Burnout is real.
I’m leaving my job at the end of the month. It’s not anything to do with the job. I just can’t do it anymore.
I’m also leaving the tech industry at the end of the month.
Burnout is real.
Me *googles*: "How do I write unit tests?"
Google: "Here are 743 tutorials."
All 743 Tutorials: "Here is how to test a function that adds two numbers. Okay, that's it! Have fun testing your application." 🤡
She had never done that, given a client a recommendation before. She said she was THAT sure. I am on my third tech job in 5 years, still married to a nurse that I love more than anything and I have an adorable 3 year old daughter. Just last week we bought a brand new house.
Ran out of tweets.
Anyway, I’m not saying this to brag. My point is that if I can go from Prison to Fast-Food to Retail and get a job in fintech with a felony record then there is no reason it can’t happen for you too.
@CatMcGeeCode
Now THAT would be an awesome technical interview.
Here are six error messages, you have an hour to Google them and copy and paste the fix into this online form. Good luck. 😂
But if I can do this and change my life and change my family history then you can too. I want to tell each and every one of you that I am 100% here for you with whatever you need. I promise to try my best to give some time back to others in the community.
The real mind-fuck of it all is that had I not gone to prison I would never have met my wife and I wouldn’t have the perfect daughter that I have now. My life would have sucked ass had I not spent almost a decade behind bars. Wrap yourhead around that. 😉
I was so scared to post this even though I’ve wanted to for so long. Mostly because I didn’t want it to hurt my employment prospects. Part of the reason for doing so now was that I was fully open and honest with my current employer and they accepted me 100% with open arms.
I spend a lot of time on Twitter helping people as much as I can and I never ask for anything in return. Now it I need to ask for help.
I quit a stable job a couple of months ago to work at a startup. I was told yesterday that the startup isn't able to pay me any longer.
But I wonder how different it would be if I was not a white male. There are so many more people that are deserving of praise. Single mothers working two jobs and raising their kids, coding at night when the kids are asleep.
Don’t get me wrong. I have worked my ASS off over the past 6 years. I have cried myself to sleep on more than one occasion. I have considered giving up more than once.
I hope you all realize how uncomfortable this makes me feel. I expected a few likes and a retweet or two. I am not...special. My goal was to inspire ONE person going through what I went through. I feel I deserved exactly what I got for the crime I committed. I am not a victim.
Even finding an apartment as a felon is tough. Most people don’t want me in their community and I totally get it. One of the things I hope you get out of this thread is that you shouldn’t just assume the worst when you learn someone has been in jail or prison.
@melpillard
@raegldn
Same with Empire Flooring.
Price: $11,000
Price w/ discounts: $9,000
Us: Ooh that’s a bit more than we wanted to spend.
Them: How much did you want to spend?
Us: “About $7,000”
Them: “Okay, it’s $7000”.
I was sure my wife was going to divorce me, (oh yeah we were married a month after we met and we’re still going strong after 5 years...so SUCK IT statistics). But she was like, “follow your heart” and all that junk.
In my bio I wrote,
“Dept supervisor at Home Depot and I develop software one the side. I mean in my spare time, not like on the side of the Home Depot”
She thought that was funny so we started talking. Dammit! I digress again!!!
I was under a ton of pressure. Money issues, failed businesses, bankruptcy, almost losing my daughter when my wife was in labor, almost losing her again because she wasn’t gaining weight, feelings of being a fraud and inadequacy.
I don’t call myself a “self-taught” developer.
I’m not St. Benedict. I didn’t go into a cave for three years and emerge a software dev.
Hundreds of people have helped and taught me.
Like the saying goes: “It takes a village to raise an idiot.”
😜
Owners of AirPods Pro.
Here’s a little FYI.
Apple (quietly) issued a recall on all AirPods Pro manufactured before October 2020. For the crackling issue.
If you have this issue you can take them in and get them replaced.
I met my wife about this time and she was the light that pulled me out of the darkness. She always encouraged me to not give up and she stuck by me no matter what decisions I made, (more on that later). I had gotten a job at Home Depot and I worked my ass off.
Part of me wanted to just give up and consign myself to working fastfood and living in a crappy apartment. In prison, I quit smoking cigarettes and I quit drinking (obviously). But even to this day 16 years later I still have not had one drop of alcohol. I digress...
Quick tip for new developers:
90% of your life is going to be sending or fetching data from an API. Get really good at that.
Go to , create an account, and you can create your own dataset and then turn on an API where you can access that data.
They said they could not find a single person in my past that had anything bad to say about me. My therapist said that in her professional opinion my offense was a one time alcohol induced incident and she was confident that I wouldn’t do it again.
4. I realize and I have eluded several times to the fact that part of this is because I am a white male. I have tried to help mostly minorites and women to learn to code because I recognize my privilege. And I’ve been helping people since I got out.
I started detailing cars a few months ago for fun and I found it profoundly relaxing.
It’s like a meditation. I feel at peace when I’m doing it. After a while I started to feel like it was calling to me.
I also want to give about 99% of the credit to my wife. She has stood by me through all of this. She was evicted from her apartment and told she had 3 days to move out because they found out we were married even though I had my own apartment across town.
They took my badge and sent me home. They preceded to call and talk to EVERYONE I had ever been in contact with. I gave my therapist permission to tell them her honest feelings about me. They called me the next day and said I could come back to work.
