I'm not officially employed as a developer or have I worked anywhere with that title. I know that if I keep going down that road I will eventually get there. Everyone gets to where they are going in their own way and time. Sometimes you venture off onto other roads along the way but as long as your moving forward. I've been on that road barely a year now and I think I've come a long ways in that time, or maybe the Steemit community will tell me otherwise......
(The back story)
I started the work force when I was 16 in customer service bagging groceries and then went onto the security field. I did security for a big retail store and a cancer hospital; the customer service experience transitions well. I was about 4 years into working as a security officer and one of those years I was on the night shift. When you’re sitting all alone at a front desk at 1 in the morning you start to think a lot about your life. Especially when the people around you are dying.......
What am I doing with my life, where do I want to be, I would often ask myself. So I started thinking to myself what am I good at? What is it that I like to do or at least something that I would not mind doing as a career? The other important question is what work field do I know will always be around and is constantly growing? My answer to that was technology.
Looking back I was not someone you would consider to be a geek. That seems to be the social label for people into video games, technology ect... I was into heavy metal music, BMX dirt riding and working out. Though in my mid to later teens and early twenties I did find myself solving and fixing my own tech related issues. There were instances where I would help a family member or friend but never really thought of doing it as a job up until the point of working as a security officer at the hospital.
Fast forward I decided I wanted to go to school and get a tech related degree. I was not really sure what part of I.T I wanted to get into but I found a degree for Linux networking at a community college near by. I knew a little about Linux but never really used it until around that time. I started to dabble with it in VMware and installing it alongside windows. 2 years later I got my degree, but soon to find out that it is very hard to get into that line of work with no experience. 6 months later I got my A+ certification which has nothing to do with my degree but I thought maybe I need to start small, in a support role and move my way up.
Luckily around that time of getting my A+ cert we talked our upper management in to allowing me and another colleague to shadow the I.T support, network and security departments for 4 hours one day a week for 3 months. It was enough to shed some light on each area to decide which direction I wanted to go.
Then it seemed like fate, there was an opening for a support role at the hospital. Things were looking good, I’m getting exposure to multiple I.T departments at the hospital and I just got my A+ cert. unfortunately I was put off by the manager. They were going to offer me the position but in a threatening manner or maybe now that I think about it they were just being upfront and I was still too naive at the time. I was told that the job would have no training and it was a sink or swim position.
The other factor that came in to place at this time was that I was going to be a father. I had just found out that my gf was pregnant with my now 1 year old son. I decided I need something more assuring and solid. With the help of the head of HR for I.T I was able to create a great resume with the experience I did have. With the personal experience mixed with my schooling, A+ cert and the 3 months of internship experience I was able to land a support role with another company. This is where the journey started for me to want to become a web developer and I had no idea.
Going to leave it at that for now. I have a lot to add but this is my first post. I want to know if the Steemit community is even interested in reading the rest.