Slynk Adink
Jul 10, 2017 · 2 min read

It's crazy how this is very similar to my story. I started programming when I was 12 in an effort to make my own video games. I taught myself C++ when I was a freshman in high school. I tutored programming courses at my community college. Eventually decided it was time to move on to a 4 year university.

It sucked. There were some non computer science courses I enjoyed but the comp sci courses were sooooo boring. On top of this I was extremely stressed financially, due to having my own apartment and no job. I became depressed and stopped showing up to class. I would just hunker up in my room and program. I reversed my sleeping schedule several times. I even put up an extra thick comforter over the window so I could block out the light from midday when I wanted to sleep.

I eventually was kicked out of college for not showing up, and evicted from my apartment for not being able to pay rent. Moved back to my home town and resumed community college. One semester in I realized I'm ready to enter the work force. So I blast my info out to recruiters until I got a job interview. It was a small startup that paid crap, but I wanted the experience. It was for Android development, something I was familiar with due to writing my own game engine that year. My OpenGL experience ended up helping me when, during the interview, they asked me how I would recreate Instagram's photo filters. Glsl shaders!

Anyway, doubled my crappy salary before I left 3 years later. The next job put me above market average and then above $100k usd a year later. Now I'm one of the three developers on our company's innovation team; responsible for leading up our new product initiatives including machine learning, voice services, as well as my duties as Lead Android developer. ^^

    Slynk Adink

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