Learn to Code Now!

This is my log of my new venture and a little bit of history.

My own personal story on how I want to transition from my current job in the healthcare field back into the tech industry that I've always loved but felt I could not be a part of.

My story is a long one.  I started out from my very beginnings into technology.  I programmed from elementary all the way up to high school.  After high school though, I bounced around a while in art, literature, acting, and music.  Then, the health field caught my heart.  I shadowed doctors and decided I wanted to be one.

Time passed, I did get into medical school and I did graduate.  Sadly though, I tried for a total of 6 years to pass my boards and for one reason or another, even with every review program out there, I couldn't do it.  It was very sad.  I became depressed for a good few months.  Very depressed.

After those few months, with a little help from my friends, I was able to get back into the tech industry as a tech support guy for a hosting company.  Long story short, after another 4 months, I became their sales engineer!  I learned fast and had lots of confidence once again.  Sadly though, a year later, the economic downturn came and hit the tech industry.  Because I went into the managerial side and didn't stay on the technical side, I was one of the first ones to go.  They even had the gall to tell me I was gone right after returning from a trip where I trained a sales crew for them!

Sufficed to say, my confidence was shot once again.  I retreated into a dark hole, tried to even study for my board exams again but that didn't turn out so great once again.

When I finally pulled myself out of my hole, I decided to go back to health.  I thought I'd be happy.  I'd still be able to help people.  I decided to become an X-ray Tech and then an MRI tech.  Now that's what I do.  Even though it's a decent job, who knew we were treated so badly and still paid pretty low compared to what salary.com and other sites say.

Anyway, I'm getting older, thanks to God, I've found someone who loves me, I'm married and we want to have kids in the near future.  That means I need to make the changes that I can in order to give us the best life possible NOW!

This realization has led me back to tech.  I love it.  In the past, even while I was in my hole, I blogged on tech, made a video podcast, tried to get a tech writing job, and even tried to unsuccessfully make an app with a friend (mainly because I didn't program and we were 800 miles apart).  I've always kept up with tech news as well during all this time and dreamed of going to SXSW, CES, Mobile World Congress, and other tech conventions.

A lot of what I wanted to do, what I dream of doing, and what I want to do, has to have an implementation of coding.  I've felt lately that perhaps going into the health field was the wrong decision.  My old buddy Johnny actually got out of health and into computers when we were in college while I was applying to med schools.  I can't say what would have happened but maybe life would be much more stable if I had done the same.  Perhaps, I would have a sense of contentment now.  But who knows what else would have changed?  (Yes, I love string theory and time travel movies, this is a big question for me)

So my plan!  I want to code and I want to code NOW!
With the advent of Code Academies here in NY and around the country who promise to teach you the skills needed to become a web or app developer in 12 weeks, I've decided to take the plunge!

I've been doing a lot of prep work from 3 academies' pre-work emails and other sources, I've even gotten accepted into a code academy already!  I'm so looking forward to it!

I'm learning so much so fast but just about Ruby.  I can't wait to mix in the front end and back end and to see how all this is supposed to work together!  And after the program, I'll build my skills even more and I plan to go after Swift!  I have a few ideas for apps but have no clue where to start (at the moment).

I'm hoping that by the end of the year as well, I'll have some developer or IT job once again and be able to support my family better, get paid even or more as currently, and hopefully with a more regular work schedule.  Currently I work 6 nights a week below the low area of my salary average, I'm treated very poorly, and hours can vary wildly from 30 to up to 45 hours a week.  Plus, I don't really enjoy working where I am as you can imagine but it's very hard as well to get a hospital job thanks to the unions.  It seems to be the only way to get a decent stable schedule though, good health insurance, and even time to eat lunch!  These private companies only care about working you to death and don't even schedule in a lunch for you.

Anyway, the happiest time in my career life was in the tech industry.
I hope to be back in there again real soon and so with coding, I'll be taking my first steps back in.
I've learned from my mistake and I hope to be smart enough to not become middle management anymore either, for any price.

I know this was a very long post and I plan the future ones to be much shorter.
I really wanted to chronicle my life and training back into the tech industry though.
I want a place where people who stumble onto this blog can give me advice as well or just point me in the right direction.  I don't think I have time to dilly dally so I'll be heading full speed ahead into directions I think are right, maybe even before I realize they're wrong!  The more input I can gain from colleagues, friends, and even strangers are much appreciated in order to do things the right way the first time!

I'm loving the input I've received on Quora so far and coding tips from Stack Overflow, I'm just adding another way to reach out and connect with people which is a great way to gain knowledge and make friends.

Thanks for reading.  To the future!!!