A Developers Journey

As excited as I was to be starting off on a new adventure, nothing could have prepared me for how draining it really it is.

Last week everything maybe got to be a little too full on and I didn’t get a chance then to post this article. It’s quite funny to read back over now, just after a few days, because to be honest, following such a dominant win and going into work with a new project waiting for me, I’ve completely changed my point of view from almost everything that I’d written here:

Everything was so planned and organised and going smooth from day one. I thought I’d hit the ground running but it’s actually a little more difficult finding your feet. I guess it’s all just caught up – or maybe it’s only starting to catch up…

Here I am turning my dream into a reality, coding all day and training in the evenings. I thought it would be as simple as that. But two months in, the works getting more difficult as I’m preparing for another fight just 4 weeks after the last one.

With frustrating work, physical fatigue from training and winter weather, the only comfort seems to come from hot meals, delicious snacks, and chocolatey treats. Permanently worn out from intense, repetitive days throughout the week it’s almost impossible to resist by the time Friday shows its face. And with cut week coming up, I cannot afford to be set in a routine of habitually gaining weight as the week goes on especially not since I seem to be heavier on the whole anyway.

I need to be careful here, I seem to be stuck in a cycle where I’m too tired in the morning to focus quickly at work so I drink a lot of coffee to wake up and I end wind up crashing but the end of the day, right when I need to go to training. I feel more and more that by the end of the day I’m so exhausted from work that my training is really going to suffer. This is not how I want to be feeling right now.

The weekend comes around and all I want to do is anything but look at a computer or tv screen. I want to be outside, socialising and eating. This is not the vision I had, I thought I’d be learning so much that I’d go home at the end of the day and try to re-implement it with new and existing projects, or go home and learn even more to take back to work with me. But that’s not the case.

Maybe it’s because I’m thinking about it too much and I have a tendency to see the bad in every situation or maybe my luck has legitimately run out and the grass is just always greener on the other side. Either way, the only thing to do now is to devise a new strategy, implement a plan of action or come up with some new goals.

And that is exactly what I’ll do! I’ll focus on this next fight and get that out of the way, then I’ll take a little break and let some tight muscles loosen up and whilst breaking, I’ll finally free up the time to go and check out some the Auckland meet ups where I will hopefully surround myself with other passionate developers from whom I can draw inspiration.

I will also spend a couple of weekends to myself, relaxing. I may even go and get pampered, free my mind, chill out. Basically, I’m going to do anything that does exhaust me mentally or physically because I just cannot keep running on overdrive and enjoy it. Usually, I enjoy being too busy. Usually, the tasks I’m busy with are not this intense. Six months or so from now, I have every confidence that I can handle it but until I find myself settled and in my element during the day, I really am going to have to actually take more breaks and put less stress on myself.

This may mean I achieve less additional accomplishments and I don’t get to fight as often as I’d ideally hoped for but it does mean that I’ll last longer and most likely become more valuable in the long run. Ultimately, to succeed in even your most unrealistic goals, you just need to able to take a step back, see the bigger picture, break it down and work through all the minor steps – which WILL include rest periods. And those rest periods are most definitely NOT as minor as you might have once thought.

Today I deployed my first piece of working code to a real production system and to be honest I thought it’d be bigger deal but erm, turns out that’s just part of my job 😕

The client’s happy, the boss is happy, the code is readable, what more is there to say?

Ok, you got me. It is a big deal! I contributed to some code that is currently out there on the world wide web making someone’s life a little easier and it feels great knowing that it’s all working and that some of the code is absolutely beautiful. At the same time, it’s kind of also sad that no one is going to see it…

Just over a month in and I’ve realised what I’ve been told numerous times. The best (and really, only) way to learn how to code is to literally do it all day, every day. When you work in development, you’re essentially forced to sit and stare at the code whether you want to or not, with or without help for 8hrs a day – And when there’s a project to work on, there’s only so much social media procrastinating that can be done before you just have to go back and work it out.

I’m so happy that the company is willing to invest some serious time into my progress. They seem to see the benefit from the company perspective as well as my own personal development point of view. This makes my job all that much more rewarding, I’m surprisingly still managing to make it on time to work every day, it must come down to doing a job that I genuinely enjoy!

