Developer Origin: Starting a Journey to Last a Lifetime
So my path to becoming a developer is not one of hardship or diversity.
So you may be thinking, “Why write about it then?”
I find it valuable to understand someone’s background to fully understand how/what have made them into who they are today.
So let’s begin!
It started with a presentation in my junior high school gym. I was in 8th grade. A group of the high school students had come to tell us about a program, Tech Academy(TA), offered at out local high school which put students into a tech-driven track. To this point, I had only used my family computer for Warcraft 3 and Runescape, but I was instantly hooked.
The requirements for TA were simple: purchased Dell laptop and qualify as an accelerated student. I came from a low-income home and buying a laptop was a huge deal. The summer before my freshman year, I worked as a janitor at the high school to ensure I would be able to get into the program. 80 hours later, I was able to pay off the laptop. 🎉
Tech Academy focus was on leveraging tech and integrating the core classes of Science, History and English. This meant we did most things on the computer and massive presentations each semester and were required to take typing and office proficiency classes. Needless to say, I know a lot of features of office products I will never use again.
Shout out to Ken Wheeler and the Spectacle project for giving me a reason to never have to open PowerPoint again. 😎
As many things do our laptops would break. Our school had laptop support on site as there were 400+ TA students at a given time. The first time my laptop broke would change how I have looked at a computer ever since.
Joining the Team
The tech department at our school operated out of a corridor in the center of the high school. Walking through the office was astounding as it was the first time I had seen the inside of a computer or any technical operation. I was immediately impressed. Most surprising was that the entire staff were students (except 3 overseeing directors).
As I walked my laptop to the support team, I spotted a familiar face amongst a crowd of four, all staring at one monitor. As my laptop was being worked on, I went back to the crowd for a chat and discovered that this was their web team. The familiar face was their lead developer and was a friend from my church youth group. I was eager to join and was immediately put through a technical interview. I left with a working laptop and my first assignment.
First Steps into a Career
I quickly progressed through the ranks in the WebCrew 🤓 eventually landing the lead position. Along the way I learned a decent amount about HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP. It was a fun time, using a bunch of cowboy languages and running around fixing bugs and writing new features.
Testing in Production FTW!
My work started to be recognized on a local level and landed me a job at GoFLO.com, a local startup focused on discovering and promoting local small businesses. While getting hands on experience, I also learned a few things about business. First, completing an entire assignment while the customer is still describing it makes it difficult to make money. And more importantly, never quit a job through email 😬. (Sorry, Chris!)
This was just the beginning, my eyes were still full of energy and wonder. I was what peak performance looked like. I had a confident swagger and believed that I could land any job I applied for. Little did I know I just started my “Hazard” phase.
This is the first part of a three part series covering my path to becoming a senior developer. Hope you enjoy the ride.
