College Dropout Making $500K as a Software Engineer | Dev Stories

a lot of times people get down on themselves  because they feel like they've been through   things they come from certain backgrounds where  they don't have access not privileged but they   can just look at me as an example you know my  mother passed away see my household experience   a lot of racism like i got beat up by four police  officers and arrested for like no fault of my own   i lived in the public housing which has a lot  of crime a bullet went to my house one time i   was younger into my sister's room people that i  know have killed other people have gotten killed   i come from a background where people don't  expect that they can reach the heights but   i was living in the same neighborhood  you know making different decisions hey everyone welcome back to my channel  today we're talking with esco who is a   senior software engineer at airbnb we'll  be talking about how he broke into tech   without a cs degree and without doing  a boot camp hope you enjoy the video hey esko how are you can i  come in yeah sure awesome hey i'm esco i'm a senior  soul free engineer at airbnb   i live in brooklyn new york bed-stuy started a  group for black software engineers on facebook   to help study algorithms data structures and  that's kind of what i do as a hobby as well   what i love the most about software  development is that you can kind of   build anything you want like you can imagine  something and then you can just go build it   growing up my family was pretty lax there was  like no pressure to like perform academically   or anything like that it was just like i was doing  good already by default my mom she noticed that i   wanted a computer so she got my computer with a  tax refund uh because we didn't have much money   we grew up in public housing and that's when i  started experimenting i wanted to be an animator   when i was young like 14. a friend of mine had  shown me how to get this program called flash   adobe flash with mac media at the time so i was  using it to try to make this animation i wanted   to make a ball bounce and it was like so tedious  frame by frame so i was looking up tutorials how   to do it faster and it was something called  action script it's kind of like javascript   but it's for flash and it was so cool  because you can just put code in this panel   and you can interact with the graphics that you  created and you change the x and the y position   and i was familiar from math school would have  quadrants it was so intuitive it was kind of   easy to understand and that's how i got into it  because i was like oh wow this is amazing i can   just make things move and start experimenting with  it from that point on i just fell in love with it at the time i was applying to schools  my mom was sick in the hospital and you   know eventually she passed away i was a single  mother household so we didn't have much funds   so i didn't apply to any colleges that i  wanted to because they had application fees   the ones that had a waiver they that made  it clear to me that's the ones i applied   to and one of them was nyu tandon which  was called pi temple university back then   so i applied to that school and a few other ones  where it was free to apply to and i got into   the polytech school which was like well known  and prestigious so i was excited about that   studying computer science in college was cool  it kind of showed that my studying from high   school and before that kind of like helped me  get a jump start because i was doing well in   the labs i was doing like a's in school things  like that uh then i just started kind of doing   my own thing like coding my own stuff not paying  attention the main reason why i left college was   financial because i couldn't afford it i had to  actually work full time while being in college   to like living expenses and things like that  and paying for tuition i was actually working   as a software engineer already as a freelance  contractor full-time while in school trying   to build my own startup and then also trying  to get a degree to become a software engineer   and then spending so much money not being able to  afford it having to spend so much hours working it   didn't really make too much sense to me so i kind  of all added up and made it more easy to leave cool it should start playing here's some [ __ ]  to think about hit the click hundred racks with   the bank account this one particular is about  when i hit the cliff so when you join a tech   company for example no just tackle in general but  whenever you get equity compensation um there's   something called a click so you have to wait  for a year before you actually invest any equity   investing means that you actually get rights to  own the stock so after you reach that cliff you   start investing in monthly i used to live in the  amberly in downtown brooklyn so i'll talk about   that a little bit that was the deep voice you  heard security guard uh the part of the story   my first like corporate gig was at the new  york times as a senior software engineer   and then from there i had left to build a  startup called go thrive which is in the   healthy eating space with restaurant delivery  and then afterwards i went to uber focusing more   on uber rush which is now mostly ubereats a  lot of the detectives use rubrics and then   i went to build my own company in the crypto  space for uh about almost two years and then i   went back in full time ended up back at uber and  then afterwards most recently i went to airbnb when i was at the new york times  before i left to do that startup   i got to reach out from a google recruiter who  was like uh the title says strong interest from   google i was like what was showing this  for me and that really just put a switch   on my mind that i could actually apply to  these big companies like facebook google   for me i just feel like it never really clicked  like oh i could actually work there like   i