From Cleaning Bathrooms to Breaking Software
From Cleaning Bathrooms to Breaking Software
I didn’t plan a career in tech. I just knew I didn’t want to spend my life cleaning bathrooms. This is the story of how I found my way into QA, one wrong turn and reset at a time
End of High School
In 2008, I graduated high school with no real plan.
I wasn’t a bad student, but I wasn’t a disciplined one either. I tested well, but I didn’t take school seriously enough to do anything with it. I didn’t even apply to college. I just followed the default path and enrolled at Ivy Tech because that’s what people around me were doing.
That pattern continued for a while.
I told myself I’d transfer to Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, but I didn’t put in the work. I spent more time traveling to visit friends at other schools than focusing on my own classes. After two years, I didn’t even have enough credits for an associate’s degree.
So I tried something new. I moved to Muncie and eventually got into Ball State. I explored social work, then operations management. I did… fine. Not terrible, not great. But after four years of my parents supporting my education, they drew a line. Fairly.
By 2012, I was back home, working jobs that paid the bills but didn’t feel like a future.
I made pizzas. I delivered them. I cleaned bathrooms. I worked at a deli. I picked up a second job at a liquor store just to piece together something that looked like full-time income.
And one day, cleaning a bathroom at work, I had a very clear realization:
I didn’t want this to be my trajectory.
The Reset
I went back to school with a different mindset.
Not because I suddenly loved school, but because I finally understood what happens if you don’t take it seriously.
With help from my dad, I finished the last few credits I needed and earned an Associate’s degree. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was momentum.
When I met with an advisor at IUPUI, they asked what I wanted to study.
I didn’t have a polished answer. But I knew two things:
I liked helping people I was always drawn to computers and technology
That led me to the School of Informatics and Computing and a program that was just getting started at the time: Human-Computer Interaction.
That decision changed everything.
Learning How to Learn
When I started at IUPUI in 2014, I treated it like a second chance.
And early on, I almost slipped back into old habits.
I struggled in my first math class and bombed the first two exams. That could have been the start of another spiral, but instead I did something I hadn’t done before: I asked for help.
I went to the Math Assistance Center every day.
I did my homework there. I asked questions. I stayed until I understood the material.
My next three exam scores were 94, 98, and 100.
I finished the class with a B+, and more importantly, I proved to myself that I could change how I approached problems. After that semester, I made the Dean’s List every term.
That experience stuck with me more than any single class.
Discovering QA (By Accident)
Near graduation, I hit another unexpected hurdle.
An internship I had lined up didn’t count toward my capstone requirement. I suddenly needed a new one, fast.
I ended up landing a session internship with the Office of Technology Services for the Indiana Legislative Services Agency.
That’s where I was introduced to quality assurance.
Up to that point, my studies focused on designing good user experiences. QA flipped that perspective. Instead of asking, “How should this work?” I started asking:
“What happens when this breaks?”
I loved it immediately.
Testing wasn’t just about finding bugs. It was about protecting users from bad experiences before they ever saw them. It was problem-solving, systems thinking, and user advocacy all rolled into one.
I also started experimenting on my own. I built small proofs of concept using QR codes to improve access to public information like livestreams when government rooms were full.
At the time, the idea was brushed off.
Too much access. Too much transparency.
A few years later, QR codes became everywhere.
That was the first time I realized I liked not just testing systems, but thinking ahead of them.
First Real Role: Trial by Fire
After graduating in 2016, I joined ADESA (KAR Auction Services) as a junior QA.
Within six months, I was promoted and moved onto a major project building dealer-to-dealer auction applications for Toyota and Lexus.
That role escalated quickly.
We shifted from waterfall to agile. I took ownership of mobile QA. I stepped into scrum responsibilities. I worked across onshore and offshore teams.
Less than a year in, I wasn’t just testing anymore. I was coordinating, leading, and helping shape how work got done.
At the same time, I got pulled into experimental projects, like testing a custom car photo booth built with Raspberry Pi hardware. That happened because I had casually mentioned I’d built one at home for fun.
That moment stuck with me too.
The things you tinker with on your own eventually become the things people trust you with professionally.
A Setback That Wasn’t One
In 2019, the company eliminated QA roles.
The reasoning was that developers could handle testing.
I was laid off.
The next day, they asked me to come back. Same role, same pay.
I said no.
Instead, my wife and I moved to Denver.
At the time, it felt like a risk. In hindsight, it was a turning point.
Where It All Leads
I didn’t take a straight path into tech.
I failed classes. I changed directions. I worked jobs that had nothing to do with where I ended up.
But each of those experiences added something:
Service jobs taught me empathy and patience School (eventually) taught me discipline and how to learn QA taught me how to think critically about systems and users
Today, I still approach problems the same way I approached that math class and those early QA projects:
Figure out what’s actually happening. Understand where things break. And make them better before someone else has to deal with it.
That’s the work I care about.
I’ll be posting twice a month. If you’re into product management, software, or just figuring out your career as you go, stick around.