I also got my start in tech with an irrationally benevolent technical manager. He was a PhD research scientist who has built this incredible system and was quic

I also got my start in tech with an irrationally benevolent technical manager. He was a PhD research scientist who has built this incredible system and was quickly building a team out to scale it. I was just getting out of the military, and trying to find what was next. I had no internships or previous engineering experience. The most I could speak to was some comp sci classes I was currently taking for my MS, and a background in excel. He didn’t grill me with leetcode. There wasn’t really even an interview. We just talked about big picture ideas for 45 minutes. And then he told me he wanted me on board. Keep in mind this was at a large, well known unicorn - hiring didn’t normally work like that was but somehow he just sort of made it happen. The code base was in Java. I had never written Java, but he knew that and told me I’d probably figure it out. The team also didn’t have the bandwidth to upskill someone as junior as I was. I appreciated the opportunity to sink or swim and prove myself.