I dared, I won

January 31, 2015

So the SAS have a saying. “Who Dares Wins”. There were so many times I was afraid during my journey to break into development. I was afraid no one would hire me without a degree or full time professional experience. I was afraid that taking a break to do consulting would make it more difficult to get a decent full-time sales job if this didn’t work out. There were a lot of valid concerns surrounding this undertaking. But I dared to move forward anyway.

I dared to move forward because of what I stood to win. A career doing something I love. A more stable financial future for my family. A way to connect on a deeper level with my many friends in STEM careers. Many of the best things in life, the things worth striving for, carry a risk. Hence, “Who Dares Wins”.

I am happy to report that as of January 29, 2015, I can say that I won. I landed a position as a Test Automation Engineer at a consulting firm called Vision Technology Services. I am contracted to an awesome company called Roadnet Technologies out of Towson, Maryland. I am working with a great mentor named Paul writing automated tests in C# for their top-tier routing software for last mile carriers.

It still hasn’t completely sunk in that I’ve “made it”, and more importantly I realize that this is the beginning of my journey, not the end. I do know that I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my chest. This is the first weekend in years that I’ve been able to truly relax, that I’ve allowed myself to be optimistic about the future. I feel like everything is going to be okay as long as I stay true to what brought me here, namely my passion and eagerness to learn.

As I promised in my last post, a postmortem of my job hunt will be coming soon. I have plenty of advice to give on both things I did right and things I did wrong. But for now, I want to thank the people who got me here…

Jody Brookover, you took me seriously when I told you what I was going to do, and you were supportive throughout my entire journey. Thanks again for the mock interview experience!

Scott Becker, if it wasn’t for the crash course in C# you gave me I wouldn’t have been able to meet the deadline on the test project Roadnet gave me to do. Given that I got the job, I’d say I owe you one.

Brian Carr, thank you for being my front end mentor. You are the reason funny pages looks and acts like a legitimate web page.

Dominique Carr, my wife and partner. You never stopped believing in me no matter what I wanted to do. Your love and support banished my fears.

Randy and Lori Carr, my mother and father. You helped my family through this in more ways than I can list here. Thank you so much.

Eric Palakovich Carr, my sensei, my Yoda, my harshest critic and staunchest ally. I’ll never forget the many, many hours of valuable time that you chose to invest in me (and thanks also to Julie for sharing her husband). I honestly would not have made it here without you.

And finally Randy and Tori, my beautiful children. You are the reason I dare to do better.