Getting Laid Off - Good Things Take Time

My Software Engineering career got off to a rocky start. Out of college, I worked at a small startup in New York City and was one of just four other engineers. After eight months I was laid off when the company halved to increase runway. Quickly returning to job searching made me think a lot about what I wanted in a job and mentorship came to mind immediately. After all, I’d spent the last eight months working professionally as a Software Engineer and didn’t have much to show for it. I’d written some React code, lightly touched a PHP and Java backend (yes we had two), and “learned” Vim mostly by banging my head against a wall. I didn’t have formal 1:1 meetings with my manager, code reviews were often approved quickly without comments, and we didn’t write any tests.

The morning of my first day at my first full-time job in New York City

My first job made me realize how important it is to find others who’ve previously walked your path to help guide you. One of the goals of this newsletter is to do just that. By leveraging others’ experiences you can not only avoid their previous pitfalls but also expedite your learning and therefore your rate of growth. Consistently working hard at anything, Software Engineering related, or otherwise, over a significant period can yield incredible results. Additionally, learning from others’ experiences helps your learning compound — don’t take it for granted. It’s amazing what you can achieve given enough time.

It’d be hard for Kevin in the picture above to imagine that I’d be where I am today. Years ago I could’ve only dreamed of working at the companies I have and creating the forms of content I’m so lucky to be able to. Whatever it is you’re interested in achieving do something every day to move closer to your goal. You’ll be amazed how quickly you arrive at it.

Every Friday morning, I’ll distill some lesson, learning, or experience I’ve had in my career or otherwise in the hopes that it helps you. If that sounds interesting to you, you can subscribe below. I like to imagine my readers learning what I had to learn, “the hard way”, over a cup of coffee or during their morning workout. My goal is to make this newsletter as helpful and enjoyable as possible so if you have any advice on how I can improve it, please feel free to reply, I’ll be reading every response.