THIS IS NOT A RECAP. THIS IS A MAP.
If you’ve been reading this blog since it started — and statistically you have not — you’ve watched me bounce between titles like a pinball that somehow still pays rent.
IT operations. Coding bootcamp. Junior developer. Unemployed guy with a homelab. Product owner of a grocery app nobody asked for. HOA President. Now a guy taking CAPM prep classes on Saturday mornings in hopes of being a PM some day before retirement.
Today I’m naming the pattern out loud: I have been pivoting for years. And for once, I hope this next one is the last one for a while.
THE PIVOTS, IN ORDER, WITHOUT THE THERAPY BILL
Before 2020. Late-night talks with my wife. Research. A decision that “stay put forever” was not a plan. The target was a coding bootcamp and a shot at building things for a living.
Then COVID. Plans paused. Life happens. The decision didn’t die; it waited.
2022. I quit. I enrolled at Coding Dojo. Fourteen weeks, hundreds of hours, Python/Java/MERN, and the particular flavor of imposter syndrome that comes with being a grown adult in a room of people who seem to already know everything. I wrote about that origin story here.
Wells Fargo, IT Tech Operations. Before and through that transition: 30–60 interactions a day, ServiceNow, escalation under time pressure, being the person who keeps the knowledge base honest. Not glamorous. Extremely real. You learn prioritization when the queue does not care about your feelings.
Apprenticeship → Richmond Ambulance Authority. After the coding bootcamp, Maxx Potential put me on a path that became my first official junior developer role. I was modernizing mission-critical systems. Creating and updating documentation. Access control reporting. SQL Server. Active Directory. A tight timeline and a small team. For a while, the pivot worked. I was what I set out to become. And for the first time, actually liking a job and the people I worked with.
October 2025. Company restructuring. Position eliminated. Unemployment. Again.
That was almost a year ago. A year of applications into the void, ATS filters, “we’ll keep your resume on file,” and the slow realization that waiting politely is not a strategy.
WHAT UNEMPLOYMENT ACTUALLY LOOKED LIKE
I did not spend twelve months refreshing Indeed, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, Lensa, GitHub… and calling it a personality.
I built a homelab. I shipped side projects. I put Yum4Less on the actual internet at yum4less.com. I was elected to serve as HOA President for my community and turned board chaos into agendas, checklists, and documentation that outlive any one meeting. I finished the Google Project Management Certificate on Coursera. I enrolled in a CAPM exam prep through New River Community College.
None of that replaces a W-2. It depletes a cashed in IRA though! But its evidence that I refuse to freeze in place.
THE NEW DIRECTION: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Here’s the honest part with a professional coat of paint.
Software development begain to teach me how work actually moves: dependencies, incomplete requirements, people who mean well and still miss dates, and the difference between “done” and “passing CI.” Enterprise IT taught me triage and stakeholder noise. Building my own product taught me ownership when nobody else is going to write the charter for you. The HOA taught me influencing volunteers who do and do not report to you — which is, inconveniently, most of project management.
So the pivot is not random. It is a consolidation.
I decided to aim at project management roles — preferably ones where I can grow under someone who has already survived a few programs — while CAPM prep and real applications reinforce each other. Study the method. Apply the method. Rinse. Repeat.
Junior titles. Associate titles. Assistant titles. I will take the door that opens. And crash through it like the Kool-aid Man!
AND THEN THERE’S THE STRETCH
Local to Mechanicsville is QubicaAMF — bowling entertainment capital equipment, US headquarters. A short drive from my house. A destination I have spent time in. Recently for my sons 18th birthday. Then this PMO Project Manager role falls in my lap, or rather in my job search. It asks for more experience than I have. To hell with it! Be brave. Be bold. Let’s go!
Call it naive. Call it shooting for the stars with the full expectation that gravity still works. I would rather send a serious application that might fall flat than talk myself out of a role that sits in my own ZIP code and lines up with where I’m trying to go.
For that application I went further than a resume dump. I researched. I found articles. I crafted a plan. I built a PMO-style case study. I made more than a generic resume and cover letter.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE FROM HERE
Best case: someone sees the pattern — IT ops → software delivery → product ownership → community leadership → deliberate PM education — and decides the stretch is a feature, not a bug.
Likely case: QubicaAMF passes, I keep applying to junior and associate PM roles, I finish CAPM prep, I keep Yum4Less alive, I keep the board running, I keep showing up.
Either way, the pivot is real. The unemployment year was not empty. And for a forty-something who already reinvented himself once through a bootcamp, starting closer to the bottom of a new ladder is uncomfortable — and still better than standing still.
IF YOU’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR OWN JUNGLE
I don’t have a TED Talk. I have a timeline and a stubborn streak.
Talk to the people who share your bills. Pick a direction that consolidates what you already know. Document the work. Study on purpose. Apply to the realistic roles and the occasional stretch so your ambition doesn’t atrophy. Use AI as a partner if it helps you go deeper — not as a substitute for judgment.
And if the stretch falls flat: good. You practiced aiming up.
ANYWHO, as always… If you’d like to support my work, you can donate via PayPal.