March 5, 2021

Today, on my birthday, I thought I could share my “life story” — well, as it pertains to getting into tech and software development at least, haha!

I originally wrote the following article on a blog that I didn’t continue. I’ve tried blogging twice (I think it was twice) in the past, both times deciding I didn’t care for it much... but here I go again — I never learn! Well, Basecamp (makers of HEY, which is how I’m writing this “blog” post right now) came out with HEY World. So, that’ll make the whole idea of blogging easier, if I decide to stick with it at all (don’t get your hopes up 🙃).

Anyway, my “journey” then moved to a page on my next website for a while. I’ll now share it here, as the first realpost on this new platform (and it won’t be needed on my website anymore).

It took me longer than it probably should have to realize the passion I have for technology and, more specifically, software development.

As long as I can remember, I’ve always been interested in technology and how things work. I enjoyed playing with LEGOs (as I’m sure most kids did at that time). I was also curious of how electronics and toys worked, sometimes breaking things apart and seeing if I could put them back together – often ending up with “extra pieces” once I was done! 😂

As far as video games, two of my all-time favorite games were Warcraft II (on PC) and Sim City (on Super Nintendo). Side note: I say “were”, but I actually still have a Super Nintendo and the Sim City game (among many), which I’ll (rarely) play from time to time… and a few years ago I installed a copy of Warcraft II on my computer (legally, of course 🤞). Sadly, it wasn’t the same. Not because the game didn’t age well, but because I can’t play online on battle.net like I used to (and destroy everyone else in a “Free For All” game). Anyway, Sim City was a way to build something up and have complete (mostly) control over it. Warcraft II also allowed you to build up your home base (and army) however you wanted… Wow, I sound like a control freak with those reasons – but really, I think it was the building and designing parts, and making everything all together work, that intrigued me.

Fast forward a few years and I joined the U.S. Marine Corps in a completely unrelated to “tech” field, aviation maintenance – because jets are cool, of course! I won’t go in-depth into my time on active duty, since that’s not what this post is about, but I will mention a few related experiences.

When MySpace was a thing (and a “new” thing at that time) I’d insert custom HTML/CSS into my MySpace profile. I had no idea what was going on at that point, but I would go to a website to pick and choose what I wanted, then paste the HTML and CSS it gave me somewhere on my profile, like everyone else did at the time! Come to think of it, I remember back in the AOL days I would download and use little “hacky” programs that would make my text in AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and chatrooms have cool colors and/or wavy text – something like that, I don’t remember exactly what/how it all worked… but it was another sign of my interest in the nerdy tech things back then.

Something else I figured out while on active duty was how to make my emails appear to come from different people (in the Marine Corps – or really, anyone and any email address)… or to change my rank as it appeared on emails to other people (for fun, of course, I never really tried to deceive anyone with this!). There was also the time that I learned how to remotely send alert popups to other people’s computers from my computer. I could make them say silly messages like “I’m watching you” or “I know what you did last summer”.

Work related, I had a major role in upgrading my unit from paper “training jackets” (I think that’s what we called them – it was the documentation to show what you’ve worked on and was how you’d increase your expertise level, on paper at least) to an electronic system.

Then, when a friend in the Marine Corps and his wife (David and Amber, not that you know who they are) got early iPhones (before they came to Verizon), I was so interested in playing with them – yes, I’m a nerd (aren’t we all?!). I remember wanting to get an iPhone so bad, but this was the time that Apple and AT&T had an exclusive agreement… and I was on Verizon. I almost switched to AT&T, just so I could get an iPhone – I know, unthinkable, haha! Once iPhones finally came to Verizon, I preordered immediately and was probably one of the first people on Verizon to have an iPhone. Well, one of the thousands, or tens of thousands (or whatever the number was) that preordered them on Verizon. By the way, the currentmodel at the time was iPhone 4, if I remember right.

Another thing I’ve always “enjoyed” (I guess you could use that word) was creating Excel sheets that could do simple “programming” type tasks and reports. I even still create Excel docs or Google Sheets for bill tracking and other things (I really should use apps for this… or maybe create my own?)

After leaving the Marine Corps, I tried figuring out what field I want to be in. Becoming a police officer was high on my list at the time – seemed like a practical next move after USMC. I also tried out real estate, getting real estate licenses in TWO states (California and Arizona). Both of those options turned out to be “no gos” for various reasons, one of which was my longing to be in the tech field.

I then enrolled in college at University of Phoenix, so I could work toward a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, taking night classes. At this point, I only even knew “IT = software development“, not realizing how many different areas of IT, tech, engineering/development, information security, and other variations (and specialty niches) there can be. Around the time I started attending University of Phoenix – the same day actually – I started a job as Tech Support to start “getting my foot in the door” for tech roles.

