Hey all, or "How yous guys doing?"
I was born and raised in NY and Migrated to Florida in 1991. For most of my life, I have been a jack of all trades and a master of none. In the late '90s, I purchased my first computer, and my hobby became my passion. In a few years, I worked my way into the IT department as QA Tester and then worked in many other supporting roles.
In 2015, I was laid off from my job as a developer for four years. I quickly learned that I could not secure an interview without a degree. During this time, I decided to enroll in school, and at age 52, it all began; I started in May 2015 with my first set of classes and secured a job. The pay was about half of what I earned before the layoff, but I was working. During my associate degree, the courses seemed trivial, and I did not want to be there. Especially after fifteen years in IT, I needed to start school at the bottom or the very beginning. Twenty months later, I finished my associate's, and the school closed. It took a month to find another school, but by January 2017, I had started my bachelor’s degree. Again, both school and work full-time. Classes were starting to get a little tougher. Courses were starting to get into topics I had not learned about yet, but I still pursued forward with my best effort. When I say I understand the work, life, school balance, I mean I understand.
I have said all this to mention an important topic. Regardless of what I did for work or what I was hired to do, I always gravitated toward the technical parts or technical roles. It did not matter what I was paid to do; I always found a way to use my skills and enjoy my work.
