How Did You Get Your Start?

Growing up in a family of doctors, I always assumed I would take that path – hoping I’d be the next orthopedic surgeon for the Redskins. 

At UVA, I blindly signed up for the typical pre-med schedule – your Chems, your Bios. 

But just a semester in, after shadowing and volunteering at a hospital, I realized I didn’t really love it. The idea of med school was just a socially acceptable way to cover up my undecidedness. 

That following semester, off a recommendation from a friend, I took CS1110. I immediately fell in love with the class.

For all my life school was just a means to an end, but this class was the first time I was actually excited to go to school. Majoring in CS was a done deal from there. 

I landed a software internship in San Francisco midway through my second year, but a month before it started, it got canceled due to COVID. I was pissed. I spent the summer home grinding through Cracking the Coding Interview (the holy grail of Software Engineering interview prep).

I applied to hundreds of places – companies I’ve never heard of, companies I’ll never remember, companies that seem to enjoy auto rejecting me a little too much.

Facebook was one of those companies. I got an interview, which turned into an internship, and then a full time job.