Youtube 📹
After transitioning out of The Knowledge House, I began building my YouTube recording studio to prepare for my first video, which I titled Hello World. My goal was to create a series of videos documenting my journey — applying to jobs, live coding, and live learning. Through these videos, I aimed to showcase my progress and skill set to potential employers, turning my YouTube channel into a dynamic online resume. Public views weren’t my focus; instead, I wanted to reach the right people — those who could see my potential and value.
After publishing my first video, which did OK 😄, I discovered my niche: creating videos about solving coding challenges. The timing aligned perfectly with my interview preparation, as coding challenges, data structures, and algorithms were areas I needed to strengthen. I made the strategic decision to document my journey, recording both independent and collaborative problem-solving sessions.
This endeavor proved to be an invaluable learning experience. It challenged me to expand beyond my comfort zone and develop a deeper understanding of fundamental problem-solving patterns, including:
- Frequency Counters
- Multiple Pointers
- Sliding Window
- Divide and Conquer / Binary Search
- Depth-First Search (DFS) and Breadth-First Search (BFS)
One of the coolest parts was how it forced me to expand my network. I started cold messaging developers on LinkedIn, asking if they’d pair program with me on camera to solve coding challenges. To my surprise, some awesome devs agreed, and we created some great content together.
Then something unexpected happened. I reached out to this one developer Raul Gil about pairing, and while he declined, we ended up having this deep conversation about how broken the hiring process is for developers. We kept in touch, and ironically, something even better than a pairing session came from that connection.
My First Role as a Software Engineer 🥳
So check this out — Raul Gil reached out to me about a SWE position at Tiny Organics, this awesome e-commerce company that makes organic baby and toddler food! He had just landed the Director of Engineering role there and thought I’d be a perfect fit for the team. After going through two rounds of interviews, I got the official offer — I literally couldn’t believe it! 🤯
After all the grinding, late nights coding, and pushing myself to grow, I finally hit my goal: getting paid to do what I absolutely love. Talk about a dream come true!
I spent a full year at Tiny Organics, and let me tell you what I got to build 🛠️I helped with the creation of this really cool subscription pausing system using the Finite State Machine model with Django-FSM for our location-based recipe feature. This was huge because it gave our 15K customers way more control over their orders — they could pause and adjust things exactly how they needed, which meant less wasted food and more money saved.
Then I built this microservice (basically a webhook) that let users unsubscribe from products through the Recharge/Shopify API. Had to get my hands dirty with Ngrok, Docker, Express, and Node.js for that one.
One of my favorite projects was revamping our company pages using Wagtail (it’s this awesome open-source Django/Python CMS). Made it super easy for our team to manage all our content at scale.
It was an incredible experience where I learned and grew so much… but you know how it goes — all good things must come to an end. The company was feeling the squeeze — sales were down, and with those federal interest rates climbing, Tiny Organics’ investors started pulling back. The engineering team took the hit and we were let go. Super disappointing, not gonna lie 😕, but hey — that’s sometimes the cost of doing business in the startup world.
Launching Hroman Codes LLC — My Freelance Dev Journey 🚀
So after being let go, I took some time to reinvent my brand from BuiltByGetroman to Hroman codes — and to make it more official, I started my own LLC! Hroman Codes LLC 🎊. It was a big move for me and something I always wanted to do, even before college. Since starting my LLC, I’ve been able to lock down contracts with startup companies like The Seeker, Change Food for Good, Rubix AI, and Empowered Path Therapy, where I helped with Web Development, Software Engineering, and consultancy.
Leveraging my multifaceted experience in sales, startup operations, and software engineering, I embraced diverse responsibilities — from client acquisition and relationship building to intensive software development. This entrepreneurial venture proved to be the most fulfilling work I’ve undertaken independently. Now, I’m embarking on my most ambitious initiative to date: developing a proprietary SaaS solution under my LLC.
As my former engineering director Raul Gil once told me: “The time of depending on an employer is over. At this stage, you should build something that people in your local community and beyond can use.”
The Product - CThink
CThink was conceptualized in 2018 during my tenure at The Knowledge House, as mentioned in my previous blog “From Sales to Learning How to Code to Developer… Well Almost (Part 3).” Now I want to take it a step further and turn it into a SaaS product that I can share with the education community. CThink is not just a tool to learn how to code — it’s about learning how to break big problems into smaller, more digestible pieces of understanding.
The DNA of CThink was derived from a pedagogy I created called ✏️ Draw, 🎭 Act, 🔧 Build (D.A.B). It’s a simple 3-step process that accounts for all three learning types — Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic — while learning a new coding concept (or really, any concept). You can either follow all three steps in order or pick the one that works best for you.
Here’s how it works: The ✏️ Draw step is where you map out a visual representation of the concept you want to learn. The 🎭 Act step involves role-playing, speaking out loud, or watching videos about the concept you’re trying to internalize. Finally, the 🔧 Build step is where you physically apply the concept, either through actual code or some form of code abstraction.
When you combine all three steps, you essentially create your own analogy — your personal definition of the coding concept you’re trying to learn. This makes it much more likely that the idea will move from short-term to long-term memory because you’ve created a lasting, personal experience in your mind.
This approach aligns perfectly with the Decomposition step in the computational thinking model.
Since starting my programming journey back in 2014, I’ve been immersed in the tech space and have particularly enjoyed working in education across public, private, and nonprofit sectors. These experiences shaped me into a great Software Engineer and Technical Instructor. Now, I want to take all these experiences and create a product that helps people understand their learning styles and provide them the tools they need to get over the learning hump. Currently, CThink is in the prototype phase, and if you want to learn more, you can follow the timeline here.
What happens next?
It’s no secret that the tech job market is in rough shape. It’s one of the reasons why I slowed down on applying for work and started creating solutions for customers instead. I couldn’t bear one more rejection from an employer after applying to over 10k jobs in the past four years with zero offers (yes, I documented everything). Don’t get me wrong — I’ll continue to apply for tech jobs while I work on my SaaS product since I still need to pay the bills, but this time I’ll have another project under my belt and more experience to offer alongside my LLC.
So for all of you struggling out there, I want to take the time to let everyone know that you are not alone and shouldn’t give up 🙏. This coding journey is a marathon 👴, not a sprint 🏃. If you find yourself stuck, then go build a solution for it and promote it… start your own business if you need to. One day it will all pay off — Success is built on an endless cycle of learning and growing from our failures.
Thank you for taking the time to read all 4 blog posts. I’m grateful for all my opportunities and excited to see what lies ahead. You can connect with me here:
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