DJ is a Junior Engineering Manager at Sprout. She shares with us her experiences starting up her career and how she’s used them to continue to grow.
From Police Academy to Animation, to IT
“When I was deciding what to take up in college, I originally wanted to be part of the police force or do animation… like for Pixar movies. Dev really wasn’t my first choice, but I was limited to the majors offered in the universities’ scholarship program. My next choice was learning about the science behind bug fixes: when I press a button and it doesn’t do what it needs to do. So that’s how I started in IT at Adamson University.”
The post-grad predicament
“After graduation, I had a difficult time finding a job. I graduated with Magna Cum Laude, but I didn’t have access to any of my records because Adamson’s library had burned down. But because many jobs asked for a transcript of records, I was rejected by everything I applied for. On top of that, I graduated early so companies were reluctant to hire someone so young. So I was forced to find jobs that didn’t require school records.
For 3 months I applied to smaller companies and eventually found a part-time job to keep me by. When I finally got my records, I continued to apply while I was working part-time and finally found a job in Quezon City.”
Calling the shots
“In my first job, I was part of a big group of developers and we had a fixed protocol for working. We were told what to do and never had to think about it— we just had to code. This was the system I was used to.
When I moved to Sprout, there were 5 employees in the whole company (including myself) and the only developer for Sprout Payroll— Sprout Payroll is my baby! This was the first time I was in charge and it was at Sprout that I experienced the most significant turning point in my career.
Without getting into it, I was put into a situation where I was challenged and needed to make a decision. Each option had its own risks and opportunities: they all would upset someone but also make something better. I panicked as I realized that I really had to make a decision; which was something I never had to do in my old job.
Alex pulled me aside and reminded me that the growth and development of Sprout is the first priority: sometimes what I want, what the client wants, or what others want, might not be the right move. I have to be able to take myself out of the situation and see what needs to be done and get closer to my goals for the company. This was the first time I had to call the shots and this is also how I started going about making decisions from there on out… Which eventually became more often.
Becoming a manager
“As the Sprout team got bigger, I had to take on more tasks and responsibilities, and as my responsibilities grew larger, I had a team to help me out. This is where I had to learn how to delegate— from being the only developer in Sprout to having a team to help me with coding so I can focus on managing the process, it was quite difficult to do. I really had to manage my priorities and with a bigger team, more opinions, and a rapidly growing company, I always had to turn to what I had learned the first time I had to call the shots: what does the company need to grow?”
What’s next?
“I’ve learned so much in my time in Sprout but I still have so much room to grow. Outside of work, I have my own personal project where I get to code— which is what I love to do. I look forward to learning more from the people around me and applying it to my work at Sprout as well as my passion project.”
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Sprout Rockstar of the Month is an initiative to highlight and celebrate the awesome people behind the company. Every month, we feature their stories and share how they used their experiences to become the rockstars that they are. Stay tuned next month for the next Sprout story!
The post DJ — Transforming Challenges Into Chances for Growth (Sprout Rockstar of the Month) appeared first on Sprout.
source https://sprout.ph/blog/dj-sprout-rockstar/
