My Journey To Development

Anyone who has taken a look at my LinkedIn knows that my career has been anything but linear, and I wouldn't blame anyone for raising an eyebrow at it.

However, I am excited for this change, because it brings to life a dormant theme that has been running for 20+ years.

My journey to code began at a young age. My dad had an old IBM 286. It had the best games, and so I learned how to use MS-DOS so I could play them. From there I learned command line and file structure. As the years went forward I tended to know more than my peers how Windows worked, and could solve computer problems that plagued computers in the 90's.

In high school, I took a class in C++. It was a lot of fun, and the teacher noted that I was the best coder in the class. But I was so fixated on becoming a scientist that I did not pursue it further and enrolled at BYU as a physics major.

At BYU, I tried to figure out what I wanted. I grew weary of academia and hence didn't want to become a professor. I decided to go into teaching, but to major in physics to leave more options open to me. While finishing my degree, I didn't realize

that theme of coding was still running through. I took four classes at this time called "Computational Physics," and there I learned MatLab, Mathematica, and LabView. Each of these courses I got all A's in, and I took what I learned to help with my homework in other physics courses.

As I neared graduation, I did a physics senior thesis with the Acoustics Research Group. This involved running advanced statistics on huge data-sets of rocket noise. It was awesome, and I was even able to present the results at the Acoustical Society of America conference. By now you would think coding would be staring me in the face, but I still didn't see it.

I had a brief carrier in teaching, which I both loved, and hated. Eventually the rewards were diminished and the problems were more than it was worth, and I began to long for technical work again. I took a job at IM Flash, which was an excellent, and I would have stayed if it wasn't for the fact that the graveyard shift was harming my health. But even then, I found myself helping people with their computer problems and debugging their code.

By now you would think I would have noticed this code theme, but NOPE! I thought I should try my luck as a mechanical engineer. I took a job at KTech Engineering, and thought I would learn on the job the skills I needed. I learned very quickly that while I knew physics and basic circuits, I knew nothing of manufacturing. I was able to do some programming on their CNC machines, which was great, but my ignorance of engineering and manufacturing eventually was too much for them and I was laid-off.

I realized I needed more skills to really succeed, but what? Then FINALLY, it happened, I realized that I had years of experience in computers and code. I realized that I was good at it, and that I enjoyed it! Further it would fit well with my personality, and my family life. I made the determination to become a developer, and that decision has changed my life forever.

However, at this point I needed to learn a lot more before I was employable , and I needed to learn it fast. I have a wife and five children to support, and I couldn't afford 2-4 more years of school, or 6 months of unemployment while I taught myself. I found the coding boot-camps and decided on DevMountain as my springboard into the industry. I enrolled at the start of 2018.

As of today I am in week 10 of the camp and am the head of my class. I have learned an incredible amount of material. I have enjoyed it so much, that I have applied to be a mentor for the next cohort. From there, who knows, but it will defiantly include code.