I was defeated. I was out of money, out of unemployment benefits and had nowhere to go. There was one company left who has offered me a second interview. I was so defeated by this point that I would bet if you asked them, they would say I seemed like a different person in my second interview compared to my first. Supremely confident in my first, weak and anxious in my second.
I received a call from this company with the job offer. I went through the ceremony of accepting the offer while expecting to have it rescinded with a background check. But then it didn’t happen! They did not rescind the offer. My started work on my agreed start date and I was now employed in my new career.
The company was small so my duties included various IT and programming related tasks. I brought a lot of knowledge and experience from school so I quickly was promoted to Director of Technology.
This is where I was first introduced to WordPress. Believe me, I had no idea what I was doing with WordPress. I wish someone would have told me how the theming system worked. I was doing all sorts of hacks to move things around which were already supported by WordPress templates. It wasn’t until after I left the company that I discovered how WordPress actually worked.
I discovered I enjoyed programming much more than the infrastructure side of things. Kind of funny how that worked out because I only took a couple programming classes in school and like 50 infrastructure ones. Programming allowed me to become a God over a world inside the screen. Back then in 2011, I had no idea the entire world would hand over their daily lives to the screen in a way that would turn this power into a responsibility more than a wonder.
The work was good and the people I worked with were wonderful. I can honestly say that without this company giving me a chance, I would have never made it into the programming world. I will forever be grateful to the owner for believing in me. He was a great friend and influence during this chapter of my life. Having never found the right way to thank him is one my most painful regrets.