality.
Beyond the transformative intellectual experience of exploring a new discipline, the degree paved the way for me to secure my first role in tech mid-career, and I’m confident it will continue to shape my career trajectory in the future. I look forward to staying connected with the Penn Engineering community!”
As Penn Engineering continues to evolve the MCIT program into the Master of Applied Science in Computer Science (MAS-CS) degree, Adriana’s journey reflects what’s possible: a structured, supported path into computer science—and a meaningful, lasting career transformation.