guess i didn't feel like i was able to i  was qualified to work there in that sense like when i had first started doing interviews  that actually tested for lego type things it   was this company called coke academy and  on the phone he said don't worry we don't   ask any questions algorithms or anything like  that and i was like okay good uh so i went for   the interview and they asked me like a lethal  type question and i was like i think they said   algorithms they had the most basic  algorithms questions you can have   and i was like not prepared at all i was like  doing infinite loops trying to figure out how   to do something it was crazy and i completely  bombed that interview completely and that really   opened my eyes up to what kind of thing you need  to do to prepare for these types of interviews   so from that point on i looked up okay like what  is this type of question you know what are some   resources cracking the coding interview  went to you demi i got a bunch of courses   i started practicing daily got like this white  board to practice with and i kind of like just set   up this schedule for myself to study consistently  in order to be able to like pass these questions so when it comes to negotiation it's  about what you're willing to accept and   what they're willing to get for example if you  have three offers from three different companies   and the first one comes out uh whatever the number  and the second one comes out with a higher number   you go back to the first company and you say  i had a better offer from this other company   and then they give you more money so nothing else  changed besides the fact that you got another   offer that makes it real clear how it's not about  what's your work paid where you can negotiate   seeing i've heard from recruiters is that  for whatever reason and this is similar   between uh women and also minorities that they  don't sell themselves as good as other groups   or they don't go for opportunities as good  as other groups as well another thing is   money like statistically speaking there's  a wealth gap between races so black people   make less so you know less black people who  make a lot of money you know for me when i   got my job offer it was more than my immediate  family mates i had to get it all up so it was   like there's no way i was even thinking i could  be able to negotiate or that it wasn't enough   meanwhile i could have gotten  like like 1.5 times more so i would suggest always negotiate if you  get an offer because these companies they   can pay you know there's a there's a cap that  they would pay just to keep things standard   but there's a huge range like somebody at the  bottom of the ranch you can get six figures   less than somebody at the top of the range a lot  of times people would get asked to give them a   number i suggest you don't give a number because  that sets the baseline for what they want to offer   um that's one mistake i made like when i joined  over in 2015 i gave my number from companies that   weren't as like high level and they basically they  kind of based it on that they like kind of matched   a part of it or something like that like gave  double amount which is crazy because it was still   high for me it was still but it was still way  too low and also interview with other companies   make sure you get other offers to compete so that  you know you get the best deal like for one one   company may be a great fit maybe not you don't  know until you finish the interview and for two   it's always good to explore your options because  you don't know what's out there and then at the   same time you get these other offers to use to  compete against uh then you get more money you   get signing bonus um or some other kind of perks  that make you make it easier to accept the offer   so today i would definitely recommend like a boot  camp i feel like all the things that i learned   i could have did it faster if i wasn't just self  support if you have a direct guide that tells you   do this do that do this you don't waste years and  years you just do it in a few months the problem i   had with cs degrees even back then i don't see  the value in spending so much time and money   on all these other courses that aren't related  to a major it doesn't make any sense to me at all   so boot camps which are very specific and  focus make a lot of sense because you're   you're trying to learn software engineering  um makes sense to focus on that and also the   programs are kind of more outdated uh in colleges  for whatever reason like they're kind of slower   to adopt to newer things and boot camps focus on  the practical things and things you're going to   be doing at work at the time so like i think for  many reasons boot camps are actually better as   far as like long-term goals uh this the core goal  is financial freedom and then once i reach that   my mindset will be a lot different i'm not sure  what exactly i'm gonna do you know it's even the   case maybe i'll stay in full time for a little  bit more who knows you never really know when you   get there um but most likely definitely i want  to create my own startup at some point i'm not   sure exactly what's going to be or you know what  field's going to be a lot of things can change but   a core goal i have is just reaching financial  freedom and i have a goal for 2023 to restart you

Channel: Bukola

Views: 662,588

Keywords: being a software engineer, computer programmer, how i became a developer, how i became a software developer without a degree, how to learn code, how to teach yourself programming, learning to code, self-taught programmer, self-taught software developer, software developer, software developer no degree, software development, software engineer, software engineer career, teach yourself programming, blacksoftwareengineer, self taught, self taught programmer, bukola ayodele

Id: _aJ_EV9i0eA

Length: 10min 20sec (620 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 15 2021