From baking pizzas to building software
By Andrew Elick
Computers have fascinated me ever since I was young. They allow you to play complex games, talk to your friends, and build things that one could never imagine. I first got into programming after watching The Social Network when I was in high school. Seeing how a kid in college could create such a life altering thing in such a short amount of time amazed me and I knew right there I had to learn. I began making websites and created my own social network for my friends and I to use. As time went on I began neglecting coding and eventually went off to college to study finance after thinking that my dreams of software development were beyond my reach. After bouncing around to a few different institutions I found myself working a series of dead end jobs which eventually led me to making pizzas. That’s when I met the group that changed everything, Code Connector.
Code Connector is by far the biggest reason I am working in the technology industry today. The community has shown me that there are regular people out there that do what I’ve always wanted to do. They gave me the confidence to start programming again and that getting a technology job was not exclusive to computer science students. After a few months of writing as many lines of code as I could and attending every meetup in the Memphis area, I was ready to start applying for positions. I had made a few projects and got my resume to a respectable point to which I could have a good chance of getting some interviews. But what helped seal the deal was one of the members who had seen me around told me to apply for a position at his work. One month later I could officially say that I was a professional software developer. Everything that I had worked for finally paid off and I was where I’ve always wanted to be.
What I do from day to day is actually quite simple; I help other developers make sure that they are getting done what they need to. I figure out the problems that they are encountering and try to provide them with a solution they are looking for. Everyday there is a new problem, a technology to learn, and a new question to ask. It can be very challenging at times but I think back to when I was making pizzas day in and day out and realize that I would not have it any other way. The best advice I can give to aspiring software developers is to never give up. Write one more line of code, run that next test, and send that resume out one last time; because you only need one break to change your life forever. And without the help of everyone at Code Connector I would have never believed in myself enough to follow my dreams, let alone achieve them.
