I’m sharing my journey into tech because I’m hoping it can help someone else on their path. I clearly remember how other people’s stories inspired me to take the first step, and if I can impact even one person’s life this post was worth writing. It took a combination of hard work, luck, and a good deal of privilege to get to where I am today, but I would put in the effort 100x over.
The Before Times
It was a cold, midwestern winter in 2017 and I had reached a crossroads. Traditional education was decidedly not for me, and I had relegated myself to working a construction job that left me unfulfilled. I was 25 years old, living with my parents, and making poor choices. I had become complacent with my dead-end lifestyle, but in the back of my mind was a voice telling me I was capable of so much more. Desperately looking for a way out, I started exploring my options. Society had conditioned me to think that, without a degree, I was destined to a blue-collar existence living in the rural midwest. Well, fortunately for me (and countless others), society was wrong! Coding was my ticket out! After having conversations with several others that came from a similar background as myself who were now full-time software developers I made the commitment to myself that this was the path I would take.
Many successful software developers are completely self-taught, but I know myself and I knew I would need more structure than I’d be able to give myself. To succeed in this transition I knew I needed to make some grand gesture to reinforce the importance of this decision. This culminated in me making the decision to uproot my life, moving to Denver to attend Turing School of Software and Design. I applied to the program in the holiday season of 2017. I had read about how difficult the program was, and was incredibly nervous I wouldn’t get accepted. I can remember the day I interviewed like it was yesterday. I had a video call with one of the instructors. The wifi at my house was spotty, so a friend graciously let me do the interview at their place. After a series of logic puzzles and behavioral questions, I was still left unsure if I was going to be accepted. A few weeks later I received the news, I had been accepted and would be starting in the 1806 cohort! I was the most excited I’ve been for anything in a very long time. I started saving every dollar in anticipation of this new chapter. I was also practicing coding in my spare time, trying to put in an hour or two every day. In the meantime, I recruited one of my best friends who was having similar feelings as me to accompany me on this journey west.
Journey to the West
In May 2018, my best friend and I moved to Denver to start our new chapter. I spent the month before class started living it up, exploring all the beauty Colorado has to offer and settling into my new home. This period was invigorating and set me up to start strong at Turing.
Cue June 2018 and it was time to start at Turing. Turing is a 7-month program that aims to turn driven students into professional developers. The curriculum was broken up into four 6-week modules, with a one week break in between. I can say without a doubt this was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. 50-60+ hour weeks were the norm during my time here, and it was not uncommon for students to have to repeat a module. To illustrate this point, I graduated alongside 15 of the original 32 cohort mates I had when I started. Many graduated after repeating a module or two, but many dropped the program. During my time here I learned ruby, rails, javascript, object-oriented programming, databases, algorithms, data structures, how the web works, the list goes on and on. But most importantly I learned to love the process of learning. Yes, I know how corny this sounds, but it’s true and was, in my opinion, the most important take away from the program.
Post Turing
After graduating in January of 2019, it was time to start the notorious job hunt. Thankfully, Turing did a great job of setting expectations and giving me the resources to be successful. I practiced whiteboarding, behavioral questions, technical problems, and the likes. The average job hunt for a Turing graduate at the time was 74 days. I was fortunate enough to accept an offer at KITE and start my job just 30 days after graduation. Here I spent the next year and a half working on very cool problems.
The learning didn’t stop here though, while a boot camp sets you up with a solid foundation you need to continue learning if you want to be competitive and move up in this field. With my newfound love of learning, I’ve continued to fill in the gaps in my knowledge, learning operating systems, networking, cloud development, and lower-level details of computing.
Today
Fast forward to today and I’ve just recently accepted a position at Homebot. My new role involves a lot more infrastructure and security-focused work which I’m extremely excited about and will make me an even more well-rounded developer. All in all this journey has been eye-opening to the fact that there truly are multiple paths to success in life. If you have the patience and commitment to learning the skills, there is a place in tech for you too. If you are questioning your abilities or whether this path is truly for you, please reach out and I would love to answer any questions you may have. Thank you for taking the time to read my story.