How I Went From Being Under-Employed to a Senior Developer Making Over 10x What I Was Before
Channel: Walker Sharpe
Date: 10/07/2023

— Hi, my name is Lawless Sharpe

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wlawlesssharpe/

In October 2022, I was hired by Gulfstream Aerospace as a senior software engineer.

Before that, my main career path was a a telecommunications tower technician, which I spent over five years doing. 

The job was back-breaking, dangerous, and while it offered a level of pay that was enough to get by, it wasn’t what I wanted to do long term, nor did it allow me much free time or energy to pursue anything outside of it.

From 2017 - 2022, I would try multiple times to change careers, going spans of months at a time in odd jobs such as bartending, working as a tour guide, residential remodeling, and etc. 

The entire time I was also seeking to build my software engineering resume and do what I could to pursue education on the subject.

I would get a handful of clients here and there working on React Native, Express, or Swift applications where I could manage to land a contract. Often this meant that I would have to vastly — vastly undersell myself in order to get the job.

At some point around 2021 after getting a number of these projects finished, my LinkedIn started getting attention from recruiters for senior positions. 

Prior to this I had been applying to mainly junior, entry level roles for front-end work. Yet when I went through my first senior interview,  I thought I might actually have a chance at it.

So, this time, I quit my job and took probably the lowest paying position since I was 16 and worked as a busboy — I was guiding tours around the city for cash tips. It paid basically nothing, but, it did allow me a large expanse of free-time, which I dedicated nearly every day to devouring as much as possible about software development and engineering. 

After my Youtube recommendations became nothing but videos about how compilers work, NDC replays, and StrangeLoop lectures, somewhere the algorithm understood I was the target demographic for the Essential Developer program. 

That first video in the crash course where Mike & Caio refactor some example ViewController, I just remember thinking ‘This is wizardry.’ — I had before that point honestly never heard of SOLID design, or even was aware that Design Patterns were an entire sphere of study with many well-researched and battle-tested methods.

It was like being handed the skeleton key. 

At the time, I was basically dead broke. I did what I could to scoop up some udemy courses on SOLID principles, and some overview of Design Patterns. I went through the Essential Developer YouTube, which contains a library of information and, just by itself, is enough to give anyone an edge in their career. I took full advantage of every resource I could find.

Eventually, I found myself in the interview process a completely different person as I was before. I have to say one of the best pieces of advice I found about interviewing while I was seeking was that a competent professional isn’t job interviewing to explain and introduce themselves, but also to suss out and discern if the company is one where they’d like to work. 

In other words, just don’t answer questions, — ASK questions. Turn the tables a bit and come across as someone who is high value. 

When I had spent probably another 6-8 months studying design patterns and solid design, TDD, and etc, I finally was in the interview with enough confidence and authority of the subject matter that I came across as someone who WAS a senior software professional — not just attempting to be.

I ultimately was hired at a position where I am making $140k, in line for a promotion for another substantial raise, and living day-to-day where I even further accelerate my skillset everyday.

Going through the program was absolutely worth every penny. Even the first time going through and coding along, I felt bewildered seeing some of the techniques and cognitive models they used throughout the course. 

I had to just sort of furiously type along and worry about ‘grokking’ the idea later on.

Ultimately as I applied what I learned on the job to my actual work projects, everything started to click. Now I am planning on going back through the course at a slower pace, taking notes, really allowing the ideas to saturate and pick up everything I missed the first time, and of course, complete the challenges.

Any gamer knows that a title without replay value isn’t much of an A-Lister, and even moreso, the ones that really become classics (like GTA) have an entire orbit of hidden easter eggs and side quests. 

That is honestly how the Essential Developer course feels, like the GTA of software engineering. Your first play through your just going to race through it by the edge of your seat, but the subsequent time you spend with it really opens up a whole other world of information.

I can’t say enough to communicate how much I owe to Mike & Caio and everyone else at @EssentialDeveloper  for the life-changing education they offer.