12 Years in the Life of a Software Engineer

Software EngineerCareer AdvicePersonalLife Advice
Written By PIRATE KING

My career journey wasn't rosy 🥀 with more failures than successes. Still, I never gave up. And if I can do it, so can you. 😉

Year 0 (2010)

In December, I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering. With a mediocre GPA, I was just like many of you, unsure of the life that comes after college. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to code and uncertain if I wanted to stay in the US. So instead of finding a job in America, I headed to South Korea, where my parents were.

Year 1 (2011)

I decided to become a game director. I wanted to make games like Final Fantasy X, my childhood favorite, so I decided to pursue my dream in Japan, the home of JRPGs. But my plan was thwarted by the Earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan in March. Instead, in August, I led an outreach team at my church to help the refugees. Here, I met a girl who would later become my wife. In October, the situation improved, so I finally flew to Japan.

Year 2 (2012)

I started the year learning Japanese at a language school. After all, living in a foreign country meant that I should learn their language. For me, kanji was the most challenging. Every day, I would write the same kanji several hundred times until I could memorize it. Repeating the process for a year, I estimated writing more than 100,000 kanjis. The hard work paid off when I acquired JLPT N1 in the same year. It was the highest certificate of Japanese language proficiency with less than a 25% acceptance rate. I also got my first part-time job at a ramen restaurant. Washing dishes, making ramen, and serving customers at a thousand yen or about $10 an hour wasn't exactly fun. But I would still do it to improve my spoken Japanese.

Year 3 (2013)

I joined the two-year game development program at a senmon-gakkou, a vocational school. I remember being very anxious on my first day. What if I can't read the kanji? What if I don't understand what my classmates say? But whenever I had doubts about myself, I tried to focus on my goal. Six months into school, I created my first game, SPIKE. It was an action puzzle game incorporating the concept of Hookshot from Zelda. I won the Bronze Award in a Game Development Competition and used the award to get my first coding job. I worked on a mobile game using ActionScript3 for the client and Java for the server. After realizing that I learn considerably more by working than studying, I quit vocational school midway. The two-year adventure into Japan was fun and exciting but, at the same time, lonely. So I return home to South Korea to reunite with my family and plan my next steps.

Year 4 (2014)

I tried to go back to the US but to no avail. No companies wanted to sponsor a visa for someone with only six months of work experience. I shared this with my friends, including the girl who would later become my wife. She seemed to enjoy the idea that I would finally stop living abroad and stay nearby for once. She seemed different suddenly, so I asked her out, and we started dating. We had been together ever since. I applied to hundreds of companies in Korea just to get rejected every time. I worked as a part-time IT admin in the interim, making around $1000 per month. For each rejection, I would say sorry I didn't make it. My girlfriend would say. It's okay; I believe in you. Six months into job searching, I finally got a summer internship at NCSoft, a game giant in South Korea. Despite proving myself technically, I didn't get the return offer; I was back to ground zero. I would say sorry I didn't make it. She would say, it's okay. I believe in you. In December, I finally received a full-time offer from eBay Korea with a salary of 3.6 million Korean won or around 33,000 USD. The number might look very low, but it was a decent salary for an entry-level in Korea. Nonetheless, I finally became a software engineer.

Year 5 (2015)

I got assigned to my first team. I learned new technologies. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, and React for the frontend. C# and .net for the backend. Having come from a gaming background, I found these web technologies fascinating. I built websites, apps, background workers, dashboards, and many more. I enjoyed the growth and learning. There was nothing more exciting than watching myself grow and acquire new skills.

Year 6 (2016)

I went on a date with my girlfriend to Sebit Island in Seoul. Here, I propose with a rose in hand. She says yes. We got married a few months after.

Year 7 (2017)

An amazon recruiter reached out to me through LinkedIn. She asked whether I was interested in an opportunity in the US. I replied yes and started LeetCoding for the first time. The phone screen could have gone better, but I still got invited to their onsite. I flew to Seattle from Seoul just for the onsite interview. I received an offer; $140k, including sign-on. Pretty good. I started Day 1 in April. Coming back to the states after six years was exciting. But I quickly grew tired of working on the frontend and the lack of growth at Amazon. I sought support, but none could fill the emptiness. After a lot of thought, I decided to grind LeetCode again.

Year 8 (2018)

I applied to companies like Google and Microsoft. Google rejected me, but my interview with Microsoft went very well. The hiring manager at Microsoft asked where I would be in 5 years. I answered, "I have no idea exactly where. But wherever that may be, I'll always be at a place where I'll have become a better, greater person." He loved my answer and extended an offer maxed out for my level. I accepted. My journey with Microsoft began.

Year 9 (2019)

I bought a used electronic drum set on eBay for $300. Learning to play drums has always been at the top of my bucket list. I set a goal and practiced every day. Two months in, I started playing for a local church band. I practiced at least 2 hours a day, copying the song's every stroke and movement from YouTube. Repeating such a rigorous routine every other week was demanding but also rewarding. It was the most fun I had in years.

Year 10 (2020)

Covid-19 hit, and the world was in jeopardy. At first, working from home was challenging, but I quickly adapted to it. I configured my productivity couch setup. The persistent hip and back pains I had from sitting a long time were gone. I couldn't be happier and more productive. Oh, and I got Covid.

Year 11 (2021)

My wife came up with this funny idea of starting a YouTube channel. For some reason, she thought I'd be good at it. I laughed at her thinking what a silly idea. Next week, we started filming the video A Day in the Life of a Software Engineer Working from Home. It went viral getting 1.5 million views in the first month of release. The channel also got more than 20,000 subscribers in two months.

Year 12 (2022)

My growth at Microsoft had stagnated. I searched for answers - from my manager, the work, and the company. Then I realized how foolish it is to find answers in such, for the truth lies not in those but LeetCode. I received a few offers, including one from Google. Google had always been my dream company, but after contemplating, I decided to join another that offered a better growth opportunity and higher compensation. And here I am, making a video reflection of my life journey.

Summary

When I look back, my career journey had more failures than successes. Some people see me as a successful software engineer. But with such a late career start and my first annual salary of around $33k, my beginning wasn't that rosy. If I had to pick one thing I did well, however, I would choose determination. I would write the same kanji hundreds of times for hours until I could read and write the entire paragraph in Japanese. I would practice drums for hours until I could copy the song entirely. Many said it’s nearly impossible to return to the US once you are out, but here I am. I could never imagine myself making a six-figure salary back in college. Who would have known I would end up saying no to Google? In retrospect, I never gave up. No matter where I was, I always strived to be better than who I was yesterday: a better me, a better man, and a better husband.

PIRATE KING

Pirate King is said to be the freest person on the ocean. To protect the ones I love, I have to be stronger, or I'll lose them all. "Power isn't determined by your size but the size of your heart and dreams." - Monkey D. Luffy. I still have a long way to go. But like the sun that rises no matter how dark the night is, the ship will sail, and I will prevail. I will journey on and become the PIRATE KING.

“Power isn't determined by your size but the size of your heart and dreams.” — Monkey D. Luffy

 
PIRATE KING

YouTuber & Software Engineer

https://www.youtube.com/piratekingdom
Previous

How I would learn to code (if I could start over)
Next

Software development be like… Expectation vs Reality