Why am I attending Fullstack Academy?

I’ve always loved to code, I enjoy making things that people actually use, and my most satisfying experiences have been deeply rooted in collaboration. It’s time to weave my passions together into a career.

I began programming as a kid. I loved to spend hours hacking away, learning how to make interesting things happen on my computer screen. I used code as a way to explore probabilities for the games I played with my friends. I wrote a fully functional, text-based emulation of the board game Risk, but one with a more rational and complete world map. And I teamed up once with my mother to create a tutorial (written in BASIC) to teach her nursing students the fractional math needed to do IV calculations.

So, the obvious question is, “Why didn’t this lead directly to a career in software?” When I entered college, I got interested in artistic pursuits, first film making and then acting. And for many years, I’ve pursued a life in the theater. It’s been an an exhilarating journey, with many ups and downs, but what I really crave is the kind of experience that very few performing artists enjoy on a regular basis: consistent work, creating professional, polished projects that lots of people enjoy.

Along the way, I’ve continued to dabble in code. For a while I got pretty deep into using mysql and php to create websites for various shows and theater companies. A few years back, a friend convinced me to learn ruby on rails, and I’ve created several sites using ruby as well.

But I never quite attained the level that made me feel confident to pursue development jobs. I thought software developers were people with CS degrees and years of experience that I did not have. My resume was filled with jobs at theaters and with small companies I created. And yet, it was something I still did well. I wished that I could jump into development without returning to school to get a masters degree in CS.

Had I known about software engineering immersives like the one at Fullstack Academy years ago, I likely would have done one then. But I didn’t hear about them until this year. It took a while for the idea to percolate, but a few months ago it popped into my head as the obvious next step in my evolution. A career in software development would allow me to use my broad understanding of code. I’d have the opportunity to create things that people actually use, perhaps something that thousands or millions might use on a daily basis. And I should be able to find a place where I can collaborate daily with creative and sharp people who challenge me to do my best work.

I hope my experience at Fullstack is the bridge to that new career. I expect to be challenged and pushed to take my code to the next level. And to be ready to jump in as a junior developer. Or maybe, I just might meet a few collaborators in the program and we could form a company of our own. We’ll see.