My Professional Story
During my time at Turing School of Software & Design, we were tasked with writing our professional story: a dive into where we’ve been, why we changed paths, and where we plan on going. I had a particularly tumultuous set of experiences that led me to where I am now (as most of us did at one point), and felt putting pen to paper to create this story for myself incredibly healing and beneficial. More than that, it strengthened my resolve. I firmly believe, now more than ever, I am going down the path for which I am meant. Below you will find my story. I am sharing it in hopes that it inspires someone to reflect on their own journey, write it down, and find this same strength of resolve I have now found within.
I’ve always loved being a resource for others. Collecting and processing information in a way that allows me to break high level thinking down into consumable chunks for those around me. Being a leader in someone’s development then comes as a natural extension of my propensity to collect information as a resource. After years of developing my own prowess in fitness, I turned that knowledge into a resource, working with dozens of clients to shed several hundred pounds. One client in particular was able to take the road map that I provided him and lose over 100 lbs in a year.
However, there came a point of stagnation in my ability to grow as an individual and in terms of knowledge. This led me to pursue a career as a BMW Client Advisor, again utilizing the aforementioned propensity to lead and guide through information in order to assist people making the 2nd largest purchase, besides their home, they would ever make. This afforded me the opportunity to excel in a new field, and I earned sales MVP over 38 other veteran advisors in my first month on the job. Throughout both of these chapters, I led another life as a competitive bodybuilder. This allowed me to apply my own knowledge towards bettering myself, but also come to love and respect the process behind any end result. This knowledge and love for the process led to me earning one of the most prestigious regional titles in the country: Mr. Rocky Mountain.
My turning point came when, in the span of three weeks, my now fiancee’s mother passed away, followed by myself nearly passing from a heart infection. I needed to break into an industry that afforded the balance I would need to care for myself and for her, while continually expanding my own knowledge in a process-driven, problem-solving environment. Beyond that, I refused to be beaten down by this. I was going to come back better. Enter software engineering. I knew there was no other field expanding at a more rapid rate, and few other fields that were more process-driven or full of opportunities to coach others towards an end solution. As I dove head first into this field, I discovered one thing rose above all of this: a passion for development.
This lead me to my time at Turing, where I harnessed this passion to propel myself to an entirely new level of skill and belief. Turing created the perfect vessel for my strengths to be emulated, and tested. Working with and assisting others, expanding my knowledge, and loving the process required to grow.
Jordan is a current Mod 2 (soon to be Mod 3!) student at Turing School of Software and Design.
