Hey there! Thanks for checking out this entry in my blog on Dev Bootcamp. Today I watched a video chat that was hosted by Shereef Bishay (Dev Bootcamp founder) in which he gave a short talk on the origin of Dev Bootcamp and some of the ideology behind it. The chat wasn't live, so I was unable to ask any questions myself, but I was happy to hear the founder (of the program I just dropped $12,000 on) discuss his ideas on the process.
Shereef spoke about how the program began as, and always will be, an experiment. You know, the kind of experiment where a mad scientist sees if his rats can make it to the end of the maze. Well, Shereef emphasized that, yes... we're the rats. But rats the scientist is hoping to turn into other mad scientists!
You see there's something about this particular lab that seperates it from the schools and classrooms I've been a part of so far. In most if not all of my schooling to date, everyone has entered the classroom with an "ugh" attitude. Sure, we all wanted to learn. We all had "bright" futures ahead of us as long as we just completed the course work and studied for the final. Well, some people did this, graduated with honors, and moved on to great starts in great careers. Some others did exactly the same and then continued on down paths that led nowhere. I like to think I'm somewhere between these two.
When I moved to New York City shortly after getting a Bachelor's degree in Theatre and Music, I was ecstatic! I was also absolutely and positively mortified. I just spent FOUR YEARS of my life preparing myself for this move, and now that I'm here I feel totally unprepared!? What. The. Hell. Still, I forged onward. I worked for a good portion of my first year in the city doing odd jobs for a temp company. The summer before I moved here I was doing hard manual labor on a farm everyday. With the temp company my jobs included but weren't limited to:
- Wine Tasting Spitoon Emptier
- TV extra
- Extremely Expensive Purse and Watch Salesman
- Hand Model...seriously.
- Elevator Operator
- Barback
The last day I worked there my temp agent was asking me how much experience I had with cutting and polishing gem stones..."Ummm...no experience?". I moved here to be an actor/singer!
So, I did what any actor/singer would do and got a more permanent job as a waiter in a nice Manhattan restaurant. Well, if you've ever worked in a Manhattan restaurant you'll know that sometimes even the nicest ones are anything but nice. I worked my ass off there to make rent and get myself into positions where I could audition occasionally and have enough money to live off for a time. I spent my spare time working on my acting website I had made, playing video games with friends, chasing women, you know the whole deal. I had climbed from moving to one of the craziest cities in the world with nothing but my backpack to actually having a life! Or, at least the beginning of one right?
Well sure! I could work all the time in a job I hate so that I have enough money to live here. I could spend all the time I'm not at that miserable job going to audition after audition and hoping someone will give me the green light. I could suffer all these inconveniences because I was working towards a dream I'd had my whole life! But hold on wait, what was that dream again?
I'd set out from the start with the ultimate goal of becoming a Broadway actor and eventually transitioning to screen. Then I watched four of my best friends get married over the next three years. Saw one hold his child just minutes after his birth. Gave a speech as the best man and witnessed true and utter happiness in the lives of people who I hold incredibly close to my heart. Experiences like that are eye opening in the craziest ways.
I realized that maybe my goal was never actually to be some famous actor. Really, truly, all along the only thing I wanted was to be happy. A good life. I witnessed my friends (the same friends who got me into all sorts of situations throughout my life) reach out to the world and grab their own happiness. I saw one of my best friends hold his own child in his arms! Holy shit...I was an adult.
I went back to NYC and got right back to work in the restaurant. I worked night and day as a waiter and as a struggling artist. I took note of the older actors around me. All of whom I consider to be wonderful people, mostly living out their thirties single and still on the audition grind. Some happily dating someone in the business who didn't care that they would maybe never be able to have kids because of how demanding a job they had. Spending major holidays in far away cities skyping with their loved ones after an evening performance and then going to bed alone. Of course, there are exceptions. I have other friends who are 25 and landing gigs right and left. Flying around the world on someone else's dime singing, dancing and being hella merry. But I saw these possible futures for myself and dismayed.
I just want to do something I love and be happy doing it!! I want a family someday! I want to put a shiney new bike under the tree on Christmas eve and then show my kid how to ride it! Well the next day I went into work at the restaurant and my boss, Jeton, who I've worked for for the last year says to me "Good morning Chris! Hey, I want to talk to you about some things in case acting doesn't work out so you can have restaurant management skills in ten years." Well, first off Jeton...my name's Ricky. You weren't even close. Second, if in ten years I'm managing this restaurant, I will sell all my worldly belongings and become a hermit in the adirondacks. I quit! I took a break from the city and stayed with the parents for a bit. I reevaluated. I am and always will be passionate about the performing arts, but I have other passions too! I love the environment! I love technology! I started researching and finding out whether it was even possible for me to pull off some kind of career change. Then through some of my friends in the city (who are Software Devs at Bloomberg) I heard about Dev Bootcamp. I started to do more research on coding and the computer programming industry. I went through some codeacademy lessons, asked my friends more about what they do, and decided that this is something I could really get behind! Turns out this daunting code stuff is awesome once you google what most of the words mean!
So I took the plunge and here I am in Dev Bootcamp phase 0. After watching Shereef's video, I'm feeling more and more confident about taking that plunge. After my dealings in show business I know more than anyone that success doesn't happen in a day and every failure is something to learn from. This is a valued mindset at DBC. The DBC staff want you to come in and be ready to work. This is not a program where you can go in, go through the motions, study for some tests, and land a job. This is a program where you go in with a group of people who all are looking to change their lives for the better. We'll be put in a setting where we are all for the most part "all in". Normally the idea of spending 12+ hours a day sitting in front of a computer doing anything would make me sigh. But this...this is something I could get behind. Everyone else is learning too? We're going to be working in pairs and teams most of the time? The staff will be available to answer any and all questions regardless of how stupid they might be? Perfect.
Shereef compared DBC to a kitchen where every student is a chef and we're gonna all make some awesome soup together. Awesome. Love soup. Can't wait. I also love the ideas behind Dev Bootcamp and I love that we're in it together. I'm so happy to be pushing in a new promising direction and thrilled to be doing it in an environment that I feel I can thrive in.
I'm just starting my second week of phase 0 but I'm getting really excited about the in-person portion. Until then this lab rat's going to be doing the same thing he does every day...trying to take over the world! And you know, a whole heck of a lot of coding challenges.
Thanks for reading,
Ricky (not Chris)