Katelyn Ortiz (16) is a PLNU Computer Science B.A. and Computational Science minor graduate who is now living out her purpose in San Francisco as a senior Staff Software Engineer for Palo Alto Networks. Although it took time in order to achieve her ideal job, Ortiz persevered through the obstacles thrown her way and ended up exactly where she was meant to be.
Ortiz grew up in Southern California in the San Fernando Valley. She did not know much about computer science until high school when she took a computer science class. This class ended up completely changing Ortiz’s career plans.
“It was kind of rewarding, knowing that this might be a good fit for me and finding something that clicked in my brain,” Ortiz said. “And so that is when I decided to study it in college.”
Ortiz discovered PLNU through a church that she attended. During one of the youth group services, Ortiz heard about a camp that was going on at PLNU and decided to go. She instantly fell in love with the beauty of Loma and knew she wanted to attend from that moment on.
Like for many other students, college was a tough transition for Ortiz. Growing up, she was always involved with competitive basketball teams, giving her day to day life a strict structure. Once she got to college and was not playing basketball anymore, managing her schedule felt different. Ortiz described that although her major was very challenging, the transition to independence was sometimes more difficult.
Nevertheless, Ortiz found a community that supported her throughout all the ups and downs of college. Her professors were very encouraging, especially as graduation got closer and closer.
“I think having people around you that were striving to do their best was helpful because you can study with them and work together,” Ortiz said. “Having teachers that were really encouraging was super helpful.”
During her time at PLNU, Ortiz had the opportunity to go on a mission trip with Loveworks to Croatia, something that she felt she would not have had the opportunity to do if she studied elsewhere. Being able to learn about different cultures and faiths outside of her own was one of the highlights of her college experience. The trip challenged her to be more comfortable with sharing her faith experience and listening to other people.
Ortiz also had a job on campus while she was in school; she worked as an event staff member, working at different school events and sports games. Her boss, Steve Riddle, and the relationship they built was one of the highlights of her college experience.
After graduating in 2016, it was difficult for Ortiz to go directly into the field that she wanted to. She was having a hard time getting interviews and did not become a software engineer until 2021. Ortiz did have an internship as a school IT technician, but it was not the caliber of internship that would have gotten her foot farther in the door initially.
Ortiz interviewed and received a job offer from a company in San Francisco called IT Audit, but she was still not doing the job she thought she would be doing. Nevertheless, Ortiz would not have met her husband if she did not work there.
“My story really shows that when you don’t think things are working out, the Lord has reasons why you go through different struggles.”
“My story really shows that when you don’t think things are working out, the Lord has reasons why you go through different struggles,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz did enjoy the IT Audit job, but she decided to quit her job in order to start studying for interviews so that she could eventually be interviewed for the software engineering job she was really passionate about. She made engineering friends through her job that were able to offer her advice and give her tips for different things she needed to know going into interviews. These interviews are very intensive because the interviewers give coding questions and you have to solve and explain them, something that Ortiz was not expecting.
Eventually, Ortiz landed a job at a cybersecurity startup as a data analyst, which was one step closer to where she really wanted to be. She was in this position for about a year and a half, but at the year mark, she started praying about her situation and if this was really the job for her. After completely giving it up to God, everything started falling into place. The Vice President of the startup connected her with an engineering mentor who helped her shift teams within the company to an engineering position.
“I really enjoy my job now a lot,” Ortiz said. “How everything is structured is really how my brain works. It was really hard to get here, but I got so much experience and met my husband. It all, thankfully, worked out really well in the end.”
Right after Ortiz shifted teams in the company, the startup was bought by a major global cybersecurity company called Palo Alto Networks. Ortiz just recently transitioned to a different team, called the “internal platform team.” On this team, Ortiz helps with collecting and managing public IP domains. This data gives their customers more insight into what they own on the internet and how they should be protecting their more vulnerable assets.
Becoming a computer science engineer is not an easy task, and it was not a linear journey for Ortiz. She encourages current computer science majors to make as many connections as they can and not be afraid to reach out to people in the field that they are interested in. There are things that are crucial to know about interviews that Oritz wishes she knew after graduation.
“It is hard to get engineering jobs right now, so if you find a company, even if it is small and not exactly what you want, they will support you to transition to different teams within the company,” Ortiz said. “You will learn a lot on the job, but don’t hesitate to reach out to people for advice.”