@PAYOLETTER
I took a bunch of higher math classes and had a 4.0 but I was feeling a bit drained from all of the hard work. So I decided to take an “easy” class. So I took Art Appreciation. I ended up getting a C but at one point I had an F and had to get an A on the final to pass. 😬
I was applying to a bunch of tech jobs, entry level and up. I finally got a break and got a job at a fintech company. I didn’t mention my background and they found out two weeks into the gig. They said that they liked me and they were going to do whatever they could to keep me.
I don’t think I could have done all of this on my own...so those of you that are struggling with life you can borrow my wife. 😂 But I get her back though....... 😬
I eventually got an apartment after 9 months and I left the half-way house to start my 3 years of mandatory parole...ankle monitor and all. I wasn’t allowed to drive so I biked EVERYWHERE. It was pretty common for me to bike 100 miles in one day.
@kathygriffin
You got this treatment because his followers see him as a religious cult figure. They don’t care about casting aside their own belief systems to follow his. If he ordered his base to drink poisoned kool-aid I have no doubt in my mind a good number of them would. It’s scary.
Because of my nature I tend to cling onto something interesting then lose interest after a day or two.
It’s been three months and I’m still passionate about auto detailing.
That may seem like a trivially short time for most of you but for me that’s Eons.
@jessejanderson
It’s like any suggestion is wrong.
“I’m always late for work.”
“Just set your alarm for 30 minutes earlier.”
“No, I was awake numb nuts I was just trying to make ketchup from scratch and lost track of time.”
This is an important tweet. Please burn it into your mind. You might not need it now, in 10 years or 30 years but you need to remember what I'm about to say to you.
Took daughter to get COVID shot and I told her that it was important to get her shot and I told her why it was so important. So of course she tells the nurse, “My dad said it’s important for me to get my shot because I’m his only kid and he doesn’t have a backup.” 😂😂😂
I already had a drinking problem when I started but it got worse there. It seemed like every night everyone was going to the bar to drink...usually with a company Credit Card for the tab. I don’t know what the deal is with alcohol and software companies.
I started programming again. I already knew some .NET from way back so I decided to pick that up again. I was working 40-50 hours a week at HD and I was coding in ALL of my spare time. I actually met my wife on a dating site.
I don’t even claim to be a good person. That being said, I honestly appreciate all of YOUR words of encouragement. It’s all of you that inspire me. Maybe there is hope that the stigma of feloness can be overcome.
One of my Number 1 developer tips has nothing to do with software or coding. Get a small notepad. All of those things that you think, “I’ll remember that”, write them down in that notebook.
A lot of the coding came back to me...parameterized constructors, inheritance, polymorphism, garbage collection, abstraction, etc. But it was a totally new paradigm for me having been out of the game for 10+ years.
If you are ever arrested for something serious do not talk to the police. They aren't your friend. They will be legally allowed to lie to you, make up evidence against you that doesn't exist, and use any comments you make against you.
After three short months I was sent to their training program to become a department supervisor. Ultimately, I was given the Garden department. I couldn’t believe how far I had come in a year. Ok now for the part you probably care about.
16 years ago I started doing .NET development before anyone knew what it was. I got a job with Accenture and was sent to work on the Unemployment System for the state of Colorado. I was completely self-taught. My step-dad gifted me an MSDN subscription in 2001.
I was released to a half-way house. It was super hard to get a job but I would go out each day and put in like 20 applications. After 2 months I finally got a job at Carl’s Jr. and I thought that this was going to be it for me.
Maybe you like the new me maybe not, you can unfollow. I’m not tracking followers and I won’t take it personally.
Thank you all for reading this and fingers crossed for a new career and a new future. 🤞🏻
About 2 weeks ago I decided to make this a business. I formed an LLC, got an EIN, got Insurance, and built a website.
I started running google ads and I’ve had some good success in the short two weeks I’ve been doing this on weekends.
Have you ever spent an hour being really stupid. I mean REALLY stupid. Like wondering why your CSS changes aren’t taking effect and getting deep I to some docs only to find out you’re modifying the wrong file?
Yeah me either. 😭
If you’ve sent me a DM please know that I am not intentionally ignoring you. I think there are a couple thousand and I’m trying to work my way through them between working, moving and taking care of two puppies and a baby. Bear with me.
I was starting to get depressed again. I had a suicide attempt in 2001 which partially spurred my move from Seattle to Denver. I was hospitalized at Harborview for 2 weeks and after I left my parents urged me to move out here.
I just learned that you can run:
brew bundle dump
Which will dump a Brewfile with all of your installed programs and then you can move that to a new computer and run
brew bundle install
To reinstall them.
It was like I was outside my own body and I was watching myself do what I was doing but I couldn’t stop. Anyway, I spent 8 years in prison and was released in 2013.
I was not happy at HD and they had put me on the overnight shift which really cut into my coding practice so one night I just walked away. I grabbed my stuff and went home.
The length of sentence was primarily due to the fact that I had inflicted “serious bodily injury”.
I am not a bad-ass and I hate confrontation but I AM ex-military and I have had some martial arts training. I can usually control myself but not while drunk.
I got the Accenture job in 2003 at a WHOPPING salary of $36,000. (Even in 2003 dollars this was not a ton of money). But, I was writing software and I was happy.
I have finally reached the point in my dev career that I am good enough at my job that I don’t have to come home from work and study for another 3-4 hours. I get home now and I can play with my daughter.
One particular night I was drunker than drunk and I got into it with some guys at the bar. It was pretty bad. I was arrested and charged with 2nd degree assault. I spent 8 months in county jail fighting the case and ultimately I was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
I love the business management aspect of it. I like that all of the decisions are mine to make. It’s not an ego trip it’s the fact that I am the only one I can depend on and more importantly no one is depending on me, (except my customers).