I'm a computer science student with a background that doesn't quite follow the usual path — before diving into low-level systems and security, I spent several years studying literature. I'm currently looking for a first professional experience so I can continue my studies toward the French title RCNP Expert en architecture informatique.
Before 42, I spent four years in a Literature program — a Bachelor's degree followed by a year toward a Master in French literature and historical linguistics. My unfinished M1 thesis examined the religious wonder of Benedeit's Voyage de Saint Brendan with the more profane, folkloric Arthurian world of Renaud de Beaujeu's Le Bel Inconnu.
Weighing the realities of pursuing a research career against a shift toward a field with clearer opportunities, I chose to redirect into computer science — a decision I made deliberately rather than by default.
The move turned out to be less of a break than it seemed. Literary and linguistic research trains a specific kind of discipine: tracking down and cross-referencing sources, documenting your reasoning as you go, working long stretches autonomously without external validation, structuring a large body of work over time. Thats the same discipline low-level programming and security research demand — careful comparison of implementations, patient debugging, systematic documentation, sitting with a problem until it's actually understood rather than just patched.
At 42, I built the full common core in C and C++, then moved toward more specialized territory: low-level graphics and redering, cybersecurity, and algorithm-heavy systems work.
Outside of code, I'm drawn to video games, as entertainment and as a medium — the kind of world-building and interactive storytelling neither literature nor film can replicate is something I find genuinely fascinating, and it connects directly to what pulled me toward literary studies in the first place. I read widely, with a soft spot for fantasy and speculative fiction. I climbed for ten years growing up and I'm looking to get back into it.