Launch! School?

My name is Dan Boghean.

I’ve always wanted to document my career path and there’s no better time than the present, so here we go. If nothing else, this will serve as a great reminder for where I have been and where I am going.

Let’s go way back for a second. We had just recently moved to the United States from Romania when I was 7 and I am now 10 years old and no longer speaking broken English. My parents bought a Compaq computer with speakers that mounted on the side of the huge, block-like CRT monitor. We lived out in the middle of a giant farm in the middle of no-where, Missouri. My days were mainly spent riding my bike through the endless barns or running around outside pretending to be Jackie Chan. Thus, you can image my surprise when my brother setup the computer in the windowless room of our basement. All the sudden, I could enjoy the virtual worlds of Need For Speed II or Rollercoaster Tycoon without ever having to leave my house! I was over-joyed and spent many-a-hours playing on that behemoth of a computer.

I become obsessed with what the computer could offer. Shortly after we got the computer, we hooked it up to the dial-up network. All of the sudden, I had access to something way beyond the confines of the endless farm. I started playing Neopets and Runescape and looked forward to getting home from school so I could make some bread or fight some skeletons to level up my character. Playing these games started to pique an interest for how they were made. I started to learn Blender 3D and found a rando who was looking for people to help him make a game. He was going to code it and I was going to make the 3D assets. I made all kinds of things like vehicles and guns in Blender (all low-poly, of course) and I had a blast doing it. Unfortunately, as with most half-hearted ventures, this game went nowhere, but I still enjoyed the process and wanted more.

I thought, why can’t I learn how to code the game so I don’t have to lean on someone else? I started looking for C++ tutorials and did some basics, but I quickly lost steam and let it fall to the way-side. My gaming ambitions died there. But, I did find I enjoyed programming, so I looked for other ways to scratch that itch. I started learning HTML, CSS, and PHP from a website started by a teenage girl who wanted to teach others how to code. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of it, but it was incredibly well done! I really enjoyed the technical aspects of coding that produced a digital output that you could easily and quickly manipulate. I ended up creating several websites with one that sticks out being a directory of links where users can submit websites and vote on ones they like best. I was pretty proud!

Fast-forward to the end of high school. By this point, I knew HTML, CSS and PHP decently enough to be able to create a functional website. I was getting ready to figure out what I wanted to major in when I went to college the next year. I was between two majors, computer science and architecture. Ultimately, upon the recommendation of my counselor, I decided to go the architecture route. After all, I enjoyed art and math and I thought it would be a good blend of both. So off to Penn State I went!

An architecture degree is 5 years and you get thrown into the gauntlet from the very start. While other majors allow you to take a year or two of general education courses before you fully commit to your major, architecture dives right in from day 1. I quickly had to adapt to the rigors of architecture school and the creativity requirement. I always thought myself to be somewhat creative, but while I may have been a bigger fish in a smaller pond in high school in this regard, I was struggling to keep up with all of the other talented students in my class. Eventually I figured out a way to push myself and keep pace with everyone else, but I would say there were many-a-days that had me thinking of quitting architecture.

One of the main threads throughout architecture school for me was technology. In most projects, I tried to find ways to incorporate new presentation tools like Augmented Reality or new rendering techniques. I took extracurricular classes that taught me the Processing language or allowed me to play with Arduinos. I participated in a class where we used Grasshopper to design a pavilion made of bamboo and plexiglass. I was part of the Beehive which was a student-led group that taught incoming students the software that they would need to make them successful. Ultimately, if there was something that was technology related, I hopped on board.

After graduating from Penn State, I moved to Denver to accept a job as an Architectural Intern. I still felt like I didn’t know anything about architecture, but I worked with good people, and I learned a lot! I learned Revit, the software used in architecture to design buildings, and quickly became an expert. I was the go-to guy for any Revit questions, even though I was fresh out of school. During this time, I studied for and took the 7 architectural exams that were required in order to become a licensed architect. I passed all 7 exams in 2016 at the age of 25, only 2 years after graduating. I thought I made it! This is what all the hard work was for! But of course, I wasn’t a real architect in my eyes. I passed the exams, but there was still a huge knowledge chasm.

I began to get annoyed at the repetitiveness and dullness of the everyday practice of architecture. The grass is always greener on the other side, so I decided to take my newly-minted architect title to a different firm to get a change of pace. I joined a high-end residential architecture firm almost on a whim. They did some really cool work and I was excited to do fun architecture. But that excitement quickly diminished. Eventually, I fell into the same dull rut and I hated it. So, after endless days of torment, I decided to jump ship. I applied for a BIM Manager position at a medium sized firm and for some reason, they decided to take a chance on me. I had no experience in BIM other than being really good at Revit, but I figured I could learn on the job. Luckily, the environment couldn’t have been better, as I was able to be mentored on things I didn’t know and quickly grew into the role.

As I learned more about BIM, I was excited by the many opportunities to create efficient workflows. I started to learn Dynamo for Revit which is a visual programming tool that allows you to manipulate data in the platform. This allowed me to create scripts like renumbering multitudes of sheets or doing geometric studies. I was having a blast! Eventually, I hit the ceiling on what I could do with Dynamo alone, so I started to learn Python. This gave me the ability to extend the functionality of my scripts and create even more complex tools for the firm. Eventually, with the advent of the PyRevit plug that allowed tools to be created using Python without Dynamo, I began creating a suite of tools for the firm. I loved it when someone came to me and asked me to do something that Revit wasn’t able to do out of the box. It was a fun challenge and the time flew by when I was working on these problems.

One of the things I learned was that it isn’t so hard to learn a new programming language once you know the fundamentals. The knowledge I acquired in Python allowed me to transition to creating C# add-ins rather seamlessly. And it was then that I knew this is what I wanted to do! Not C# in particular, but programming. I looked at my day and I found that I was at my happiest and most engaged when I was programming. Those were the parts of my job that I looked forward to the most. I spent years searching for what I wanted to do with my career, and I think I finally found it. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that there isn’t a perfect job where you enjoy what you do 100% of the time, but compared to my experience in architecture, I was happiest when coding.

With that realization, I had to figure out what to do next. BIM management has some opportunities for programming, but ultimately, that is not the focus. I was ready to transition to tech, in one form or another. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like I had the chops to fit in with the tech crowd. While I thought I had a solid grasp on programming fundamentals, I felt like my education was a patchwork of tutorials that didn’t give me the proper grasp on all the aspects I needed to know in order to be a successful programmer. I grappled with doing a coding bootcamp and, as I am wont to do, I spent countless hours researching different bootcamps in search for the perfect one for me. Unfortunately, the $18,000 or so price tag on most of them kept me at bay.

It was at this point that I randomly stumbled on Launch School in a reply to a coding bootcamp Reddit thread. I went to the website and read their philosophy and it all clicked. It was exactly what I was looking for! And once I found out that it was self paced and at a reasonable monthly subscription, I was hooked. I decided to start the Launch School journey at the beginning of February 2021 with hopes that I could build on my basic programming knowledge and come out with enough JavaScript experience that I would be hirable.

Well, I am one month into the program, and I have to say, that I am absolutely sold. It is comprehensive and well-thought out and plays well into my learning style. I love the self-paced aspect of it, even though some days I wish I could be more disciplined, but it gives me the space I need to make it work in the time that I have. I am extremely happy I found Launch School and I can’t wait to see what the future holds. I am determined to be a great programmer and I am willing to work my butt off to get there. Hopefully at the end of this Launch School journey I will find a company that is willing to take a chance on me!

Cheers!