And with that, good news! My project has now been extended so I can work more on it and learn as much as possible, so now, of course, I’m re-writing some of it!

Only one guy in the office seems to enjoy writing SQL queries, I can’t understand why, though. They can be extremely complex but those queries are fascinating. I got my first taste today of Stored Procedures and you know what? I think my life has just been changed! They’re so cool, they make the application code base so clean and I think I might just focus some more time on learning the ins and outs of SQL statements.

The JOINs started out quite confusing but after seeing them in action and with some understanding of the database structure, the patterns are becoming clearer. I think I could probably go and even write some complex queries of my own after all this…

Writing the query is one thing, getting the code based to talk to it another thing. And when it takes you two hours to work out that you should have returned $result_array() instead of $result() haha! Ohhh, it wasn’t funny at the time…

Nothing beats the feeling of finally nailing that little niggly line or two (or underscore and word) that you’ve been confused as fuck about for half of the day. It’s immediately followed by “What the fuck?”, “Of course…”, an abrupt removal of the glasses and stand up, and a very frustrated walk away from the desk because I cannot handle this right now as everyone else in the near vicinity casts a rather confused and slightly shocked glance in my direction.

I thought I kept that one under control… It’s a weird feeling, like a combination of satisfaction, frustration and just plain out “How dumb can you be?” and apparently satisfaction is not the emotion that shines through!

Upon returning to my desk, it’s much easier to see that I’m finally getting what it is that I need to keep going forward to so it is a lot easier to just soldier on. I like coming into something that’s working. And I’m so glad there’s opportunity for a break away from the screen in and around my office. If it all gets too much, a short walk, a coffee break, lunch on the balcony in the sun or in the lounge, a game of pinball or even just a little nosey at someone else’s screen seems to do the trick.

Now’s where it gets harder, though. After successfully getting one part to work, I’m feeling more confident about the rest of the code and starting to see what should not be in there. Not only what should not be in there, but also what could? be better.

Working on that one stored procedure back there has just opened me up an entire can of worms… At the end of it all, I know this going to be worth it but right now. It’s broken. It’s all broken! The refactor I’m about to undertake is essentially going to end up being a rewrite of almost the entire system.

Looks like I figured out why it didn’t seem like such a big deal before…

I’m not going to lie, this is going to take time. A lot of time. But I can just remember that feeling of my first major code refactor and how good it was when I finally finished and had everything working perfectly!

If all goes according to plan, I am about to remove literally thousands of lines of unnecessary code and with no set time frame as yet, I’m excited to see the finished product soon become a reality.

2016 was meant to be my year…

I saw the new year in relatively sober and was off like a shot! Alas, those big aspirations were not set to come to fruition just yet. Some of you may have seen these words before, earlier in the year when I wrote about how devastated I was to have failed at everything I’d tried and that my life was pretty much over.

Well, it’s safe to say I exaggerated. I was going for the golden triangle. I’d set myself three tasks and a deadline of three months and to be fair they were all very do-able tasks and the time frame was going more than according to plan.

Three times in a row, though, I failed. Not like, a bad fail. Worse than that. Three times in a row, and after all that hard work and in the space of about two weeks right before my deadline, I failed by three near misses. I was so close! And after the third goal didn’t quite work out, I remember feeling so empty. I just didn’t know what to do with myself.

Luckily I had plenty of support around me. Genuinely good people with positive attitudes towards what it is that I’ve been trying to do all this time. And it’s funny, now when I think about it. The support has actually been quite overwhelming!

Thanks to them and my own drive I didn’t give up! And I’m finally starting to see some progress.

It only took twice as long as I’d initially aimed for it to take but I got my hat trick in the end. I’m a certified AWS developer associate, a professional ( and now apparently somewhat sought after 😉 ) developer and I have officially won an amateur Muay Thai fight with the next already lined up.

It seems almost every week I have a new follower, mentor or contact with whom I can relate to on a large scale, not only in terms of getting my career underway but in an intellectual capacity too.

