Kneading a change: From pizza to web development
Hi, I’m Tony! I have always been driven by building things, having an impact, and being part of a team — from my early days of selling pizza at the family business, to my time managing accounts for a marketing agency, to my most recent experience as a head pizza chef.
Yes, pizza chef. Pizza was the family business and I spent my childhood weekends chopping tomatoes and balling dough. I’ve honed my craft for over 20 years and have loved using my hands to create something that delights a customer. I’ve done other things, too — after completing my finance degree I opened and ran a men’s clothing boutique, and I also spent a few years as an account manager. Making pizza was something I returned to, for the satisfaction of building something tangible and being able to see the fruits of my labour every day. It’s hard work that I take pride in, and it has instilled a work ethic that I have taken with me to Juno today.
While I’ll always love pizza (who doesn’t?), I feel like I could make pies in my sleep, and it’s important to me to continuously challenge and improve myself. I started at Juno with the Intro to Web Development course. I was instantly hooked, and I know I’ve only scratched the surface.
My interest in tech isn’t totally new. If you had asked me in high school about what I wanted to do for a career, I would have said building websites (it’s actually in one of my yearbooks!). I loved my first exposure to HTML back then. I was an ESL student, and the rules of math and HTML made more sense to me than English did. I took a different path out of school, but after my first week of bootcamp at Juno, I’m thrilled to have come full circle.
I know that I’m an older student and my path has been squiggly, to say the least. Some people probably think I’m a little nuts to “start over” at this point in my life. I never want to look back and feel like I missed out on opportunities to learn more, do more, and experience things I’m passionate about because I was too comfortable or too scared to try something new. I feel so welcomed and encouraged at Juno that this change is possible, and I can’t wait for what’s next.
P.S. I am firmly pro-pineapples on pizza.
