From Banker to Web Developer?

Seven months ago I got a phone call that forever changed my life. Thankfully it wasn't a phone call that altered anything in my physical reality or interpersonal one, but one that broke me and brought me to tears. In order for me to convey what led up to this phone call, I have to tell you where I have been and what I have done. I promise to keep it short :)

Scalpels, Videogames, Building My First Company

Growing up I had to adjust to the world differently than most kids not saying that I am "gifted" or anything like that but I was dealt a 1 in 40,000 hand whereas I was born with Vaters syndrome which in short is being diagnosed with birth defects in three or more body parts. So long story short I wasn't physically able to play intense contact sports like football, because of my scoliosis, but regardless I love watching sports #GoPackers.

While I was growing up and trying to figure out what I liked to do. I naturally gravitated towards video games because luckily my birth abnormalities didn't affect my ability to play with others in which I considered a level playing ground. As I got older I tried my hardest to become one of those professional gamers, but to no avail. Awee Shucks... none of the less I still carried my competitive chip on my shoulder and into my early working career.

At the age of 18, I built a company called UNVEvents it was based on hosting online videogame tournaments via Twitter. I initially just wanted to make enough money to buy what at the time was a new Xbox One. Before I sold the company for a measly $800 which was a lot for me at the time. I was able to buy the Xbox I wanted and was making about $10 an hour after working tirelessly for nearly two years without any sort of outside funds as a broke college kid. I still consider my company as one of my greatest accomplishments but then I was offered a sales position after my second year at Grand Valley State University. At the time I really didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. So nonetheless I took the job because the "pitch" sounded too good to pass up. I unknowingly fell into a door-to-door sales job and did that for a year of a half. After running out of money I decided to move back with my parents while I figured things out.

Long story short I worked at a local grocery store and was considered a star performer because I could sell credit cards better than anyone other than the person that beat me in the entire region that year, but I almost had them lol. I was even able to travel to another local store to help them meet their credit card quota. All of this within a year when I was originally hired to be a cashier and that's when I got my first break and sold a credit card to someone that worked at a bank. Fast Forward three years I became a customer service rep to a credit card salesman to a mortgage broker who still did what my previous titles asked of me.

Covid Came Knocking

Luckily for me, I was able to work remotely but I was immediately trained for 3 different roles back to back on top of my day-to-day work so I could help a broader base of customers. Essentially I was tasked with fulfilling six different operations of the bank. Keep in mind just one of those functions alone was a job for someone. Just like anyone I became overworked and felt like my skills and my abilities may be more useful in a premium care role which essentially held the same abilities a manager held but without the part of managing other employees. So I applied.

The Call

At the time I finished my degree I started at Grand Valley University but at Western Michigan University and ended up with a Bachelors in Finance. I was hoping to pivot my finance degree into a more senior position within the banking industry. To say I was optimistic about getting the coveted premium care role after having what I felt was a stellar interview. I was REJECTED. I have interviewed for jobs in the past and didn't get them but this one RIPPED MY HEART OUT and I am not past saying that I was ugly crying saying what else do I have to do to get seen in the banking industry especially after winning company designated award that year for just being a positive influence in the workplace. This rejection really hurt because the reason for the decision didn't have to do with anything related to my role in the sense they were looking for a specific metric called handle time which measures how long your average phone call was and with me being a mortgage banker I could potentially spend an hour or two with a single customer, but since my average handle time was higher than someone who preform basic customer request like balance inquiries I was rejected. Certainly, there could have been other minuet factors but they weren't conveyed.

Betrayed

I genuinely felt betrayed and deceived, because up to that point I did everything they asked and more beyond my actual job title but it wasn't enough. It crushed me. I felt stuck.

Better Days

After all of this happened I decided on somewhat a whim to sign up for coding BootCamp, because I felt like the things that bothered me the most in the realm of finance were the complete opposite reality of programming. So I signed up and almost immediately regretted it because I had zero programming knowledge going into it. I was genuinely scared of the what if. What if I am not smart enough. What if I gave up my good banking job to just end up unemployed and broke because the program cost so much money.

July 19th

The day finally arrived and I started my Bootcamp! It wasn't as intense as I originally thought it was going to be. I thought that the majority of the people that were going to attend already had prior experience coding but that couldn't have been further from the truth. I quickly made some friends(I really didn't make any lifelong friends during my entire undergrad or while working in finance-related roles. ) who some of which already had prior experience and they helped me learn the basics of Javascript. After creating my first application using HTML, CSS, and Javascript outside of BootCamp homework and such I was hooked. Here's just a screenshot of the first app I built entirely from scratch. It still needs to be optimized for smaller screens and I need to finish the betting functionality. I am planning to finish this project in it entered once I complete my program.

I am still attending said BootCamp and I am expected to graduate on January 19th, 2022! My Bootcamp focused on the MERN stack. Once I graduate I will be looking for a full-time position as a web developer. I am excited to see where my journey takes me next.

What To Expect Moving Forward

I am planning to document the rest of my coding journey and use this platform to help me focus on specific topics while providing content to help guide those that run into similar pitfalls and or rabbit holes I am eager to dive into!

If You Made It This Far its Too Late

If you made it this far I genuinely want to thank you for reading my story. If you want to stay connected or just have genuine questions about what a coding BootCamp is like and what I would do differently if I were to do it all over again please reach out!

You Can Also Find Me by Visiting These Links Below

Twitter: twitter.com/AlexDotDev

Portfolio: alexanderleino.github.io/portfolio