Maybe my attention is finally attracted to the direction I want to head in or maybe I just know what I’m looking for now. Either way, I’m finally starting to feel like I fit in. Only took nearly 28 years but hey, I’ve finally stopped segregating myself from the rest of the kids in the class.

Some people have supported me since the day they heard about my venture towards becoming a professional programmer and some have gone out their way, even on limbs to help me as best they could. For those people, I have an endless gratitude.

The more time goes on, the more people seem to be keen to offer up their opinions and take an interest. Some of the people throwing advice in my direction, I’ve never even met in real life.

The positivity, from all those people, many who I might never meet and some of whom I’ve only had brief interactions. These people are reaching out to me and offering words of kindness and support and most importantly of encouragement.

I can’t explain the feeling of how cool it is every time someone from the other side of the world, who’s been programming their whole life reaches out to you, tells you they’ve read your blog and that they’re touched by how difficult you found your first-ever week as a programmer to be. Or when accomplished engineers, CTOs and Managing Directors of IT firms send you a message to say “Keep going, you’re not alone. Many of us feel the same, over and over again in our careers too.” It always seems like others have it so easy, but really we’re all just human at the end of the day, and some of those humans ( or many, if you’re surrounded mostly by the right ones ) are actually not bad people.

These are people who are world class engineers with unbelievable intelligence and problem-solving ability and they’re taking the time out to talk to me?! And they genuinely want to have a conversation with me! And they genuinely like me, and all the geeky that comes with me too! ( not that I’m as big of a geek as I thought, apparently. But that’s another story ).

I don’t think I’ve done or am doing anything special but I guess everything in life is relative and now that I’m starting to pick up some momentum and it must be time for a new challenge and some new goals!

Whatever path I’m on right now has suddenly reached a slight decline and I’m starting to pick up some speed! I feel as though I’m running around like a child on a sugar rush doing and seeing all these new exciting things, travelling, partying, meeting and greeting, working ( which doesn’t really feel like work, it feels more like playing games ( I am actually working though :p ) ), barely sleeping.

It’s like my schedule is running on overdrive to try and fit everything in, although I’m essentially doing less now than I was when I was technically doing more in Wellington.

Self-reward following an accomplishment is necessary and should definitely be factored into any success plan but it is possible that I’m starting to loosen up too much which may cause a reduction in efficiency so it’s probably best to refactor those schedules before they get out of control. And the never ending battle with my sensible self-continues…

I know I worked hard to get here and I should take it easy for a bit but I just don’t think it’s wise to relax too much during the first 3-4 months of a new job in a new career. Although I can’t really push forward until I have some new goals set in place and I just can’t seem to focus on devising those just yet. I think I’m still too distracted with this whole new big city that I’ve barely found time to explore.

After a weekend away from the screen, I’m back at the office with fresh eyes. And following a good nights sleep, I’m feeling energised. It seems the labyrinth I was chasing on Friday was exactly the path I needed to take and all of a sudden the whole thing seems to have untangled itself, to some extent at least.

One day into this week and feeling much more optimistic! I’ve actually written some relevant working code! And I’m starting to feel like I’ve made some progress. You see the problem isn’t knowing what needs to happen or understanding the underlying structure of how it may work, the problem is in fact, getting it to work. Understanding the framework, language, and database well enough to just do it. I guess that’s something every programmer deals with every time they look at a new project – I feel like they probably pick it up faster, though…

I feel like I’m stuck and asking for help every 5 minutes. I can get individual parts working on my own when I know I’m on the right track. But only small parts though. I wonder how long it’s going to take for everyone to get annoyed with me asking them stupid questions all the time… I also wonder if I’m too opinionated, I potentially have too many ideas running on different tangents – it’s quite difficult to just focus on one thing at a time.

I find myself constantly nitpicking and questioning what’s there but with no actual clue as to a better direction. I’m sure that’ll get on someone’s nerves soon too…

At least the bonus of that is if I get stuck on one thing, I can move on and look at another for a bit. Not quite sure how that works with source control, though, I kind of have a bunch of half-finished parts on the same branch. I’m sure it will all become clear soon.

