About me

Brian in a bucket hat

I'm Brian DeVries. Thanks for stopping by, I'm glad you're here!

Let me share a bit about myself and my career.

Some Background

I was introduced to programming during my sophomore year of college (2014).

At the time I was working toward a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering.

I enjoyed it but saw my engineering degree through to the end and started my engineering career.

I graduated with ~$80,000 in student loans (not including my wife's...). Once the student loan payments started in the fall of 2017, I felt enslaved.

I could afford the payments, but I was staring down the barrel of a 20+ year payback period if I didn't do something about it.

My solution was to start a side hustle to make extra money to put towards paying back loans.

I tried all kinds of things.

The results were always the same. I'd make little-to-no money and get frustrated working extra time for nothing.

One year into my career (2018), I landed a job where I wrote a little software to interface with the circuits I was building. I was stoked!

But another year after that, I felt drained by the hardware part of my job.

I was less interested in the electrical engineering aspect, but I loved the programming.

And I was still trying to find a way to make money on the side.

My wife asked, "Why don't you try to do a side hustle with programming?"

I knew enough about software to be dangerous. So rather than just doing something on the side, why couldn't I become a full-time software developer?

Writing software again brought back all the excitement I originally had experienced back in college.

I was interested in web development. I found tutorials and courses to learn how to build websites through online resources.

Almost 3 years out of college, I transitioned from engineering into a full time software programming job.

Now I'm able to pay more towards my student loans and save more money doing the thing I love to do.

Since I've graduated college, I've learned a lot about programming, self-improvement, money management, habit building, and more.

I started this website to share what I've learned on my journey. I want to inspire others to take action and better themselves.

Let's talk! I love hearing from readers. And if you'd like to learn about something I haven't written about, I'm open to suggestions.