From Banking to Data Entry: How Life's Unexpected Turns Shaped My Journey

A Career in Banking

Life has a way of surprising us, often leading us down paths we never imagined. My story is a testament to how unexpected and unplanned changes can forever alter our personal history. In 1988, I began my professional journey in the safe and stable world of boutique banking at a well-known, prestigious bank in the Santa Barbara area, serving the rich, businesses, and college students. Little did I know that I would soon find myself doing data entry in the attic of a bike store, sweating in extreme heat.

I loved my job at the bank. My career path started with a series of jobs, from running my lawn mowing "business" and being a paperboy to working at the Airport Drive-in theater, Sears in the La Cumbra Shopping Center, Payless Shoe Source in the Turnpike Shopping Center, Bank of America on Hollister in Goleta, and finally landing at my ideal bank. My plan was simple: handle cash, learn, deal with customers, and absorb as much information as possible to build a successful career in banking, real estate, loans, and investing. This specific bank was owned by a well-known developer who was personable, knowledgeable, humorous, approachable, and humble.

My coworkers, seemingly all with nicknames like Biff, Muffy, Slick, etc., were the best I had ever worked with. They were friendly, helpful, skilled, funny, brilliant, and amazing overall. I looked forward to going to work each day. On my 20th birthday, they surprised me with a lemon meringue pie, singing "Happy Birthday" and celebrating with me. It was one of the best birthdays I have ever had, a stark contrast to my otherwise uncelebrated birthdays, even by my fiancé at the time. We drank beer, swapped stories, and enjoyed that wonderful pie together. It’s moments like these that made the job so special.

The Unexpected Turn

However, in 1988, after a Halloween party at the bank's downtown branch, my career took an unexpected turn. I made the mistake of using a hair dye that turned my hair jet black, thanks to a well-meaning clerk at Thrifty's Drug Store. The following Monday, I was let go. They claimed my cash drawer was off, but I knew the real reason—I couldn't serve their high-class clients with my hair looking completely fake. Suddenly, I found myself out of the banking world I had loved so much.

From Suits to Blue Jeans

A few weeks later, I was desperate for a job and turned to my friend Dave Chang. He was working on a new type of catalog that combined all the catalogs from bike part suppliers into a single, logically organized catalog. Bike stores could look up bicycle parts and get the best prices from various suppliers. Out of the fancy suit and into blue jeans, I climbed into a hot, sweaty attic above a bike store. Here, I found some of the best coworkers a person could spend time with. The positive atmosphere made the job enjoyable, even though the owner issued a no-talking rule that we cleverly circumvented by using the "talk" command on our computers.

Facing Challenges

Though far removed from my banking ambitions, the job became a crash course in Unix basics. I learned to install SunOS from QIC tape, manage disk partitioning, and even dabble in SQL and shell scripting. But as much as I appreciated the learning experience, I didn’t plan to stay long. My goal was to return to banking once my hair returned to its natural color. However, the reality of the situation began to sink in. I was working long hours for a low hourly wage, essentially trading time for money just to make ends meet. I never seemed to have money when I needed it.? It was exhausting, both physically and mentally, and it became clear that I needed to find a way to add more value to the company if I was ever going to improve my situation.

Guerrilla Tactics and the Turning Point

Life had other plans. I started a new relationship, and as we discussed our future together, I made a commitment: I would focus on earning money while she pursued her dream of becoming an artist. To fulfill my end of the bargain, I worked holidays and overtime, trading more of my personal time for money. She never paid for anything and had complete access to my ATM card. But when she failed out of school, it was heartbreaking. I felt as though I had let down the very people who believed in us, her family, who had also become my family.

Determined to make a difference, I poured my energy into the bike catalog job. I created a system that took suppliers' descriptions of bike parts, broke them down to essential information, and matched them with generic descriptions. This was done using a series of SQL queries against an Ingress RDBMS. Generating a percentage match. But developing this program wasn’t easy. The owner didn’t see the value in such innovation, so I had to work on it secretly, using the company’s processing power at night to avoid detection. It was a form of guerrilla tactics—working after hours, sneaking in improvements whenever I could. Despite the challenges, the system worked, streamlining data entry and improving efficiency.

Recognition That Never Came

However, instead of a promotion or acknowledgment, the owner handed my system over to “actual programmers” to refine it further. My contributions fell mostly on deaf ears. I hoped for recognition, but none came. The business wasn’t taken seriously, and the owner, while a nice guy, was out of touch. I had failed my partner, and she was losing faith in me. I was constantly tired, surviving on coffee and sugar, and barely eating due to cash flow issues. And mainly on the weekends. Health issues began to emerge, but without insurance, I had no choice but to push through.

A New Path for Love

Ultimately, I realized that to build a stable future now, I needed to embrace the world of computers, Unix, programming, databases, networking, etc., leaving the banking world in the past. So, I decided to pivot to a technology career permanently and away from the stability and comfort of banking, not out of love for the field but for those who depended on me. I also began to engineer a plan to work from home (partly inspired by my friend Vince) as much as possible, ensuring that my partner would not have to choose between her art career and a family. After all, if Matthew Broadrick could run a nuclear war from home in 1983, I should be able to work something out.

Embracing the Journey

That is how I moved from being an upscale banker to doing data entry for a bike catalog company in a hot attic—that and a hair dye accident. Life is unpredictable, and sometimes, the detours shape our journey unexpectedly. I might have accidentally entered the computer profession, but I stayed for those I care about.