Career Changes — The North Sprint Review with Brandon-Lee
In this edition of the North Sprint Review, we’ll talk about making decisions about career changes, taking big steps, and what it takes if you want to write code that sends rockets to space, with one of our awesome North members — Brandon-Lee.
“It became very apparent to me that I was not meant to be a lawyer.”
David: Could you introduce yourself? What’s your background? What do you do?
Brandon-Lee: My name is Brandon-Lee, I am a software developer from Johannesburg, South Africa. I specialize in building react applications.
David: When did you get interested in computers and programming?
Brandon-Lee: I began my journey into programming almost 5 years ago when I enrolled in a diploma in software development. I had never coded before and I didn’t have a computer growing up, in fact, I didn’t live in a house with an internet connection until I was in my twenties. So it really was a gamble for me, I had no idea whether I had the aptitude for it or if I would even enjoy it.
David: Did you always intend to be a programmer?
Brandon-Lee: Programming was never on my radar. It never occurred to me as something that you could do for a living. I studied 3 years of a law degree and dropped out for the sake of my own sanity — it became very apparent to me that I was not meant to be a lawyer.
David: What do you think you would have done instead?
Brandon-Lee: It’s really difficult to say what I would have done instead, I guess that an easy answer would be a musician. I love music and I still play in bands and am working to release an album but I ultimately I really can’t see myself doing anything else as a career.
David: What was your first computer?
Brandon-Lee: I got my first computer when I was 19. It was this Lenovo I7 IdeaPad, one of those laptops with an almost 360-degree hinge and a touchscreen. My parents bought it for me as a gift to help me complete assignments for my law degree. I mostly used it to play open-world survival games and produce music in my bedroom.
David: Do you remember the first program you wrote? What about the first professional program you wrote?
Brandon-Lee: The first program I wrote was a body mass index calculator in java that ran in the command line. It was amazing, I made my whole family use it and I was so incredibly proud of my little program. When I first started working, I mostly fixed bugs and did maintenance on existing programs. Predominantly ERP systems, CRMs, and stuff like that. The first commercial program that I wrote which actually got released was three years into my career. It was a progressive web app whose intended purpose was to act as an alternative to SMS communication with consumers. It would have specials and other marketing nonsense and would communicate to consumers via push notifications. It didn’t really do much but I was still unbelievably proud to see something I wrote go out into the world.
David: Can somebody look at one of your programs and tell that you wrote that program?
Brandon-Lee: You could probably tell by a few CSS classes and JS functions that I use in all of my projects.
“If you want to write code that sends rockets to space you’re probably going to need to be able to math pretty hard, but If you’re thinking about starting a career in this industry, know that it is so vast and there are so many different kinds opportunities out there.”
David: What sort of processes do you go through when you design or develop software? Do you think there’s a right way to write code?
Brandon-Lee: I like to visualize the data structures and logic necessary to achieve the desired functionality and then begin writing code immediately. I prefer to get stuck in it and solve problems as I go and in small chunks rather than planning everything out ahead of time.
David: Any tools or languages that you like to use or are excited about?
Brandon-Lee: Every day I get to write a line of JavaScript is a good day. Pair that with React and Tailwind and it's the best workday I could ask for. I also dabble in game development in my spare time and what they’re doing in Unity is always really exciting.
David: What advice do you have for people who want to pursue a career in programming?
Brandon-Lee: You don’t need a computer science degree to be a successful programmer, you also don’t need a PhD in mathematics. I’m terrible at math, and although I have a diploma in software development I was able to find a job in my second semester of studying. I’m not saying that education isn’t worth it, and if you want to write code that sends rockets to space you’re probably going to need to be able to math pretty hard, but If you’re thinking about starting a career in this industry, know that it is so vast and there are so many different kinds opportunities out there.
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