As the week goes on I’m feeling like my productivity is reducing but I also feel like I’m really starting to gel with the team. I think it’s important not only to do well with the code but also to get along with everyone in such a small office. It’s a fine balance because I’m sure they have experience enough that they can spend time chatting and still get things done whereas I’m still in a position where I’m looking at some code which is completely foreign to me and where finding a solution takes at least twice as long for me as anyone else.

In one way I’m feeling confident that I can get the work done in my allocated time frame but in another way, I’m a little worried that I’m nearly two weeks in and haven’t fully completed any task. And the ones that I think I’m close on, I’m probably not. I’m sure there’s a tonne of use cases and situations that I just wouldn’t even think of – I mean, how am I meant to know that that’s even a thing?!

Also, a bigger concern that’s just dawned on me is that between all the help, I don’t feel I’ve gained as solid of an understanding as I maybe need to have. Like, sure it works but how much of it do I thoroughly understand… I’m just good at putting puzzles together, not so much at explaining them…

Again, I just need to have faith that it will become clear… Everyone seems to think I know what’s going on and what I’m doing, I don’t know quite how much they’re sugar coating that, though… I’d just really rather not put out a false perception and set myself up to ultimately look like a muppet who looks like they think they know what they’re doing when they blatantly don’t.

I’m sure self-doubt is normal to some extent but I do wonder how long I will feel this way for. And I’m also hoping it won’t reflect me in a negative way, I do really want to learn, I just can’t tell whether I am or not… 😕

My first review isn’t for another few weeks and it’s difficult to gage the expectations. I mean, I keep getting told that there aren’t really any big expectations but I can’t help but keep thinking that that’s just a trick and they’re kind of doing what I do to myself, playing it down but actually secretly expecting big world changing things. I’d really rather not disappoint anyone… I quite enjoy working with this team and I sincerely hope they’re enjoying my company too! 😀

I’m actually questioning whether I can do this for a job. It is honestly that difficult and I have no idea what’s going on. I feel like I’ve been sitting here for two days looking through loops of code that have now just blurred into a mash-up of numbers and letters in files that seem to have no particular order and I’m so confused and I don’t want hassle everyone in the office cause I know they’re really busy and all I want to do is cry!

Week 2 and I have my first project! This is what I’ve been anticipating since I got here, waiting for the opportunity to get really stuck in with some actual work.

I need help for the first two days setting up the environment and getting everything ready for development on my local machine. It seems overly complicated and everyone uses GUIs for everything, including the database. It’s weird not having to search through tables in the command line but I guess we’re going for efficiency here…

Finally, with everything up and running and its time to get going with some new features in this project that someone else originally wrote and… blank.

I have no idea whats going on, the code is so confusing. Thank god the dev assigned to help me wrote a lot of it – although it was so long ago that he still needs to search through it too.

I feel quite overwhelmed and a little stupid that I can’t seem to work out the basics, though I suppose if I wrote the code in the first place I would have a significantly better understanding of what was going.

This is the first time I’ve really had to work on someone else code so really, I probably should have been more realistic about how difficult it would be to decipher. Never mind that it was written in an old framework and largely hasn’t been maintained…

I suppose it’s a good first project but man, it’s frustrating not being able to just do the job. And then whenever the other devs help they’re just like bam bam bam and it’s done and I’m sitting there like wtf, I missed all of that…

At least I’m starting to nail the keyboard shortcuts a little better to make it faster switching between everything. I mean, after all, I can at the very least attempt to not look as amateur as I am…

One week into the project and I’ve managed to finish a couple of small parts of the #todos but man, at this rate, I don’t know how far I’m going to get by the end of the month. I feel like what I’ve done so far should have only taken two days. I wish I knew what the expectations were. Now I find myself stressing out about not performing well enough instead of focussing on the job.

Ahh well, I guess I can only do so much. Some progress is better than none!

Perhaps my side project, for the time being, can be to improve my PHP skills. I’ve found a number of online tutorials which would most likely benefit me in a massive way. I don’t want to do those during company time though, if I have real tasks to complete. And to be honest, after this week, I can’t be fucked.

