My First Year as a Software Engineer.
Today I celebrate 1-year of being a software engineer, and honestly, I can’t believe I’ve made it.
This year has been challenging in more ways that I thought I could handle, but here I am. I moved to Colorado with no job, and no place to live, holding firm to my newly learned set of skills and a desperate hope for a fresh start. I was both relieved and terrified to accept the title “software engineer“ at a company in Downtown Denver called PaySimple and soon thereafter, I was thrown into the inferno of ElasticSearch queries, Splunk alerts, and horrendous locale merge conflicts.
In the first few weeks, I truly questioned whether I was qualified for the job. Daily, I would take my work home so I could study up on unfamiliar concepts, but before I knew it, I was starting to get the hang of things. Over the last year, I’ve learned to work on a small team through the agile process, and I’ve challenged myself to be more confident in my abilities. I’ve written countless lines of code, and improved my critical thinking and problem solving skills. I know there is still so much that lies ahead in my career but I have an amazing team that rallies around me, encourages me to grow, and provides the resources for me to become the best that I can be. And that makes stepping into the daunting abyss of a complex code base much less scary.
My teammates William Daniels and Andy Hinz are two of the smartest and most humble people I’ve ever met. Everyday I make it my goal to be self-sufficient enough to get through the day without bugging them with questions, but when I do, they never make me feel bad about asking for help. I’m amazed time and time again at how fast and efficiently their brains work, and how willing they are to stoop down to my level to help me understand the madness that is contained in their heads.
William is silly, light-hearted, and he’s always the one to make everyone laugh. Andy’s kindness is beyond anything I’ve ever seen, and for the shy, quiet, and easily intimidated person that I am, his gentleness is a godsend. I’m proud of how much I’ve learned and I’m proud of the work we do, and I know they’re proud of me too. Will is never afraid to remind our small team of 3 that “we’re killing it, keep up the good work”, and Andy encourages me by leaving behind little comments on my pull requests like “you’re crushing it”, and “nicely done”.
Then there’s Eric Blackwell, who’s kind of like a cool big brother. He’s our hard-working product manager and strongest advocate for our team of developers. What I appreciate most about Eric though, is that he’s given me a space to be social outside of the context of work. I’ve found it difficult to integrate into the company culture and the nature of my job hasn’t allowed me to interact with too many people around the office. It’s a small thing, but the hour Eric, Xavier and I spend at the gym together is a time for me to be seen as more than just “the quiet software engineer in the dark corner of the office”. The three of us challenge each other to reach our fitness goals and chat about literally anything but work, and it’s my favorite way to break up the day.
And lastly, I owe my biggest thanks to my manager Patrick Smyth, who took a chance on me, and gave me the opportunity of a lifetime. His willingness to look beyond my lack of a software engineering degree, to pick my resume out of the hundreds of other qualified candidates, has opened the door to the most growthful season of my life. Since beginning my time at PaySimple, I’ve grow as an engineer, working-adult, and overall as a person.
In all honesty, life outside of the office has been a little more rocky than I anticipated. For the last year, I’ve jumped from friend group to friend group, looking for a community where I feel like I fully belong. Uprooting my life and moving to a brand new city has caused me to reevaluate my priorities and values, and making friends through these changes has been difficult to say the least. But day in and day out, being able to go to a job I love with people I enjoy has made me feel a little less lost in this big city, and for that I am so grateful. Beyond my personal insecurities of my value or doubts about my abilities as a software developer, here I am very well loved.
And for that, thank you.
