October marked my two year anniversary at Pixafy. In the past two years, we’ve gone from a small group of four to a quickly growing group of more than 20 people. Seeing such growth from the perspective of being one of the first hires is a sight to behold. The only that thing rivals this is my own growth as a software engineer.
After graduating from college, one of my biggest fears while looking for a job is that while I felt like I knew how to program, I didn’t really know how to apply that knowledge to real world scenarios. What I was looking for in a company was an environment where I could learn as I go along; an environment that saw the potential that I knew I had and would help me to unlock it.
During my almost year-long job search, I began to think that such a company didn’t exist, but then I was hired by our president, Uri Foox. In my first week at Pixafy, Uri said the following to me that I often think about when I reminisce about the past two years. He said I knew how to program, but I didn’t know how to “think,” and it showed.
My first three months at Pixafy were tough, to say the least. Things that I thought would take 4 hours to complete would actually take 40+ hours. My coding, which I thought was pretty sweet, when applied to real work applications, was highly inefficient. However, under the guidance of Uri and the help from Jason and Josh, two more of the original 4, I began to unlock my potential; I learned how to “think.”
Two years later, to say that I have grown as a software engineer would be an understatement. The me of 2012 and the me of 2010 are worlds apart. I’m now able to take what I learned at this company to help teach our new and future hires. And while I know I may make some more mistakes along the way, I feel that now that I have attained the ability to “think” alongside the knowledge I attained in college, the sky’s the limit.
