I went from dish washer to senior developer after my mom's traumatic brain injury -- here's an interview I did as a junior developer

By Ryan Porter — Founder RaiseYourFlag

Meet Eric. Eric's a software engineer. Here's his story.

What was your first job ever?

I was a cashier at the local water park, "Wild Waters."

Did you like it?

I didn't hate it! I biked four miles there and four miles back to work a 3 hour shift.

Most important lesson you learned from that job?

It's hard to say, it wasn't a very demanding job. I suppose I learned that you can't trust people. A girl I had a little crush on was stealing money from the register.

She would count families of 5 as 4 and pocket the difference all the time, it really gave me a different perspective on her.

What do you do for a living now?

I am a software engineer.

How did you get into it?

I've been doing all kinds of programming since I was about 7-8 years old. I always had little problems I wanted to optimize out of my life. The first problem I solved was studying the US state capitals with a quiz program written in BASIC.

How do you like it?

I love solving problems elegantly, sometimes it can be difficult to push things out on time and have to do it a sloppy/inefficient way.

Best thing:

Making the dreams of a client come to life. When some feature that a client/boss wants behaves just right, that makes me feel extremely useful and fulfilled.

Worst thing:

When a feature request changes halfway through or some elegant solution is overridden without a lot of reasoning behind it. It's always painful to have a great idea only see it wither and die for no good reason.

I might come up with a solution in 10 minutes that solves the problem, but because of bureaucratic reasons a new solution must be implemented that takes 2-3 weeks and lots of meetings.

I appreciate trust and latitude to solve problems!

Describe a typical work day:

First, I check in with my team and we discuss what we are doing today, what we did yesterday and if we are "blocked" on pushing out features.

Then the rest of the day I spend coming up with solutions to problems and testing those solutions. Often times I'll take a break, go into my garage and lift weights or go for a run. It's not uncommon that I am stuck on a problem and get frustrated enough to want to pull my hair out--that's when I go roll around on the floor and play with my dog for a while.

Has anything wild/crazy/ridiculous happened to you while working?

Not really!

What was the hardest thing about becoming a software engineer?

Defeating the "Imposter Syndrome." "What is a developer? I certainly am not one. A developer has a college degree, tons of experience interning or something I don't have."

I'm still not over it, honestly.

I just got a new job for a company in San Francisco. We are going through a 2 month trial period to feel each other out. To be honest I was almost puking getting on the plane to SF and especially the morning before first going into that office. I am a completely self taught developer from Idaho with only a smidgen of experience working on a project with a very large budget.

How can someone self taught from Idaho fit in with developers in San Francisco, one of the main hubs of web development?

After about 2 hours at my first day on the job: I can't say I've fit in better anywhere else in my entire life (even though I ended up not fitting in as well later!). It's like everything culminated into that moment.

My first computer program to study state capitals. My struggling with menial problems on silly Starcraft, Diablo II and Counter-Strike projects. My first college class where I felt like I already understood most of what the professors were explaining. My aptitude to throw myself into the deep end of weightlifting without experience. My mom's tragic motorcycle accident. My gumption to start my own web development company without any real experience.

All of that made the person standing in San Francisco getting ready to meet new bosses and peers. That is a developer--not the person but the actions, hardships and accomplishments they have piled up in their lifetime. When I look at someone now I see much less of them, there is so much more to people than what you can see.

I feel like at many points in my future I will have to be ready to pick someone up who can't see this in themself and show them that all of their little accomplishments are slowly piling up to that big goal. My goal to be a developer was very difficult to accomplish but it all had to do with my persistence and attitude towards picking off small accomplishments.

When did you know that it was a job you’d like to stick with for a while?

When I was getting paid more than I ever expected but that stopped mattering. I would take less pay to work on interesting projects.

What would you do differently if you could go back in time?

It's hard to say because I love where I am at now. I suppose if I wanted to do it better, I would have move straight to Portland, SF, Seattle, or anywhere I could learn to be a developer. I doubted myself for so long it really stunted my professional growth.

What advice would you give to somebody who’s trying to figure out what to do with their life?

Really research your idols. Do you think Arnold Schwarzenegger just woke up one day with 23" arms? It took years and years of fighting for each strand of muscle development. Look deeper into your idols, you will see what it really takes to accomplish great things!