My Path From Liberal Arts Graduate to Software Developer
The journey from liberal arts graduation to first job is a challenging one. I went into the job search without many technical skills, only a fear of working a 9 to 5 cubicle job that I hated. I took a gamble and decided to take an internship after graduating college. A good friend tipped me off about the Flashstarts internship program, and I realized immediately it was a good fit for me.
Working with a startup to create something completely new that solves a challenging problem is an exhilarating experience. I have been working with Flashstarts as a developer for almost 6 weeks now, and I have never once watched the clock waiting for the day to end. Instead, I find myself wanting to stay late or hack away on weekends. Every line of code I write feels important for the mission of the company I am working with, and on top of that, every line of code I write brings me closer to becoming an expert developer.
Software development is the closest thing to magic that I have stumbled across in this world. Flashstarts has given me an incredible opportunity to accelerate my learning by years. I have been coding with Ruby on Rails for a little over a year now, but when I look back to how I was using the framework before I got to Flashstarts I am embarrassed. I’ve not only received great feedback on all my committed code here, I have been able to pair program with several senior developers here. Working with industry experts is not only extremely humbling, it has also taught me how professionals think about development, a skill no online tutorial could teach me.
Working at Flashstarts keeps me excited to come in to work every day, and it has shown me the importance of loving what you do. Taking an internship after college may seem like a bad move to some, but looking back now, I would not take any job over Flashstarts. I’ve already started to find freelance opportunities building websites that I would not have known how to start just 2 months ago. I wholeheartedly recommend finding fastpaced internship opportunities like Flashstarts to convert your academic skills into the real skills that companies are looking for!
P.S. If you feel like I felt a year ago and think you are too inadequate even for an internship, I wholeheartedly recommend you check out Michael Hartl’s phenomenal Ruby on Rails tutorial. If you can make it through the whole book, you are more prepared than I was when starting.
Position: Developer
School: Allegheny College, Class of 2014