One week down and I’m exhausted.

It’s not not what I thought it was going to be. Didn’t really know what to expect really…

I guess I thought I’d be asked to do a task or work on a project that I just simply didn’t understand. But, turns out that was not the case…

Well, I started my first day in the office this week with a black eye after a solid Monday morning run and sparring session with a couple of Jai Auckland’s professional fighters. So honored for the training invite, it was an awesome session to start the week off. I didn’t think it was that bad but the bruising came out during the day, turns out no one said anything cause they were unsure if it was maybe some weird makeup or something, haha! Got plenty of interesting looks on the way home, though…

Training here so far has been pretty awesome. A lot of people here are really focussed and seem really keen to train a lot and at different times doing all kinds of exercises. It’s great! There are so many options and of course, it helps to motivate me knowing that I don’t have to do it all alone! It’s great because the gym timetables suit me and my new job really well too! It’s really cool that everyone at the gym is so friendly.

The walk to work is around 20 mins each way, which is a surprisingly nice way to start and end the work day. That’s the longest daily walk I’ve ever had to commit to in my life, which is apparently quite luxurious for Auckland. Although it’s nice, I don’t think I’d deal with a longer walk…

The first day I was here, the weather was amazing! Unfortunately, that quickly turned around and it’s just as cold as Wellington (minus the wind). Managed to miss the rain a few times, though. Now, a week in and the weather is so unpredictable I end up getting caught in the rain most days. At least it’s more appropriate to use an umbrella here…

The one task I was assigned in the first week wound up taking only a few hours to complete. I had never done it before but It worked perfectly in the end… I guess they were as surprised as me because we celebrated the small victory with a beer. I’m still unsure whether it was really an accomplishment or not. But I guess I didn’t break anything, so that’s a bonus!

The people in my office are all good. Not sure what they think of me, though… They gave me control of the office music on Friday and no-one complained that I thrashed Nu Metal from 9.30am haha! Most of them wear headphones anyway, I guess. Still, I feel as though my music control duties may be revoked soon.

Sitting in front of a computer all of every day is a surprisingly tiring job. I’ve spent the majority of my first week attempting to master a new framework. New to me that is, and widely popular. Not sure how well I’m doing or how far I’m meant to have gotten along but I have completed a sample site and the basics of a custom theme.

I was hoping to replicate what I’d learned in the weekend with a personal project but as well as being a new developer, I’m also living in a new city where I don’t know many people and need to take advantage of social events and activities where ever possible.

Turns out I have a few friends here in Auckland, which is cool because I was quite worried that I’d be all alone and feeling a bit sad and lost. There are a few old friends from Wellington living here that I didn’t realize. And they’re keen to hang out, which is also cool. Seems like my weekends are filling up fast and I even have some plans next month too! Life here seems to be busy but also very interesting!

Because everything here is so much more fast paced and time is more limited, I have even more need to keep on top of my schedule. Luckily I’ve planned my living situation quite well where I can maintain an organized schedule and easily fit in training twice on most days, prep my week on the weekends and still find a little social time. The downside, I guess, is less time for additional coding and study. I think when things settle down a little more, I’ll just make more time for that, though.

I will need to sleep a little more in the coming weeks, especially since I need to be able to function and learn quickly during the day. On the bright side, I get to spend all of every day learning new things instead of doing it all night and being shattered for work. The only thing I need to keep on top of now is regular writing!

It’s funny, now that I’m here, in the place I’ve been striving to get to all this time I feel as though I somehow need a new challenge, new hobby, or something new to fill my time. After leaving such good friends in Wellington, I guess I’ve decided that people are what I need to fill that emptiness. It’s probably time to meet as many cool new people as possible. The more I think about it, the more I realize that if I can meet the right kind of people who are also intelligent with good careers, the more satisfied I will be by it. Surprise, surprise, those are exactly the sort of people I find myself talking and spending time with and surprise, surprise, I’m really enjoying it!

