I GRADUATED ONE YEAR AGO.
Today marks exactly one year that I have been a developer. What has it been like?
Well, for me, this year has been nothing short of astounding.
I still firmly believe that going to The Flatiron School for their Full Stack Web Development Fellowship has been one of the best gifts that I have received. I’d recommend that everyone go for it given a chance, hands down.
Those five months of doing nothing but learn to code have presented me with jobs that I never would have earned on my own misguided efforts, and those jobs have taken me to places that I thought I’d never get to, with relative ease. (Hello foreign vacations.) I’m financially solvent, which has led my own personal growth, which translates to me being a productive, engaged, happy JavaScript based developer.
After my fellowship wrapped up, thus far I’ve had three great job experiences. Two were for small dev shops, one (my present) for a larger corporate entity. Compared to my classmates who by in large are still following their bliss at their first company, my career trajectory has not been the norm. However, I’m quite pleased that I’ve taken the road less traveled- as I have learned much about my values as a developer as much as what I want to do in this field from each experience I’ve had.
Let us recap these experiences in brief.
Not even a month after I had graduated from my fellowship, I had landed a job working for my first dev shop right over the Williamsburg Bridge. I stayed there for about three months and change and to date, this job has been my most rewarding. Here I learned how to work with the Agile methodology, my revision control skills increased exponentially, and I got to work with (and meet countless) developers who liked to make quality products for companies that they believe in.
As an added bonus here, I started at 10 in the morning and rarely worked after 6:30 (unless I really wanted to) and we all had a lot of fun working together. I met many other happy, productive, progressive developers while I was at this company both through on-site learning as well as attending many, many meetups.
What I took away from this job is that I value working with developers who value collaboration and camaraderie just as much as continuous learning. I also learned to love working Agile, and embraced building quality over rapid quantity.
Although this company was a dream come true for a new developer, I also became very aware that I still didn’t love Ruby or Rails while I was there- it just wasn’t, and still isn’t, my preferred development flavor. So when work became scarce at that company, I decided to pursue the front end route, and went to my next company. (Full disclosure, my first boss encouraged me to do this.)
Like my first employer, I really liked my boss and the location below 14th street, and I still biked to work. However, this experience was completely different.
In my second position as a front end developer l was rolling in every day to a shiny new dev shop with a design element. This company was slick- we worked in a We Work surrounded by other sexy looking startups, my boss was charming, we had a corner office all to ourselves with perks galore.
I loved the free lunches, paid health insurance and well designed offices- but I discovered (shockingly) that not everyone works the same way I do. I had grown used to working interdependently while in school and with my first employer and made the assumption that we would always have code reviews and use the newest build of our tools. I found it sometimes disappointing and frequently frightening that I was largely left to figure out what I needed to do solo, and could push to the production branch without a thorough code review. (Note: Don’t do that.) I learned here that I can like my coworkers all day long, but I can’t duct tape develop by the end of it as I’m still new, and I probably won’t build it fast.
So, with my adamant need to refactor, combined with my stubborn resolve not to be “full stack”, when that project wrapped up after about three months, so did my position. Although it was sad to leave that place culturally, I was relieved in other ways. At this position I learned the value of not being enticed by the externals, and I reinforced this notion that I should always keep learning, doing and teaching others to be the we can all be.
The position at my second company followed by a spell of unemployment, but I was happy to report that I could- for once- live off of savings while I looked for jobs. (Prior to becoming a developer, I didn’t have two of anything to rub together.) This period was fascinating to watch unfold, as I got to see what some of my work motivations are.
In the three months that I was unemployed, I interviewed at dozens of companies. Small sized, mid sized, corporate. Some companies I knew that I wasn’t what they were looking for off the bat, some I had a lingering feeling that I wasn’t going to fit well there either, and one I reluctantly said “no” to as it was perfect in every way except for that they couldn’t employ me full time.
In this stretch, I got honest. In my previous careers, I had been the master of my own ship through freelancing. It has only been a more recent event that I’ve learned to really work well with others- and I could see that if I stayed on my current startup track that I was going to end up doing the same thing that I had for my entire working life. I really wanted all the experiences that I had previously, but with stability. I wanted the true work-life balance where I’d have room to explore what I wanted to do on my time, as happy developers make better products. So I shot for corporate.
Working for a huge company like mine, I’ve pretty much struck gold in regards to the work-life balance, as we work at a sustainable pace and I have a lot of support. (Case in point: As I write this, I’m contemplating a trip to Belize and I haven’t wondered once if the server is going to crash/if there will be a project when I come back/if I need wifi to answer emergency frantic emails once. Its fabulous.) Also, the people are pretty friendly at my company. Its baked into the culture- as much as diversity and inclusion are. I like that they like me because I am a unique flower.
Simultaneously, I’ve also discovered some of my own quirks in my current position. For example, learning to be professional has been personally tough. For someone who has spent the last 15 years or so choosing jobs by if I can or can’t wear jeans and Vans every day to the office, learning to have a professional aura is somewhat foreign for me. Learning to write emails with less smiley emoji is (surprisingly) difficult at times. I’m casual by nature, but I’m learning its time to suit up, show up and be a professional here. I’m finally putting the polish on these skills that I’ve taken the time to cultivate.
So that leads me to today.
A year ago, I already knew something great was going to happen. I drank the Flatiron koolaid on day one, I had no real doubt that I could fail. I just had no idea how great things would have become in the year that has unfolded.
Not only do I get to incorporate all of my past career life experiences into a new path that I love more than I could have ever imagined possible, I make virtual creative things that make others happier, more informed, and more connected to their world. Seeing others enjoy my work delights me to no end as does helping others to get to this point.
I’d say that’s nothing short of astounding, wouldn’t you?