TL;DR

It's about my life. Just your average developer bouncing from place to place till I found somewhere worth bouncing in one spot for ⚽ 🤭 .

👋🏿 Introduction

Hello World! (This greeting might be played out now 😅) My name is Umaesh Sundaralingam and I'm a 29 year old soccer-loving, coding-enthusiast who also dabbles in the forbidden world of crypto! I graduated in 2016 with an Advanced Diploma at George Brown College in the Computer Programmer Analyst program. Since graduation, I scoured the Greater Toronto Area for internship roles, entry-level positions but with the learning I had done in college, I wasn't prepared for the real world. 5 years later, I had my big break💥 and I'm currently working as a Software Engineer at SearchKings, a digital advertising agency in Toronto, Canada.

How did I get here, you ask? Well, this is my story!

📚 College Days

When I was a wee little boy, a high schooler debating on what undergraduate programs to apply to, I was between Accounting and Computer Science. What I felt was my biggest regret until recently was when I brought this up at a family get-together. My older cousin convinced my parents that there isn't a future with computers and that I should stick to Accounting. My parents listened...I followed. 3 years later, hating the Accounting program I was in at Brock University, I decided I couldn't live the next 45+ years possibly doing something I didn't absolutely love.

I dropped out.

I dropped out and stumbled upon the Computer Analyst Program at a college in Downtown, Toronto. I packed my bags, and moved back home! The next 3 years at college flew by, learning about computer hardware to various courses including (HTML, CSS, Javascript, C#, PHP, Systems Design, and a few others). The program itself wasn't anything near perfect, but it taught me the art of self-learning.

My now wife and I at my convocation in 2016

👨🏿‍💼 Adulting?

My first break after graduation was working as a Web Developer Intern at Savage Arms, a gun manufacturing plant in the summer of 2016. I worked on SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports for the owners as well as a Guest Registration app in ASP.NET. It was an amazing experience living out on my own and spending the time outside of work running around catching Pokemon 👾 (Pokemon GO released this summer).

On my last day at work, I got to hold one of their biggest rifles, chonky boy!

My next role was in the summer of 2017 as a Web Developer Intern at the Bank of Montreal. I worked in the Capital Markets department and my main duty was to build a reporting tool for the analysts/associates on the trade floor to better visualize internal analysis using Tibco's Spotfire. I also created a software utility to automate the process of ensuring that our various software service endpoints were healthy and running.

All this sounds like I made it in my field but I wasn't satisfied. I was jobless a year between summer internships. I spent the time in between internships applying to jobs and playing Fortnite 🎮 . I was also freelancing, creating WordPress websites for family and friends to get by. It wasn't until 2018, a year after my BMO internship that I finally found a full-time job. A job at a company which would then, change my life.

👨🏿‍💼 Present Day

I've been working at SearchKings for 1,293 days now (~3.5 years from the day I posted this article). I started as a Digital Operations Associate, installing tracking codes and other tools to customer sites which required a bit of programming experience and on my time off, I enrolled in a Udemy bootcamp, specifically, Colt Steele's, Web Developer Bootcamp (which is now refreshed for 2022)...and then it hit me.

I finally found the reason why I loved programming and computer science back when I was in high school. I loved building things and these programs, websites and tools/utilities I made, brought me a joy that couldn't be matched (sorry wife if you're reading this 😅💐 ). I was then approached by the Director of another department after seeing my interest and possibly my growth as a developer to join his team, as a Software Engineer (fancy eh? 🥳 ).

a WFH picture posted on my Instagram

I don't regret that decision of pursuing Accounting back in grade 12. If I didn't, I wouldn't be here today, being the person I am.

Thank you for reading and if you enjoyed this, please give me a follow! I'll be posting more regularly and would appreciate the support! 🚀