In a new city, it may be time to be a little more confident. After all, I’m not a bad person and I’m not stupid, I can hold conversations and I can be fun. I have no real reason to not feel confident in myself. I guess I could always go out on my own a few times, I’ve been looking for events/shows/activities that seem of interest. Not too much as yet but its still early days… And tbf I should be focussed right now on training and studying anyway. I’ve only been here five minutes, I can’t slack off just yet!

Wow, what a nine years it has been Wellington! It’s time to say goodbye to the city which is responsible for sleepless 3-day benders, 6 crazy years on Courtenay Place (which kind of all blur into one), inking up almost half of my body, putting on my first Muay Thai fight, giving me a kick start with coding and introducing me to some of the best friends I will ever have.

Here is where one journey ends and another begins. I still remember the drive into Wellington City as vivid as if it were yesterday. Moving out of home when I was 18 years old to come down to the Capital and Study Architecture at Victoria University. My parents drove me down from Waihi, a small town in the lower Coromandal. A tiring eight hour long drive and my parents, who are not city people in the slightest, start to bicker frantically with maps about which off-ramp to take. Me, sitting in the backseat as it all slowly sinks in. Driving down the high way, dwarfed by factories and warehouses. I just remember think to myself “OMG, What have I done?” In that moment, I just realised how big Wellington is compared to Waihi, and that I don’t know anyone here.

I did not enjoy my first year at uni. It’s not what I thought it’d be. I struggled to make new friends, to fit in at the School of Architecture, and to get excited about most of the precedents required for first year assignments.

But as the year ended, I needed to find a Summer job so I started working as a weekend cook, since I already had plenty of experience the previous Summer in Waihi. I did not want to live like other students do. And I guess that’s where it all started, the Hospitality work, I mean. I can’t count how many people I’ve met working in Hospitality in Wellington, I guess the more people you meet the better chance there is of finding one or two you get along with really well.

After trying to get excited, sticking with it for another year and then deciding that Architecture was not for me I went on to instead complete a Triple Diploma in Business, Management and Accounting. This, as turns out was became beneficial to my next endeavour, working as the General Manager in a late night bar. I did this largely because after everything that I’d learned working up from a dishwasher to a duty manager, I believed I could do a better job than many others. That’s something I had a good go at and after while it became too easy. I could predict staff, customers, turn overs, sales on special events, everything. I didn’t need to try and plan or organise anymore. And as there became less situations that required hands on management, the more bored I got, until I decided that simply working in a bar or even running one, was not enough.

I remember feeling lost for about six months, trying to work out and decide what it is that I wanted to do next. I had endless parts of plans and notes but nothing really stuck out and I guess that must have been when coding came into my life. Somehow one conversation led to another and somewhere along the line a conversation with a very good Patron turned into a programming lesson with my very first Mentor.

Exactly 3 years and 6 days later, here I am. Having studied and persisted, all while running Operations for a young Restaurant and learning the art of Muay Thai, I have been found and shifted across the country to really begin my new career, developing software.

It’s crazy to look back now and see how far I’ve come and how much I’ve learned. But like I said earlier, it’s time for a new journey to begin. A clean slate on the road to success.

As big and daunting as Wellington once seemed, I feel now as though I’ve outgrown it for now and I need to look ahead to the next big adventure that awaits in a slightly larger city. Still not international, but I mean it is the home to almost half the population of an entire country…

I’m sad to say goodbye to some good friends (for now – don’t think I won’t still be visiting), but I’m also really excited to see what new adventures await in Auckland and where my career will take me next.

Bring on the City of Sails, and some warmer Summers!

x

How excited am I to be getting flown to another city for the day just for an interview? Uhhmmm, pretty damn excited! Now, the job isn’t guaranteed, nor is it guaranteed that I’ll take it but the fact that someone from a highly reputable international company has approached me then had a small conversation and then flown me to Auckland for an in-person meeting is just extremely exciting and I can’t wait to see what my future holds! It could be a new city, a leap in my career or just an introduction to some fresh new faces and ideas.

So excited for an experience that could potentially change the course of my life beyond this point.

After gaining my AWS developer associate certification and updating my profile on LinkedIn, it would seem that I may have been noticed by one or two people. One of those people jumped at the chance to reach out to me and fly me to Auckland for an interview at an international company who could offer me an opportunity for growth in a semi development role (initially).

