Developing a Career in the NBA

Amid the roar of thousands of NBA fans, Alex (In Su) Chang and countless other software engineers are quietly working behind the scenes to give their teams a better chance at winning the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy at the end of the NBA season. 

Chang, a Computer Science Post-Baccalaureate student, is currently a software engineering intern for the Oklahoma City Thunder, a position he hopes will transition into a full-time web development role with the Thunder or another sports organization.

But despite what his current coveted position might say about his career pathway, Chang wasn’t always courtside. 

“Pretty early on I decided that I wanted to pursue a career that would be fast-paced and challenging,” said Chang. “When you're a finance major, the default career is to go into investment banking.” 

After earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a focus in finance from CU Boulder, Chang worked as an investment banking analyst in San Francisco, a role that initially excited him but quickly led to burnout. 

“Investment banking can be stimulating work, but the day-to-day is your stereotypical idea of a finance job. You’re monitoring your email, your Slack or your Teams, 24/7,” said Chang. “I wouldn't say I hated the work. I loved analyzing companies and doing financial modeling, but doing that for 80 hours a week wasn't in the cards.”

Taking time to reflect on his career, Chang ultimately made the decision to leave finance entirely. Now at a crossroads, Chang discovered that he was still intrigued by software engineering—an interest he initially developed in high school. Further motivated by his peers, Chang began seriously considering the switch.

“I was fortunate enough to have done investment banking in San Francisco because I got a lot of exposure to local tech companies in the Bay Area and in Silicon Valley. I also met a lot of people through friends who were software engineers working at different companies,” said Chang.

Fueled by his support network to pursue software engineering as a career, Chang initially planned to pursue a self-taught route, but instead found the Computer Science Post-Baccalaureate program at CU Boulder, enrolling in summer 2024. 

“I knew that I had to have some sort of accountability in pursuing a career switch. For me having the structure of the program helped a lot and it gave me exposure to certain things that I wouldn't have done on my own,” said Chang. “I wouldn't have known anything about operating systems, coded in C and C++ as much as I did and I wouldn't have done a deep dive into data structures and algorithms. I think the pitfall with teaching yourself is you focus on the skills that give the most ROI, so it's easy to miss a lot of the depth.” 

While Chang touts the technical skills he has gained as one of the primary benefits of the Computer Science Post-Baccalaureate, he ultimately chose the program as a means to obtain an internship—highlighting CSPB 3112: Professional Development in Computer Science as being particularly influential. 

“The professional development course definitely gets you the most prepared to work in the real world because it involves working in a group setting on a project—something everyone does in their first job,” said Chang. “I regret not taking the course sooner.”

Drawing closer to the end of his degree program, Chang searched job boards for internships, eventually finding an opportunity with the Oklahoma City Thunder where he was able to emphasize the skills obtained throughout his coursework and his portfolio of projects to win the role.

In his software engineering internship with the Thunder’s data science team, Chang is partially responsible for an internal analytics dashboard that combines basketball statistics and other key data points for use by staff, scouts and front office personnel. His work primarily involves improving the utility of the dashboard, cleaning up existing assets and adding new features to make it easier for staff to find and request the information they need. 

While Chang enjoys that his current role aligns his passion for software engineering and sports, he is unsure where he will end up in the long run. However, he is confident that he made the right decision in leaving his investment banking job to pursue a software development role. 

“I'm just an intern as of now, but having this opportunity is something that I probably wouldn't have had if I had just stayed in finance,” said Chang. “I have the ability to choose my own path, whether that is working for a fast-paced startup, a large corporation or a sports team. I get to make those sorts of choices as a software engineer.”

Regardless of what’s ahead, Chang is contributing to the game he once only experienced as a fan.

“Sports was always something that I've always been passionate about, but I never imagined that I'd be able to work for a sports team,” said Chang. “I'm grateful that I was able to get my foot in the door through the work that I've done in this program so far.”