Welcome to Plug In with TTC, our brand new podcast that will help shed some insight into the non-traditional side of hiring and getting hired. We are so excited to start this series and would love for you to follow along!
Our host, Dax Moreno, is joined by not one but TWO developers on this week’s episode – Justice Yao and John McCormick – from cybersecurity specialists, Def-Logix! They both share their experience and personal perspectives as software developers in different stages of their career journey. Listen in to hear their take on everything from organizing chaos through code to working in San Antonio and why they think everyone should dip a toe into the world of programming!
Click on the links below to listen and subscribe!
Key Takeaways from Matchbox Cars & Backing Up The Space Station
- Getting into tech at the right time with the right company
- You can work in tech without a 4-year degree
- Stay mindful of what you share online (data & privacy)
- What can manifest when the company gets their culture right (Def-Logix)
- Completing an internship can land you a career if you’re lucky
- Sharing your knowledge through mentorship makes your team stronger & smarter
Our favorite soundbite:
(Minute Marker 6:08-9:12)
Justice:
Definitely one of the reasons I decided to do software development is because like you said the creativity involved. You know growing up as a kid I always wanted to be an inventor and it’s one of the best ways because all you need is a computer to build something. It’s a rewarding job but like John said it can be frustrating when you have some problem that will literally keep you up for hours at night. Sometimes when I’m working out I’ll literally just be thinking about that one problem and different ways to solve it and then as soon as I get back home hopping on the computer and trying to figure it out again.
John:
Programming is too complicated to expect you can do it perfectly.
Dax:
And that thought right there, “that programming is too complicated to be done perfectly” that to me is where the artist’s intent really flows. I have never met an artist my life digital or kind of real-world canvas that is never fully satisfied with the thing that they’ve created. They always want to go back in tinker, add a little, take away, or what could have been? You know while they’re very casually smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee and being like, “oh I could have done that a little better.” You both talk a little bit about that creative element but also that protectionism. How did that manifest itself in both of you prior to finding development and coding?
Were you geared like this when you were growing up and looking at things from this perspective or was that something that was gained from exposure to technology?
Justice:
So, for myself again growing up my parents always said I was very intensive and I like to Tinker with things I remember this one story I ruin my mom’s tile but I had this like toy RC car and just got a hammer and just started hammering it to see what was inside and then also like you were saying with the perfectionist I was very meticulous I have this thing I called the collection and it was just literally a collection of rocks and sticks head I had found on the ground but I would always organize them. Another story I have is, I was playing with some Hot Wheels and I would literally just line them up on our fireplace, take them off and then just re-line them up again. And so, like you said that’s another thing I love about programming is that your code is never perfect and there’s always ways it can be improved and so for myself, I look at you know code for a while and then just keep thinking about how to improve it and how to make it better which is something I really enjoy about programming.
John:
That’s one of the hard things to let go of when you know you can make it better but you have a deadline and you know you have other code you need to get going. It’s also the reason you want to make your code maintainable and do it in layers. One of the projects I’ve been working on with another developer recently… they said, “well there’s this way to do things” so they researched it and about a week later they go, “ahh, there’s another way to do it.” I go can you afford to throw away that one week into your project? So I said write using the way you know how to do it now but in a layered way so that you can come back and replace the piece that can do it the new way. And nobody will ever know because you’ve done it in such a way that you can pull the piece out and put a new piece in. And nobody needs to know and that’s something you need to learn how to do.