Of course, I’m not about to turn down any opportunities so I went for it! Correspondence over the past couple of weeks has been consistent, reassuring and welcoming as they prepare to meet me. This is highly exciting, the feeling of a complete stranger approaching you, offering you an opportunity which they generally don’t offer up to just anyone, purely based on a few small things you’ve done and a few opportunities you’ve had.

Of course, there’s always a chance it won’t work out but I mean really, it’s not every day you get flown around the country because someone wants to meet you. And if it doesn’t work out then I’ll still be glad for the experience and the incredibly pleasant feeling of being sought out.

This is just another stepping stone on my journey and is the sort of experience that pushes me to work harder. I am well on my way now and the chance of turning back has long since disappeared. The light at the end of the tunnel is starting to beam brighter, at least for this leg of the journey anyway.

What a diverse bunch! I don’t think I’ve ever walked into such a relaxed working environment where everyone in the team is so chill and happy. And happy to meet me, too.

Out to lunch with the team I could wind up working with, one or two beers later we have a few awesome chats and I even accidentally drop a few F-bombs… Woops.

And the end result… Success!! Looks like someone actually read the dribble I wrote and enjoyed it. Not only that, it turns out the time put into writing those articles also paid off.

What an experience?! What a feeling?! To be approached by a complete stranger, flown across the country, chauffeured to an interview which feels like anything but and then be told. To your face. Point blank.

“We want you. What will it take for you join us?”

I mean, who do these people think I am? Maybe they’ve confused me with someone else? Like, I always say I’m pretty awesome but that’s kind of me just reassuring myself. What if I can’t deliver? What are they expecting from me? What if I’m actually not cut out to be a dev??

There’s so much that goes through your mind in that moment. All while feeling a massive sense of accomplishment. All this hard work, it’s paying off, it wasn’t all for nothing. You’ve found your golden ticket! In fact, it seems too good to be true. And then you start to think is this a dream? What’s the catch? Why me? What makes me so special? Is this really how it happens? How people get their first ever break in a new industry? Anyone with years of experience I can understand, but me?

Trying to hold back the “yippee” and maintain a level of professionalism. Don’t want to seem too eager, nor do I want to say an immediate “yes” after a couple of beers. Haha, now I see what happened there…

Well, the answer is simple. I already decided two weeks ago that it wouldn’t a bad thing to move to Auckland. And already the plans are rolling through my mind about what contracts I need to tie up in Wellington, who I need to notify, how I can move everything and find a new place too. I actually don’t need the weekend to think about it, I’ve already convinced myself it’s a plan set in motion. There have been too many coincidences in the lead up for this not to be my path.

I’m nervous that I might not cut it. But at the same time, I’m fucking excited! I’m overdue for a change and now that I’ve perfected my schedule, it really is time, that I throw a spanner in the works. I’m ready to give this my best shot and I sincerely hope that I can deliver.

Watch out tech, I’m coming and you don’t know what you’re in for!

Every time you get knocked, you just have to get back up and keep going! Well, that’s what they say anyway. And it sounds so simple in theory. But in reality, some knocks hit you so bad that you might not actually be able to get back up straight away.

When you eventually do get back up and try again, though, you quickly realise that it’s different this time around. It seems a little bit easier. It’s more comfortable, familiar even. It’s that comfort that reassures you and it’s the mistakes you made first time round that eases you.

For me, getting knocked really hurts. I tend to take almost everything on a personal level and if I face reality, I’m really not used to failure. In saying that, though, I’m probably not used to aiming extremely high either so I kind of need to be realistic here. Not that I never intended to aim high, of course, just that you are generally a product of your surroundings and you perception of “high” might change dependant on exposure to new ideas of what that might mean.

I know for a fact, I definitely intend now to aim higher than ever before. And of course, the higher you aim, the fall potential increases! But I have to take every step as it comes. It’s kind of like conditioning for a fight – every time you bruise, you rest, you heal and you go back stronger.

