Who hasn’t dreamt about becoming a developer?
From the satisfaction of building something useful from scratch and working with new technologies to fancy multi-monitor setups, weird flexible hours, job security and a significant jump in pay, the developer lifestyle certainly has its appeal. But while those who dream of taking the leap are a dime a dozen, very few end up actually following through.
Having immigrated to the United States from Kraków, Poland in 2010, Matt Pis was working as a bricklayer on construction sites when he decided that was precisely what he was going to do.
He had gotten into bricklaying through connections in Chicago’s Polish community, in part because colleges were prohibitively expensive. But on the recommendation of his brother-in-law, Pis started looking into — and saving up for — bootcamp programs as an alternative path to the career he ultimately wanted. A longtime Apple enthusiast, Pis decided to enroll in ’s eight-week iOS developer program in 2014.
In addition to being an avid Apple fan — he sports an Apple Watch for which he has developed his own Pong app — Pis said Apple’s emphasis on making it easy for new developers to get started was a big factor in choosing iOS as a jump-off point.
“I installed all of the software for trying to build something on my own,” said Pis. “It was very cool, and I was able to learn some things on my own before Mobile Makers.”
Like many developer programs, Pis’ program emphasized learning how to work with other developers as part of a bigger team through pair programming exercises and group projects. According to Pis, one of his most important takeaways from the program was gaining the ability to communicate with others over the course of a project.
Upon graduating last February, Pis went back to working construction, developing apps on the side. Then, last June, he got a job developing iOS projects for part time, after one of Pis’ instructors reached out to Andy Abbott and Chip Aubry, BookedOut's CTO and VP of engineering, respectively.
At the beginning of this year, he was brought on full time as a junior software engineer. While he may have gained the skills that got him employed in the bootcamp program, Pis credits his colleagues with taking the time to fill in gaps as they move along.
“I work with great people with amazing attitudes, and they go extra miles and miles to teach me and show me these little things I would spend ages to find out by myself,” said Pis. “It’s a great experience and a challenge every day.”
To this end, his team is encouraging him to branch out from iOS to learn additional languages and technologies.
While Pis said he was always computer savvy, he was 28 before he actually started coding. So who knows — maybe there’s still hope for those of us who still harbor dreams of becoming developers.
Images via Matt Pis.
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