I think a specific turning point where I realized software development, specifically, was something I enjoyed, was in my WEB240 (web dev) course. This is where I started “catching the coding bug” – I remember this was the first class that I’d spend so much time (more than needed) on coding my “personal website” for the course. Our websites were supposed to have HTML, CSS, and at least a tiny piece of JavaScript. My website was the only one (or one of few) in the class that had working JavaScript, which in my case was a super simple Rock-Paper-Scissors game that I thought was so cool!… I actually still have that site’s code somewhere.

Anyway, back to that Tech Support job. I ended up leaving it for a 3 month internship as an IT Project Manager Intern. It’s rare to have “project manager” and “intern” go together (usually, I think), but that’s what I was able to get. For me, it was a way to get my “foot in the door” for moving into the kind of tech role that I really wanted (NOT tech support). Also, with it being a strict “3 month internship”, I bet on myself to get hired, which was very unlikely (according to the intern recruiter). I ended up being one of a few (of the total 50+ interns we had) to get hired on as a full-time employee.

Going forward, I held a few different Project Manager and Scrum Master roles, with a couple different companies. In every PM and SM role I’ve had, I would always be interested in learning the technical side and what the techies were doing. As a PM, I should stay high-level, mostly, in the discussions… but I was genuinely interested in knowing more. I actually built custom Dashboards in JIRA (an agile software development tool) while I was an intern, that would give some cool information to developers and other PMs. Then, as PM in another company, I enjoyed creating custom dynamic reports with the PPM (Project Portfolio Management) tool I was implementing for the company as the Project Manager and Application Administrator.

For the majority of my time going to University of Phoenix, I was interested in development and information security… So, after I already had my degree and when I was let go from the Project Manager job I had at the time (due to moving back to Arizona and HR not liking that – long story there, I suppose), I got into a Network Administrator role. Liking both dev and InfoSec, I figured this could be a pre-requisite for a security role (or possibly, in some way, a development role).

While in this Network Admin role, I began programming again. First, I spent a good amount of time learning Python, since that language serves both the dev andsecurity fields well. I went through (most of) a book called Python Crash Course, building a “cool” Space Invaders style game as one of the projects. I added a bunch of extra features/functionality than the tutorial even taught. I then started looking into learning Swift again. I say again, because I originally started learning Swift back when Swift 1 was the current version (using a Udemy course taught by Rob Percival), but didn’t continue with it (yet). I realized I’ve always sort of been an “Apple fanboy”, so I decided to try learning Swift again. This time around Swift 4 was recently released and I bought another Udemy course – this one teaching Swift 4 (and many sections were still the Swift 3 variant) taught by Angela Yu.

Another big turning point for me being interested in development was the first app we create in this Udemy course – a silly (and overly simple) “I Am Rich” app, that was literally just an image and label… but there was something magical about putting it on my physical iPhone that was the coolest thing. I completed that course fairly quickly (or maybe not?… I started Thanksgiving weekend and finished in February, I believe). This was also the time I started watching many tutorials on Youtube and reading from other sources. It’s when I found Youtube channels like Sean Allen and Lets Build That App, among many… and blogs like Hacking with Swift and Swift by Sundell, also among many. All of these channels and blogs have been a great resource in my journey!

From the time I started learning Swift (this 2nd time around), I got a job as iOS Developer about 6 months later. I really wasn’t “qualified” for this job (didn’t have enough to show as proof to get job and was still so new), but they took a chance on me and I’m grateful!… I learned quickly and got 2 raises in the first 7 months, grew sooo much more as a developer so fast, and actually loved my job for the first time in forever (why does that last part remind me of the Disney movie Frozen? Haha – Hey, I have kids!).

The next thing that happened was my manager posted a job for Scrum Master. I applied for it, since: I’ve been in the role before, am a CSM (Certified Scrum Master), and figured now that I have dev experience maybe it’d be the next “logical” step (to eventually lead down an executive leadership path or something?)… but the job posting “froze”. While it was frozen (and I was in limbo, waiting), I did a lot of thinking… and realized I actually like what I’m doing finally, so I withdrew my application for the Scrum Master job.

I’m currently at the same company, going strong and really enjoying what I’m doing (but I’m only just getting started and have only been there for about 9 months so far). I have a lot to learn and know I’ll constantly be growing as a developer for as long as I’m writing code. I’m optimistic about the future and I try to enjoy the present as much as I can (even though it’s not always rainbows and butterflies) – this applies to development and also life in general (I’ve been married for a long time and have a bunch of kids, haha)!

Wow, that turned out to be a long story – sorry! So, as I said in the beginning… it took me longer than it probably should have to realize software development was for me.

So there you go... that’s my journey, at least where it got to 2 years ago. An update to the story can maybe make a future post — we’ll see!

- Jason