The biggest plot twist in my life has turned out to be my career.
In August of 2011 I expected to earn about $18,000 for the year. I had two young children and a wife. I had just graduated college with my second degree. I spent seven years earning degrees in Art History and Art and Design and fully expected to continue my education in Visual Culture studies, with the end goal of teaching and researching the politics of visual culture.
The problem was we were broke. Times were hard and were two months shy of not being able to pay rent anymore. (see Sean Michael Stimac's answer to What does it feel like to be poor?) We couldn’t afford to live and we needed more money. I ended up taking a job as a carpenter in Cincinnati, 1000 miles from home because the pay was $4/ hour higher than I was currently making and was full time. It was a crapshoot, but I did have some experience with woodworking and enjoy working with my hands.
I ended up making friends with the neighbor. We’re similar people, nearly equally crazy, and just generally compatible people. He was an IT guy. He ran the IT shop for a small engineering company. He needed help with a development project at the comapany and they were also looking for a technical illustrator, but the owner wasn’t really itching to hire two people at the time.
My new friend knew that my life was less than ideal and somehow convinced the owner that I could do both. Keep in mind that I had zero development experience outside some front end web work that I did in college. They needed a python and xml developer for backend work. I interviewed for the job and was hired, albeit at a cheap rate with mediocre benefits.
The technical illustrations were easy, but the development wasn’t. I had no idea what I was doing. Long story short, however, I ended up teaching myself linux and network administration. Every waking minute was spent on honing my technical knowledge and I ended up doing less and less with technical illustrations.
After six months my friend that got me the job, my boss at the time, ended up quitting and taking a job with a company that’s ubiquitous in everything internet. I ended up being offered his job. Six months as an IT guy and I was running a global WAN for a small company. Over time we acquired more POs (purchase orders) and my team grew and we expanded into a forth global region. Things were good, I received a few good raises, had a solid team, and my family was well supported.
After two and half years a company five hours away offered me a 50% increase if I took over their IT shop. Their benefits package was top notch and they were a great company, but they were brand new. While there, I expanded their IT team six fold and really dug deep into manufacturing solutions to support one of the largest companies in the world.
I spent a year and a half with that company before being offered a job with the company I was supporting. One year on with this company, again, one of the largest in the world, and I’m still in shock sometimes how my life has turned out the way it has. I’m a Lead IT Engineer for one of the best companies in the world, making six figures, doing what I love to do and 4.5 years ago I would have never imagined that jobs like this exist or that IT could be so rewarding.
In four years we’ve pretty much gone from rags to riches (I’m not rich, but I am really comfortable) by becoming a leader in a field that I have no formal training in. It’s amazing and I’m blessed to be where I am today. Drive, intelligence, the ability to self teach, good friends, and sheer luck are responsible for the awesomeness that is my life now.
Read other answers by Sean Michael Stimac on Quora:
- What is the worst thing you've done that made you feel guilty for a long time?
- What is the best thing that ever happened to you for being nice?
- If you could improve one quality about yourself, what would it be? Why?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2boU9C4
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