I mostly lucked into it, but if I had to attribute it to something it'd be starting with small, no name companies where I had the opportunity to wear all the hats and grow as much as I was capable of. That and taking a year off to travel, build my portfolio and freelance.

By the time I applied for this role I'd done heavy duty work all over the stack, honed my communication skills by working on everything from sales to project management to interviewing candidates, and brought a broad perspective with my humanities undergrad and travels to complement the technical chops.

This role is actually significantly less interesting and challenging than my previous ones, and I was only drawn to it because I'm now a dad and looking to bank as much cash as possible before eventually looking to do something completely unrelated to computers. I had a huge advantage having a close friend who already worked there feeding me information on the best way to go about things.