“Why do you want to be a developer?”

This question seems to come up a lot during interviews. It is a different question from “Why do you want to work here?” because it speaks to something bigger than a job. It speaks to one’s identity.

Like many other college students, I began college with very little direction. My sister was the only person I knew who had attended and graduated from college, so I used her as my example. She was working in accounting, so I, too, decided to pursue a business degree.

I started off without a degree path, hoping that while fulfilling the business core, I would happen upon a topic that really spoke to me. In reality, what spoke to me was that I did not want to study business. Unfortunately, thousands of dollars into the process, I was already invested, so I would have to choose a degree.

After trying out a few classes in business administration, marketing and human resources, non-academic forces drew me to information systems. Really it was a combination of three things: competition, practicality, and experience. Competition because there was a boy that needed a taste of humility. Practicality because, well, the tech industry is not waning. Experience coming from the non-academic half of my life at that time– working for a local granite countertop company.

I worked at Brazilian Best Granite through college and I saw the growth of the company from a single storefront and small warehouse space, to a huge fabrication facility with three additional retail locations the company now boasts. I saw the impact that technology can have on small businesses to keep them relevant, competitive and organized. In the case there, we used a very powerful, semi-custom software package created specifically for this industry that handled client information, inventory, scheduling and quoting. Without this software, I guarantee that we would have not been able to grow as we did, with minimal bumps and consistent customer satisfaction.

My hope for my future in tech is to be able to work again for small businesses in a client facing consulting role. Consulting makes so much sense for me because in that role one could help businesses in a customized way, which semi-eliminates my seedy impression of salespeople. I was a salesperson, so I can think that.