On June 18, 2021 the day had finally come. I had quit my job as a electromechanical technician at Georgia Pacific a week prior, and it was time to hit the road to Austin, TX.
I remember thinking for those long 10 hours of driving, if I was doing the right thing. After all I had no job lined up, I had no connections, and I did not have much runway to make things happen. What I did have though, was a few years of teaching myself how to create android applications, about 8 OSU courses completed, a partner who believed in me, and my plan dubbed “cannot possibly fail part 1”.
My plan was simple:
1. Practice algorithms every morning
2. Work on my app with at least one commit a day
3. Apply for at least one job in software engineering
4. Run out the stress
5. Land a role in software engineering, and make my hobby my job!
The stress of those first weeks are imprinted in my mind. The plague of self doubt would gnash its teeth at me bringing fear and uncertainty.
To this day I cannot believe it has worked out in the way that it has. I landed my first role as an Android developer for a local finance company, and then transitioned into full blown AAA video game development as an Engineer.
In August, I received my first video game credit in a game called Immortals of Aveum in which I worked alongside some of the most insanely smart people I have ever met, both at the studio I work for, and the clients studio. Seeing ‘James Tauzin’ roll by on the credits screen was, and still is surreal.
I have wracked my brain about how things could have turned out in such a positive way, because the truth is I am no one special. What I did have is self belief.
Reader, whoever you are or however you found this, my message to you is this, as trite as it will sound:
No matter how crazy our goal may sound to others, or how ambitious it may be, it is achievable. Our limit is defined only by what we believe we can do and what risks we are willing take to accomplish them.
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