Ask HN: Tell me about your non-traditional entry into IT? - mrburton
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mrburton
For me, it all started the day my brother purchased a computer for my mom. My
family didn't have much money, and as a result, I would help my mother clean
bathrooms at a fruit and produce junction for $40 on Thursdays.

At the time, my brother had received money from an accident he had as a child.
A dog tore off his eyelid, and the money was supposed to be for plastic
surgery. Instead of incurring any more pain, he opted not to have the
operation.

I discovered AOL and immediately was chatting with strangers, one who sent me
a virus that would delete my hard drive. I spent days befriending him by first
re-installing my operating system and rerunning the virus. Why? The virus
would put me in a private chatroom in which I could speak with him.

After spending days talking to him, he finally agreed to share what happened.
All I had to do was find this piece of software called Visual Studio. It took
me 7 straight days to download it over a dialup.

I started to play with Visual Studio, but I wasn't good. Since my trial
account on AOL was running out, I had to find a way to stay online. This is
where I uncovered the power of Hex Editors. All I had to do was locate a
password stealer, use the hex editor and change the password embedded in the
program. That's exactly what I did!

I was able to stay on AOL for a year by "borrowing" the accounts of other
people using this password stealer. That wasn't enough for me, and I had to
write my own. This leads me down the path of reading source code of others,
DosFx, and eventually attending trade school to make my software better.

At this time, I had no clue that people get paid to write software. During my
time attending a trade school, I graduated with a 4.0 and my teachers told me
I should write software for a living.

Six months after trade school I was still working at Home Depot. One day a
customer came in running their mouth about the color of the paint they
ordered. This experience made me very upset, and I wanted to snap, but I kept
my composure in front of the customer. I went down the aisle to find another
base to remake their paint. In a moment of rage, I punched a hole through a
box and expressed how I felt out loud. That's when I heard someone from a
distance say my name followed by "Why are you working here?" It was the
teacher at trade school who told to get a job in IT.

Words can't express how disgusted and frustrated I felt with myself. He and I
talked for a few minutes about what I was doing. It calmed me down enough and
encouraged me to make a change.

There are a lot of small details I left out which are equally important in my
journey, but I don't want to make this post too long.

~~~
cyberbanjo
But how and when did you enter IT?

~~~
mrburton
So after the encounter with my teacher at Home Depot, I posted my resume on
dice.com. A trade school contacted me.

I went for the interview, and the founder asked me "Do you think you could
teach?" I replied with confidence and said "Yes." I had no clue if it were
something I would do right. All I knew was I would give it _everything_ I had.

I ended up working at a trade school as a teacher making $25/hr. I had to
travel ~2 hours in one direction and would get home around 2 am. I was too
afraid to quit working at Home Depot so I kept both jobs.

It wasn't until I got a job at a start-up company making $30k a year during
the .com boom. I was severely underpaid, but I was happy that I finally had a
full-time job in IT! Until the company went belly up a year later and everyone
got laid off.

So what happened next? I was on unemployment for six months and refusing to
work in IT. I was angry that after all of my dedication and hard work, I would
be tossed aside. I read JavaScript articles by candlelight because my
electricity was turned off for not being able to pay the bills early on. So I
felt violated and used.

A manager from that startup company asked me to come interview at a company
where he was working. I decided to give IT one more change. That job paid $40k
a year. Granted I was still underpaid, but I had hope. Although I was
underpaid, I was now able to pay bills and not struggle. I rented an entire
home for $400/month. Side note, I was renting a house from an ex-drug dealer
who didn't own the home. Instead, he took an abandoned home, cleaned it up and
said he owned it. I didn't know this until years later.

By 2005, I was only making $48k a year, a far cry from what I make now. I
learned how to negotiate and obtain my worth. I make it a point to teach
people about how to achieve their proper worth. e.g., Never negotiate with
yourself! You know that mental process when you want to ask for $$$ but decide
on asking for $$? Learn how to value being told "No" during an interview vs.
doing and accepting anything to "Yes."

Hope that answers your question.

