Brief Summary
This video is a personal story about Travis's journey from a non-coding background to becoming a Developer Relations Engineer. He shares his struggles with finding purpose and financial stability in his early career, his decision to learn to code at 34, and the challenges and triumphs he faced along the way.
- Travis emphasizes the importance of learning from others' experiences and finding encouragement during the coding journey.
- He highlights the value of creating content (blogging and YouTube) to showcase your skills and knowledge, which can be beneficial for career advancement.
- He shares his experiences with bootcamps, freelancing, and transitioning to a software engineer role, including the challenges of learning new technologies and the importance of working with experienced developers.
Introduction
Travis introduces his video as a personal story about his unconventional journey into coding. He emphasizes the importance of sharing his experiences to encourage others who are learning to code or facing similar challenges. He encourages viewers to grab a drink and relax while listening to his story.
Before learning to code
Travis describes his early career, which involved various jobs like park ranger, ice cream scooper, and working at a restaurant. He also mentions working at a radio station, which he enjoyed but didn't offer much financial stability. He then shares his experience working at LabCorp as a data entry specialist, which he found monotonous and unfulfilling.
10 Years Wasted
Travis reflects on his time working at a hospital in a health information department, which he initially intended to be a temporary six-month job. However, he ended up staying for 10 years, feeling stuck in a dead-end job with no ambition or direction. He attributes this to a lack of encouragement and guidance from his family and a belief that a stable job was the only path to happiness.
First exposure to coding
Travis describes his first encounter with coding while working as a medical transcriptionist. He was tasked with customizing a WordPress theme and found himself fascinated by the process of writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. Although he didn't think he could learn to code at the time, he enjoyed the experience and started learning basic snippets of code.
Learning to code
Travis shares his decision to learn to code after his department was outsourced. He felt a sense of urgency to acquire new skills and improve his financial situation. He decided to join a bootcamp called "Block" (now acquired by another company), which he considered a significant investment but worth it for the potential career change. He dedicated himself to coding, working long hours after his full-time job and making sacrifices to prioritize learning.
Upwork side jobs
Travis explains how he started taking on freelance jobs on Upwork to supplement his income while learning to code. He initially took on simple tasks like installing WordPress themes and changing menu colors, but he quickly realized he could make money with his front-end development skills.
Dropping out of bootcamp
Travis describes his decision to drop out of the bootcamp after completing the front-end track. He realized that the back-end framework (Ruby on Rails) wasn't widely used in his area, and he was already making money with his front-end skills. He also considered the cost of the bootcamp and decided to focus on learning WordPress and PHP development instead.
Going full-time freelancing
Travis shares his experience transitioning to full-time freelancing after quitting his full-time job. He landed a part-time WordPress development job with a web agency in Colorado, which allowed him to gain valuable experience and build his portfolio. He eventually quit his full-time job to focus on freelancing, enjoying the flexibility and freedom it offered.
From freelance to software engineer
Travis explains his decision to return to the corporate world as a software engineer after two years of freelancing. He felt overwhelmed by the administrative tasks associated with freelancing and wanted to focus solely on coding. He started applying for jobs on LinkedIn and eventually landed an interview with a company that was impressed by his blog and YouTube content.
Transitioning to Site Reliability Engineering
Travis describes his transition to a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) role after leaving his previous software engineer position. He was approached by a company that needed to hire quickly and was impressed by his skills and willingness to learn. The SRE role was new to him, but he was excited about the challenge and the opportunity to learn new technologies like Linux, Azure, and the ELK stack.
Transitioning to Developer Relations
Travis shares his decision to pursue a career in Developer Relations (DevRel) after several years of working as an SRE. He realized that he enjoyed creating content and teaching others, and DevRel offered a perfect blend of coding, community engagement, and content creation. He landed a DevRel position after impressing his interviewers with his coding skills and his ability to explain technical concepts clearly in his blog posts and YouTube videos.
Outro
Travis concludes his video by encouraging viewers to stay persistent in their coding journey and to find inspiration from others' experiences. He also announces that he will be releasing a video next week about the top eight things he's learned in his eight years as a software engineer. He encourages viewers to subscribe to his channel and click the like button if they found the video helpful.
