I Left Everything For My Dream

Finally

This is the first step of my long awaited dream to start a brand and grow a company from the ground up. It was always a dream of mine to create content, build a brand and code. Having this job opens me up to new opportunities to succeed and turn my dream into a reality.

The Call

Just about a month ago I was asked to do an phone screening for a company named ICP DAS USA. The company said they were in the job market looking to hire employees that could manage their website, help redesign and fix any bugs their website has with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and most importantly PHP. With all the work I put out with React and Javascript, I thought I was out of my element since I lacked knowledge in PHP.

Conflict

Earlier this year, I had an unpaid Front End Developer internship where I was told I could do the work in whatever language I was comfortable with so I choose Javascript and React. Because my mentor for that company didn’t know React, he had told me to use PHP since he could help me when it came to using it. Throughout the entire internship, I’ve push 8+ hours a day to learn PHP for a mentor that never provided any guidance and had harassed me for not getting anything done. In all the internship wanted me to work for them for no pay. My PHP wasn’t good and I had no confidence that I’d succeed in this company. However, she saw all my projects and was very impressed with the projects that I’ve been outputting recently and really think I’d be a good fit especially for redesigning. That gave me motivation to give it a try, let them know that I’m up for the challenge and I’m willing to put all my efforts into learning more PHP for the company. With that I passed the screening and was asked to do a technical interview over Zoom the following week with the marketing manager and a former web developer at the company.

Technical Interview

The marketing manager had very little knowledge on what goes on in the programming world and had given me an assignment before the interview and that was to find out what I can do to improve SEO. That was a big factor in the hiring process and required any potential candidates know SEO. Before that, I had no idea what I was getting into. SEO spans a range of different topics and functions to rank a website to the top of a search. I did countless research and prepared a report of a SEO check that can be used to evaluate a sites potential and found many factors that could rank the site.

Personality

When it came time to do the interview, I was prepared. The interview started off with a former web developer at the company and was asked to do a 50 Question assessment that showed my skills HTML and CSS. I was surprised that this was the assessment that had tasked me to complete considering it was crucial to know PHP. Next, I was sent over to the marketing manager and had answered her questions. She was yet again astonished with what I had recommended to her that would help improve the sites rankings and was very much impressed that I went above and beyond that I found alternatives they could apply right then and there. She was pleased with my answers and seemed like she wanted to hire me on the spot. But she remembered that I wasn’t in a location that was near they’re company and had questions regarding relocation and living. I had given her my situation and told her I was open to relocation and have opportunity to live with friends if I was offered a job. We ended up talking more about other stuff and it didn’t feel like an interview at that point. With that I felt positive that I’d receive an offer from them.

Denial

After the interview, she told me she had 1-2 more candidates to interview and she’d give me an answer in a week. The day after she asked to for references from the internship that I had worked with. I’d didn’t know how to get around and tell her that I have none because the lack of communication from my mentor, timezone differences, unprofessional interactions, etc. The company had put me through a lot and I didn’t know how to tell her that I have no references. I had to give it a shot and tell her I had nothing and have other references from a previous job. After that, I never received an email the week after whether I got the job or not. I started to lose hope about the job.

Acceptance

I remember this specifically because I was about to apply for a position that my friend would help me get at his job as a phlebotomist. As I was going through my emails, I found an email that was sent an hour ago by the marketing manager that she wants to forward me the position. I jumped and looked at my parents and told them I received an offer. I was ecstatic and didn’t know how to think. I wanted to tell my friends but in the past when things go right for me, I jinx myself and end up losing it. So instead, I started asking for many of my friends in California if they have room for me to stay. Unfortunately, no one had any space and I had to start looking. But before then, I actually needed to do another thing before they could send me the offer letter and that was the background check and drug test.

Conflict Again

I don’t do anything bad and have been a good kid my entire life but a few months prior, I got caught drinking and driving and was detained for a day. I was responsible and pulled over when I knew I couldn’t drive but the cops that found me pulled over saw my car was on and I was sleeping. Next thing I new, I’m at a detention center. To sum things up, my case is still in the process of getting settled and my next court date isn’t until the end of 2021, but it’s one of those things you worry about getting seen during a background check. So then again after turning in the paper work for the background check and drug test, I felt like I wasn’t going to get the job again.

Reality

A week goes by on September 7th, 2021 at 1pm, I get another email from ICP DAS USA with Offer Letter as the subject. I was thrilled that things worked out. September 10th, 2021, I signed a contract to rent out a room with 3 other roommates in Carson, CA. September 13th, 2021, was my first day as a California resident. Lastly, September 15th, 2021 was my first day of work as a Web Developer and I love it.