The first three months of this year did not go remotely according to plan and I failed, failed again and failed again. Now, a little later than anticipated I’m finally getting back on the horse! And this time around, things seem to be working out. They’re possibly even working out a little too well.

All I’m trying to do now is refrain myself from getting over excited about it all and somehow jinxing or fucking up my recent good fortune. Good fortune? Luck? Success? Call it what you want, I call it hard work finally paying off.

But if I just ride on that then somewhere along the line that hard work will wear out and I’ll be back to square one. So I figure instead of riding the wave, I’m going to wait for a big one and get back on track. Work never stops after one hard day, therefore, neither should I. Of course, holidays and celebrations always make for a good break and with the entire plan almost locked in place I will be back on track to focus again very soon.

Planning big events can be very stressful. I love it but I hate it, I love having planned everything to a tee and having it run smooth but I hate trying to get it all to fall into place perfectly when guaranteed immediate answers are nine times out of ten impossible. There’s always more to think about that you originally thought and there are always last minute issues. Hopefully not, if you plan it perfectly.

Why hospitality experience benefits techies – or any career for that matter.

Hospitality is 100% people focussed. It’s about reading, knowing, anticipating people. And in hospitality, that’s something you either learn to do fast and succeed, or you don’t learn and fall flat. If you can handle a good stint in hospitality, not only dealing with difficult, drunk customers but also handling your narcissistic, self-centered peers (cause let’s face facts, that describes the majority of us), then you can be reassured that stepping out into any other industry you choose will be a breeze.

You see, hospitality is kind of like high school without any rules or teachers to go crying to. There are bullies, bitches, two-faced fakes, a whole lot of incestual behaviour (within the small community) and every personality you meet is big. You learn very quickly to be diplomatic and who to side with. Every job you have is kind of like an episode of survivor, you need alliances to continue, your alliance sometimes needs to over through the opposition and when you get to a management level, you see that when the strong leader leaves, the rest of the alliance will soon follow suit.

People is the hardest thing you’ll even have to deal with your life. If you can deal with people, you can deal with anything. Technology has rules, people don’t.

Technology and software is all about people. Essentially your software is only as good as the person using it so if you can’t understand how people operate, how they’re evolving and how they’re going to interact with your software then you can’t possibly anticipate the next biggest breakthrough or even an application worth writing at all.

Sad to say but facts are facts and working in hospitality, you will always have to deal with at least one person at their very worst. If you don’t anticipate them at the time, your eyes will certainly open in hindsight and you’ll be all the wiser for it. Some of the things you deal with and see and experience working in late night bars in your early twenties, others will never experience in their lifetime or even dream about. I look back and at the time my lifestyle seemed usual but man, knowing what I know now, that lifestyle was something out of a rock ’n roll movie. I often feel that humans could no longer surprise me, I guess the surprise now is how many of you are so naive to the realities of what goes on around you, while you sleep or while you’re having Sunday brunch with your mother in law or while you skip off to work at 7.30am.

I often feel as though I’ve lived an entire lifetime already, in a place that no longer exists. I’m sure the people who did it before me feel the same, as they tell their stories now about what it was like for them, twice as long ago. You can be sure of one thing, though, we all have something in common. We’ve all dealt with that one insufferable person at his worst and we’ve all come out the other end, wiser to human nature.

When I talk about hospitality, I’m not talking about big international hotel chains and fancy resorts with endless funding. I’m talking small time, privately owned, true hospitality operations. And when you get to be in management positions in small businesses like those, the exposure you get to running total operations could never be awarded to you in the form of a degree, diploma or any other certification you can think of. That sort of experience is the only way to really understanding the importance of building relationships, controlling finances and GPs, negotiating with suppliers and large clients, maintaining every single contact and staff member you have. Essentially the backbones of what keeps a business operating.

It’s a priceless experience which I’ve been privileged enough to be exposed to and wouldn’t change it for the world. Although, my passion has veered quite far from the hospitality culture, what I have learned, which so many people out there never will, is going to come with me and I can already see how it’s going to benefit my future.

No challenge is too big after some of the things I’ve had to deal with and I look forward to every new challenge that comes my way.