My life 2.0 Part II

Hi boys! Remember that time we were talking about that guy that wanted to be a developer and had a bunch of stuff happen to him? Yeah that guy was me and the boys well, it was only you dear reader, but back then we left that story with the cliffhanger about the princess and stuff and I promised that I would tell you how it all ended. And here it is!

You guys remember surely remember I was looking for a job and I got called from 4 different places, right? Well… Two of them ended up in nothing, one got lost in space and time and one was pretty much a disaster. But that is the fun one.

How so? See, I get called into this company, Virtualmind, and I was blown away. HR guy receives me and shows me these amazing offices with all kinds of branding and everyone I talked to was awesome and they even had a PS4 for anyone to play with. Awesome — I think to myself — and go on to talk to this fella. We hit it off and everything seems to be going smooth until the point he tells me that the CTO is coming to evaluate me. Rock and Roll baby. This guy begins asking me all kinds of advanced questions, probing me to see how much I know about a myriad of technologies. I was aghast. I didn’t know Jack Dong about what he was talking about.

“I’m disappointed, I thought you had a very high level but you only know the basics” — were his exact words. Crash and burn. I had aimed too high dear reader, and I got what I deserved. You always believed in me and I let you down… Do you wanna get some ice cream?

But no, I told you before, I wanted that Hershey’s bar and I was not going to go down without a fight. I told the CTO that though he was right I wanted to be given the benefit of the doubt, I told him that I would learn all these technologies and that I would come back in a couple of months to get this job — or any job, I mean I needed some food in my belly.

I had already made it this far so I knew I could reach higher. The guy sent me off with a test, to see what I was really made of. I got home, opened the test and went pale and almost fainted along with that sensation of something really cold getting a hold of your stomach and hugging it with disdain. I had no idea of how to do it. It asked for a web system that I had not even begun to study. Redbull + coffee time is up! In the course of 3 days I slept some 6 hours. I poured my heart and soul into it like there was no tomorrow, again plunging into countless stack overflow pages and thousand of Google searches.

I ended up stitching together something that resembled a probably-right response. I crossed my fingers and sent it back to HR to the company, even though I knew that the job post was too high level for me, I just wanted some feedback or validation (my father never gave me any you know). And then, I never heard of that company again, ever.

Just kidding! They called me that very same day, with a job offer! Eat it kit-kat I told you that hershey’s was mine!

Om nom nom!

The offer was along the lines of “hey it seems you like learning and working hard, care to do both while we pay you?” and it was awesome. Basically, I was going to start at the bottom with some headroom to do as many courses possible the first couple of months and getting my hands dirty with simple stuff in the company’s projects.

Remember when I told you all that stuff about kids ruling this sector? Well, I was right. Back then I was probably the 3rd oldest member of the company. Oh and my team were two 20 year old kids that knew 20 times more than I did. Even my project leader was younger; I mean c’mon! Yet these kids have been the best thing to happen in my life, as great professionals as I’ve ever seen. I have to confess, I love them with all my heart. They taught me everything they could, answered my millions of questions and guided me along all the time and without them I might not be where I am today. You would be amazed by what you can learn from others and what others can give you, dear reader. Magic all over.

The project I began on was Microsoft all over, C#, entity framework, automapper, angular and a bunch of other stuff that I frankly had not a clue about. You know when you have this bureaucratic thing you have to do at a government entity where, as you come in and see ten doors and 10 attention windows, you wonder how the hell do I get my ferrets license? Yeah.

Anyways, I was in, time to let that sweet cash fill my pockets and eat burgers and sleep. The deed was done and we could call it a day. But, who are we kidding? You and I, we don’t stop, we don’t settle. There ain’t no rest for the wicked such as us.

Over the course of three months from the moment I entered the company, I kept beating my rear non stop. From the moment I woke to the moment Sandy hug me at night, I studied and coded. Practiced everytime I could. And in three months I went from diaper-newbie to full time team member. The kids even regarded my opinion as important. I began making design choices. Architectural changes. Leading development. You name it.

I cannot stress this enough but, teamwork is vital like my friend Paty would say.

By the time I left the team some 8 months later, the project was in a good solid place and a part of that was thanks to me. Knowing that what you do matters and has an impact is among the best things you can get as far as validation goes. I learned as much as I could from all the techs that were involved and I was comfortable handling them. But I wanted more.

Thanks to all this hard work, management considered me for other positions in other projects that had a higher bar. I transitioned to a project that was on the other side of the spectrum with

Java, Docker, Kubernetes, React and a bunch of other techs that I was not all that familiar with, again. Hard work knocked on my door once more.

I’ll be honest, I‘ve gone through some stressful months. It is quite hard to face challenges that hit you with completely new things which you don’t have previous experience with. These are some hard battles man, but they are also the most rewarding. This war allows you to bathe in knowledge beyond what you could expect and it all stays with you, making you a handsome target in this market for example.

For real, if you happen to like this coding stuff I highly encourage you, go for it. Right now the world is in real need of people that can produce some binary stuff, and they are making some attractive offers for those who rise to the challenge. Also, this means that it might be easier to land a job, but you have to prove yourself buddy!

Anyway, what takeaways would I throw in about all that talkie-talkie above? Well:

• Focus on specific goals. If you spread yourself to thin, it will make the journey harder than necessary. Don’t go and try to learn everything at once. I know you are an übermensch and all but play it cool, ok? Focusing on specific and clear goals will allow you to measure your path and track your progress.
• Motivation is key and it’s intertwined with the previous one. Make clear small objectives that are reachable in small periods of time. If you go too big too fast you might fall for one of many traps. Too big might be too complex which would make it difficult to achieve a goal and thus, either by its difficulty — and you end up thinking you are dumb, which is bull dungus — or by the time necessary to achieve such a goal, which will get you sad. I know you are sensitive.
• Hey, believe in yourself. By building confidence in yourself and in what you can do you sow your path to achieving your goals. This also connects to the previous points, as the more you achieve the more you feel you can achieve. Also others will catch on with that energy and you can then steal their hearts. Remember how that CTO totally fell for it? Just saying.
• Good things generally don’t come for free. If something is worth it you gonna have to work for it so, put your energy into it and, if you can, add some heart and soul into the mix. This has a plus later on which is invaluable: if you know how to concentrate and apply discipline early on, when the time comes for change to sweep you off your feet you will land standing straight. This discipline requires constant perpetual learning, otherwise you stay behind and risk getting replaced by a kid.
• Opportunities usually shine. Learn to see that glimmer and conquer them.
• Push yourself. Get out of your comfort zone. Place yourself right there, where it’s not quite fun, where it gets scary. Push your own boundaries. That’s how you grow.

Bowie’s the man.

I would recommend Cal Newport’s book, as it lays out a good amount of rules and techniques that can help you organize yourself.

Just the same, I am not saying something like drop everything and go an’ be a coder! Nope, don’t be crazy. I mean, you could do it. But instead, measure your possibilities and find your time. You don’t have to go all in like I did studying day in and day out. You could do it in the mornings or every other night, the thing is to make a plan and stick to it while keeping a normal life, like eating and living and loving your family. Or your 40 cats. Who am I to judge.

You go boy or girl or undefined lovely person, you go and do it. For us.