Justin Haney

Transferring from one team to another in my company was a daunting task. I knew I could manage and control every aspect of my current job, but what if I failed at the new one? Going into the unknown of the career world is a scary feeling for anyone. The ‘what-if’s’ continued to whisper all day long.

I practiced coding HTML and CSS daily.  During training, I felt like a world champ.  That was until I had to do the job in the real world. No code along, no training, and no fall backs. I was in the deep. I applied to the web team and the interviews went well. You know how you just have that connection and you feel it’s going to be a great fit. That was how it happened for me.  It was truly as Dwight Schrute would say "perfectenschlag".

They gave me a take- home test to complete and return. As with every test, I tend to over-think everything. Even when questioning my over-thinking, I TEND TO OVER THINK IT. I just remember wondering if this was a legitimate test or if they were checking to see if I would cheat? In college I was told to use google or bing (if you live that side of the track). That it would be a life saver. It couldn’t surely be that simple… to take a test home, google it, and be hired.  What if I googled something because I didn’t know what it meant? Would that be an issue? What if my code came up as the first thing you saw on google? Would I be considered a cheater? 

Well I can say it was nothing like that at all. In fact, googling turned out to be a positive thing.  It meant 'Hey, we won’t have to stand over him all day long, helping him. He knows how to research.'  I got the job as a webmaster and was on my way. I had taken the leap and found myself to be truly blessed as part of the web team. Every day I continue to aspire to learn and grow. So much lies ahead…