Dance Crew to Marines to Software
Raised vegetarian, shuffling with a dance crew, selling Comcast door to door, and serving in the Marine Corps as an air traffic controller, Sage Gonzales was “trying a lot of different things before kind of discovering this path.” Despite eventually landing a director role in property management, he wanted to find himself more in a tech role. After being introduced to the possible career paths for someone with education in technology, he started to do more research. Sage's path began in 2020 with Turing's 2008 backend cohort, and is now a Senior Platform Engineer at Ibotta.
Motivation to Pivot and Discovering Turing
With a history of roles in the military, sales, banking, and property management, Sage felt a growing inclination toward a tech career but wasn't entirely sure what that entailed. It wasn't until a role at Ibotta, a customer service position, that Sage was introduced to the world of software development.
“I wanted to move to a tech type of role, but I didn't really know much of what that meant. I actually had a friend who was working at Ibotta, the company I'm at now, in a customer service role. And he referred me to that role. And that was my introduction to tech.”
A pivotal moment came when a senior engineering manager, Paul Angelino, spoke highly of a colleague who had transitioned into tech through a boot camp, specifically Turing School of Software & Design. During a coffee chat, Paul, someone in the industry since the late 80s, expressed how he never really was impressed by bootcamp grads until he worked with developers out of Turing. Through this conversation Sage met with the Turing grad at Ibotta that Paul spoke so highly of (shoutout Bailey Diveley) and was introduced to the possibility of a career pivot. Intrigued by the success of Turing graduates and encouraged by conversations with friends and mentors, Sage and his girlfriend, Yesi (now fiancée! Congrats!) decided to enroll.
Motivation and Intention
Sage was immediately impressed by how the stereotypes of software development did not hold true especially within the Turing program. Despite learning fully remote and in the midst of COVID-19, he enjoyed how collaborative the learning environment was.
“Software developers kind of have this stigma around being in a dark room, being quiet, not really engaging with the team. And I think Turing breaks that stereotype because we have people from so many different backgrounds and industries.”
He could tell he made the right decision because he was surrounded by people who had similar stories to himself. In his cohort he was meeting people who were previously technical recruiters, sales professionals, and other veterans, making him feel more comfortable and encouraged for the future job market. Because of the pandemic many people had been laid off in Sage’s cohort pushing people to invest into their education. He quickly learned that he had to be “super intentional” about his learning experience. He was motivated knowing he was learning everything fresh alongside many others.
Struggle Bus
At Turing, Sage found comfort embracing that he was completely new to software development. This led him to create a channel of his own in the Turing slack to talk over concepts, practice test preparation, and foster a supportive community that he called “Struggle Bus.”
“We were learning this fresh and didn't really have as much preparation. And then that group was really helpful to ask the questions you might be nervous to ask in front of the larger cohort.”
Community engagement was a big part of Sage’s Turing experience. He not only developed Struggle Bus but also led one of the ERG groups at Turing, called Mezcla. Mezcla is one of the many Slack channels where people can network, share struggles in programming, and meet like-minded people. In particular, Mezcla is “a safe space for people who identify as Latino/a to share things that matter”. He also continued his mentor/mentee relationship with his colleague Bailey Diveley to not only get guided assistance with Turing but also maintain his relationship with the Ibotta staff.
Military Mindset
In the military, Sage learned the importance of being intentional with their time and efforts, focusing on areas of growth rather than shying away from challenges. This discipline proved to be invaluable, taking note of concepts he found daunting or difficult to then connect with peers, tutors, and others resources to “fill in the gap.”
Sage’s mindset was further exemplified by their willingness to assist others in their own learning through teaching. Within Struggle Bus Sage found the best way to solidify his and his peers learning was by offering walkthroughs of assignments and creating projects like a Pokémon API (Gotta Catch ‘Em All).
“That gave me a chance to teach some of this stuff back. And I think that's what really helped me get comfortable with these skills and catch up. And, you know, I think those are things that pre-military me would have shied away from. The military gave me that sort of discipline and motivation to take those things on”
Career Highlights
With that same motivation, Sage took his disciplined mindset into his role at Ibotta, but now for an engineering role. While there, he wanted to challenge himself and step outside his comfort zone once again, so he and a colleague recently spoke at an internal conference on imposter syndrome.
“Being new to the industry, it's tough to know you're providing value. So putting that presentation together and knowing that I’m providing some insight to other engineers was pretty cool.”
After only being an associate for 7 months he was promoted to a mid-level position. And now, recently was promoted to a senior role after 3 years at Ibotta. For those in the industry, you know that feeling of getting that title change. It’s like finally getting that holographic Charizard (Pokémon API callback 😏).
Being Intentional in Learning and Teaching
The learning style that helped Sage solidify concepts was being able to teach them back. Now at Ibotta, he treats every day like he’s still at Turing
“Embrace the topics that scare you, be intentional about your learning and, you know, look at other people's code. Sometimes I had the skills to get something done, but I didn't have the creativity. Then seeing other people's ideas. I'm like, okay, okay, I can do this.”
Sage's journey from dance crew to military to software development exemplifies how intentional focus and a disciplined mindset can lead to personal and professional growth. His proactive approach at Turing, which involved confronting difficult concepts head-on and collaborating with peers, fostered a deeper understanding of software development. His transformative journey showcases the power of discipline and perseverance, ultimately paving the way to a successful transition into a fulfilling tech career.
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And, there was no way I wasn’t going to show off Sage’s dance moves!
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