Prior to pursuing a career within the tech industry, my previous work experience contained many parrallels to the necessary skills required in software developement. In high school, I was very mechanically oriented and had a keen interest in building things, which eventually led to me joining a club where we would build and repair the schools computers. When I began college my initial major was Computer Science, but I ended up pursuing a degree in Political Science with aspirations of changing the world one day. Once I had graduated, getting straight in to the work force seemed like a very daunting prospect. In college I had learned a lot of skills directly related to the subject matter, however I was still lacking a lot of professional skills (resume development, how to interview, etc.).
At this point in my life I had a lot of internal dialogue focusing on what I wanted to do with my future. I decided to move to Breckenridge for the winter and get into an industry that I love, snowboarding. I wasn't good enough to ever go pro, so working within the retail sector was the next best thing to being connected to this particular industry. My initial plan to stay for one winter was quickly changed when I was offered a managerial promotion, so I ended up sticking around for 9 years. During this time I learned many vital skills: Not being content when your solution is simply 'okay', pursue perfection and be sure to put 100% of yourself when facing tasks and problems. I absolutely loved my time in Breckenridge, and the community there will always be a intergral part of my life. However now I am in my mid 30's and my next goal is to own a house, unfortunately Summit County has some pretty high prices, so I decided to move in with my girlfriend in Denver. This last summer, we got engaged and I decided that my career within snowboard and bicycle industry was not something that could enable me to support a family, plus I was starting to get a little burnt out and felt like every day was fairly repetitive. This led me to take on a new challenge and go back to my interests in software development.