This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Nicholas Masters
A year ago I was walking new construction homes as a field manager. I managed the installation of tile wood and carpet in new construction homes. It’s served my family and I well, and put me in situations of self growth I would have never gotten otherwise. But I hit a wall and upward mobility was stagnant. Before I was a field manager I was a professional disc golfer. It was always an adventure, I got to tour the country playing tournaments and teaching clinics. That era instilled in me a deep understanding of planning, discipline, and the power of creating systems to excel.
Current day… I am obsessed with coding. My mind is always buzzing with what I am currently learning, and what technical puzzle I am solving at the time. This passion ignited on a whim last year. I was sent a link to web development coding bootcamp from a family friend. In a whirlwind I called my amazingly supportive wife, and within 20 minutes I was enrolled in the bootcamp. Class started that same day. I had a buzzing in my body, that had me excited and scared all at the same time.
The challenges, the creativity, and the complex problem-solving drove me to fall deep into coding. This post marks the beginning of me sharing my journey. From fairway to construction site to becoming a full stack developer.
Graduating bootcamp last June, the pressure to secure a job intensified with our first child due in February. Despite relentless effort, not a single interview materialized between June and August. Providing for my family meant “biting the bullet” and returning to construction. It felt like taking a quadruple bogey on the tournament’s final hole, but just like in disc golf, mental resilience became key. I pivoted. I recognized my skills weren’t “up to snuff,” especially with AI raising the industry bar. My love for coding made the decision clear: Rise and grind.
That “quadruple bogey” taught me not to let one bad hole ruin the entire round. I went back into the lab and re-evaluated my coding habits and systems, realizing there was immense room for improvement. The “get rich quick” mentality wasn’t working. My focus shifted to a long-term, sustainable journey of growth.
One year into this revised plan, I’m already seeing progress. I’m currently interning, building the syllabus website for the very bootcamp I attended – a full-circle moment. This valuable experience, coupled with freelance work and my dedicated side project, is where I’m gaining real-world skills. My current side project, a Disc Golf Course and Round Tracker, directly reinforces my internship learnings in PHP and SQL, allowing me to immediately apply and practice what I’m currently using.
While PHP and SQL aren’t my primary languages, this hands-on experience has been truly eye-opening, revealing just how much React streamlines development under the hood. Building reusable OOP components in PHP has definitely made me itch to return to React’s ecosystem! Once this internship concludes, my focus shifts to an even bigger project I’m eager to tackle: a MERN stack application.
The road from professional disc golf and construction management to becoming a full-stack developer is proving to be a true test of grit and adaptability. It’s a journey I’m embracing fully, learning new languages and paradigms with every step. I’m committed to building a solid portfolio and making this career transition a success. Through this blog, I aim to share the raw, unfiltered experience the “aces” and the “bogeys” if you will. I hope to connect with others on a similar path. Join me as I continue to build, learn, and grow in the world of web development.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Nicholas Masters