Meet Ross 👋. After working as an energy engineer, Ross decided to quit his job and go traveling for a year. Before he knew it, one year traveling turned into 4 and he started a job in Customer Success.
That’s where he first started working with developers, and realized it was something he could do. He opted to move to Berlin and take the leap into tech with our intensive coding bootcamp. We caught up with him a couple of years after graduation to see how he’s doing, where his career is out now and what’s keeping him motivated 💪.
Prior to working as a developer, what were you working as? What made you want to make the change?
After spending a few years as an energy engineer, I quit my job and left New York City to travel for a year. One year of travel turned into four years while working remotely on the customer success team for an email startup based in San Francisco. Once I saw the type of work that the developers were doing, I knew that I could do that as well and decided to make the jump.
Did you have any previous coding experience? Or did you head in blind?
I took one C++ course in high school, but for the most part, I was heading in blind.
Why did you make the move to Berlin?
Berlin checked all the boxes for a place to settle down after 4 years of nomadic travel. Easy access to the rest of Europe, amazing international cuisine, low cost of living, and most importantly a lot of cool people to become friends with and have a sense of community.
Why did you choose to study at Spiced? What made the course stand out?
I was referred by a friend I met in Berlin (Hi Thomas!).
What have you been up to since graduating?
I joined the Techstars Berlin 2020 cohort as a Technical Associate, providing development and product assistance to 10 early-stage startups during a 3-month accelerator program. I joined one of the cohort companies (Swayed.ai) as a frontend engineer once the program ended.
Can you tell us a bit about your role currently? What have you been working on?
I’m currently working on building web apps that are part of an enhanced wifi experience for hotel guests. As part of a small team, I’m also the de facto UI designer.
What inspires you to keep learning and coding?
I know there is so much more to learn! I’m just getting started in my dev career, and it can definitely be overwhelming to think about how much growth I have in front of me. Taking it one step at a time is what works for me.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting at Spiced, what would it be?
Write code every day – especially after the program ends!
What was your biggest challenge during the course?
I’d say it was understanding how all of the different pieces (concepts, frameworks, ideas, components) fit together into the bigger puzzle of full-stack development. It’s difficult to wrap your head around all of this when you first learn it, but over time it becomes clear.
What do you love about being a developer?
I love building things to solve problems, and being a developer lets me do that. I often come across issues, either that I face directly or that I hear about from friends or family members. My favorite moments are the ones when I realize, “I can build something to fix this.” To me, that is pretty cool.
