Day 4: #Create30 What Do You Wish You Knew?
I wish I knew it would have taken as long as it did to get into Tech.
I drank the "Bootcamp Kool-aid",
The learn to code with US (insert bootcamp of your choice) and you'll be making $100k+/year *we promise*"
I worked full-time as a Janitor at the hospital, working 3-11:30 pm. I was getting home around midnight every night, and getting up around 6-7 am to take care of my kid while my wife went to work. I was learning to code during this time.
The six months flew by and nothing. I saw other students online landing their first jobs, at companies I would have DREAMED about working at. Yet I was scrubbing toilets and taking out the trash at the hospital.
Many other students quit after 6 months because it became too hard or they didn't see any payoff. I kept going.
Looking back, deciding to learn to code again (my background from college was electrical engineering), til my first FULL-time offer was JUST about 4.5-5 years.
Sure I could have gone for a computer science degree in that amount of time. But, we didn't have the money or the time. I had to work full-time through all this while learning and networking.
But in that time, I got to build my family. My kids got to see hard work is important IF you want to change things. I also got to do something I never thought would be on my resume, I worked in the ER doing patient registration during the pandemic. I learned about empathy and interacting with people on the worst days of their lives. read more.
If I knew it was going to be 4-5 years of hard work to get here. I don't know if I would have continued down this path. However, I am very grateful that I got to prove the negative self-talk demons wrong, and all the people that doubted me along this journey.
I am incredibly grateful for those who gave me a shot and believed in me. The friend I've made along the journey have been worth it.