From Trucker to Software Engineering Apprentice at Twitter
Published: 2020-12-20 02:53:21

On Wednesday, December 17th 2020, I received some exciting news that I was selected to be an Apprentice Software Engineer at Twitter. I was super excited about the news. To be quite honest, it still hasn't processed in my mind yet. At least until my official Twitter merch arrives in the mail :) and my start date gets closer. This was a tedious and long process, and I enjoyed every bit of it and talking to the future team members. But I'd like to share my story on how I even got up to this point.

First off, hello, the name is Naya Willis. I'm a truck driver in Queens, NY. I've been driving trucks for a few years now. I started coding at 21 years old. I'm 29 now. Back in 2010-2012 I was attending Queensborough Community college. I majored in Mechanical Engineering. A little into that degree program I realized that it wasn't really for me. I knew that I wanted to do something engineering wise, but not Mechanical Engineering. I for one love challenges, and Mechanical Engineering just didn't seem challenging enough. Not to mention, I was young and wasn't taking things too seriously back then. I never completed Queensborough Community College. It turned out college just isn't for everyone.

A few weeks after this realization, I was walking home from school one day, and I couldn't tell you what made me walk into a Barnes and Nobles book store. I felt as if some entity took over me like "Watch out, I got this!". So I walk into the store and ask a representative about their books on computer programming, since I initially started doing some research about it at home. She directed me downstairs. I searched through the books in the computer section and came across a C++ Programming For Dummies book. I thought that that book was the holy grail of programming and had everything that I needed to know in it. Who was I kidding? I later found out that it was just a language and not programming and it's entirety. This led me down a rabbit hole in search for more and more information.

I later found a book on Amazon titled Beginning Programming For Dummies, 7 Books in 1. This was it! My whole Software Engineering journey really took off with this [book](https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Programming-All-Reference-Dummies/dp/0470108541/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=beginning+programming+for+dummies&qid=1608430728&sr=8-3).

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/pddw66bqubeaczg8sjg8.png)

This book shed light on so many programming topics. It actually became the passenger in the truck that I drive for work. At work I had a lot of downtime and would sit in the truck with that book and start highlighting text like crazy. Although, this slightly proved to be ineffective as I wasn't really able to immediately apply what I've been learning. At that point I was forcing myself to retain information. It wasn't like I could use my laptop on the truck. I eventually found my footing, and started prioritizing programming more than other things. I would get home from work and do further research on my laptop, practice some coding problems, you know? The whole shebang. I touched upon many different technologies back then. I actually fell in love with Python, and Javascript. I even dabbled a bit in Java at one point.

Fast forward to 2019, years later, I thought to myself that I wanted to make a career out of this. All of those years of just being a newbie had to come to an end. That's where Flatiron Coding Bootcamp comes in. I joined the September 9 2019 cohort. There I learned how to become a more focused developer. I've become more structured, and welcomed the accountability. This stuff isn't a walk in the park as you can imagine. I graduated in July 2020. From that point on it was just continuous learning and sharpening my skills. I found it most helpful to do website clones and whatnot. It helped me tremendously. I even did a Twitter Clone, go figure. And then there was the job search. 

Some time into the job search process a friend of mine named Chaya (who I thank so much for telling me about this Twitter Apprenticeship program) said that I should apply. So, I did. She and some other classmates and I got together to tackle algorithms to prepare for it, and it went pretty well. Before I landed this Twitter Software Engineer Apprentice role I applied to at least 100 plus jobs. It was no fun at all, and even with rejection after rejection I didn’t give up. I most certainly wasn't going to just take any job. I had to really feel passionate about it. I always wanted to be involved in the development of a social media platform because I feel that there will always be new features to work on and new technologies to learn, which will feed my creative nature.

The whole interview process took about a month. I had a very pleasant experience and I’m grateful to have met some of the kind and friendly tweeps so far. After a few interviews and not so long wait periods in between them the anxiety and anticipation came to an end. I received an email from my recruiter that I’ve been selected and extended an offer for a Twitter Software Engineering Apprentice. At the time of this writing it still feels surreal, but I know it will eventually fade away as the date that I start gets closer. I’m excited to embark on this journey to further solidify my knowledge about programming and learning from the other brilliant individuals at Twitter.

#FYI

In case anyone is interested, the next Apprenticeship program is scheduled for April 2021. Keep an eye out for that. [Here is the link](https://careers.twitter.com/en/twitter-engineering-apprenticeship-program.html) to find out more information about it. 

#ALSO

Add me on LinkedIn [Naya Willis](https://www.linkedin.com/in/naya-willis-b6b30131/)