Episode 53 – Poverty vs. Dedication – The Man With A Mission

Meet our next guest, Andre Witt. Andre grew up in an area where the school did the best they could, but the hope upon finishing high school was to simply be able to gain a two-year college education and find a trade. That was not enough for Andre. He aspired to so much more. And he succeeded in reaching his dreams. Listen to his tale during episode 53 of Mentoring Developers and find out how Andre made it happen and how you can too.

Andre’s Bio:

Andre is a recent graduate of Tech Elevator coding bootcamp. Trained as a Mechanical Engineer before becoming a management consultant, he began his career at Accenture, a global professional services firm. He expanded his analytical background and gained broad experience in manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals while using data to support decision making across various metric driven organizations.

Andre has recently accepted a programming position at the Cleveland Water Department where he’s excited to combine his core-consulting foundation, passion for technology and his newly-acquired developer skills in a software development.

Episode Highlights and Show Notes:

Arsalan: Hi everyone. Today my guest is Andre Witt. How are you, Andre?

Andre: Doing very well. How are you?

Arsalan: Doing great and I’m really happy to have you because not only are you going to a code school, which is something that we can all learn from, but you also have a very interesting story. You grew up around adversity. You grew up in a situation where you didn’t have anybody else to look up to. You found your larger family in poverty. Moving ahead in life was hard and you didn’t know where to start. People were struggling all around you. Yet, you really wanted to be different. There was something pushing you to see yourself as not part of that system, but that you could do better than that. Tell us a little about that.

Andre: Absolutely. As you are saying I grew up interested in going to school and doing a little better than what my parents did and they were adamant about that. When I’m got the opportunity, I received a chance to go off to a university, where I studied engineering. From engineering, I went to work as a management consultant for a pretty large consulting firm. As I began to grow there, I discovered that I wanted to be in the technical realm. Programming and doing anything with the terminal or coding in the most basic sense, there is a fear in that and you immediately stop and don’t do anything in that regard. While I wanted to grow in that area, that’s what made me do a pivot at that end and enroll in a coding school.

Arsalan: What kind of adversity were you facing as a child?

Andre: If we go all the way back to being a child, my parents got me to a point where we were out of poverty. My appearance grew up in extreme poverty. They got me to a point of at least stability. Unfortunately, they did not know any of the steps to success that I was seeking. So, that really came from my observation of others, and by aligning yourself with those who reflect the kind of life that you want to have.

Arsalan: I think that’s really interesting. A lot of us have this kind of problem of not having role models. We don’t have our parents, uncles, aunts, older friends, or people who are successful and are on a path that we would like to tread. So, there’s no one for us to follow. Then, the circle continues from generation after generation. We don’t see a way out of our situation. Sometimes people are satisfied with the way things are, but there are also people like you who are not and they are looking for a way out and something better in life, a more purposeful life. How did you find it?

Andre: I hope this doesn’t sound dark but I’m an African-American male and I think you have to put that lens there because it has guided and directed so much of my life. What I realized as I was going from childhood t...