Foster Taylor

Software Development Engineer at Wayfair

Foster spent a long time finding a career that would satisfy his love of both solving problems and seeking new challenges. After making a left turn towards the computing industry and carrying with him his skills in communication and collaboration, he has become both an effective team player and a passionate software developer.

Introduction

Foster Taylor grew up part of a big family in Houston, Texas. As a large and diverse city, he enjoyed growing up there. However, he had little idea of where he wanted to take his life. He applied to college primarily because others around him were too.

Undergraduate in Political Science

He decided to study at the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in political science with a minor in business. He defines this time as one of great uncertainty in his life; he didn’t know where he wanted to take himself. He knew he loved difficult challenges, and thus decided to teach English in Prague and Spain for some time. It was an adrenaline rush to get in front of people and teach, a good personal experience that he still carries with him.

After a brief role in real estate, Foster moved into finance as a bond broker. This involved a lot of communication with and education of clients, as well as developing soft skills such as working in teams and taking initiative with other departments. He stayed in this position for some years, and over the course of time felt he was beginning to have maximised any learning potential in the role. He always had an interest in problem-solving, but finance wasn’t something he was passionate about.

Shifting towards Software Development

He soon realised that software development may satisfy his want for a difficult yet rewarding challenge. He moved to Denver and was accepted into a software development program at the Turing School of Software and Design. Though daunting, the support he was given as well as the opportunity to meet others like him was highly encouraging.

It was overwhelming at the beginning. “Computers are dumb, but their abilities are also immense.” He first learned how important attention to detail was in successful programming. The problems are tough, but if you break them down and spend as much time as you need with them, you will get there.

“Some people picked it up fast, some people picked it up slow. None of these specific qualities defined how successful one was going to be in industry.”

There are many languages and technologies that one can learn, but Foster realised that the most important thing was to define a process for how to learn. He had a good grasp of Javascript, and knew that the approach he took to learn it could be used for other languages in the future. It was this new process of learning which was key, unlocking much of his confidence in approaching new areas of software development.

He entered the industry in a time of uncertainty, the COVID-19 pandemic had hit globally and Foster went through multiple interviews, losing a job offer due to the crisis. He persevered and found a position in software quality assurance at Aetna in June of 2020. It gave him the opportunity to work both with the code as well as across departments and teams, and he drew from the many skills gained through his background and life experience.

Foster has recently transitioned from Aetna to the company Wayfair, working in quality assurance as a Mobile SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test). 

Value of Communication Skills in Computer Science

A valuable part of his prior experience has been in communicating with clients clearly and effectively. There have been many times thus far, he notes, where it was pivotal that he applies these skills in front of a team of developers. Communication in this industry is truly key. The nature of problem-solving involves collaboration, you will need to work across departments with a very diverse group of people. He emphasises that people don’t realise the importance of these skills in successful software development.

It was difficult for Foster to even approach the idea of entering computer science until recently. He had a misconception that the only people who worked in it were the geniuses, the Einsteins. He now knows that’s not the case. A diverse group of people surrounds him every day, finding that he talks to people of many different backgrounds.

He encourages people to do their research and know that if it’s a path they might want to follow, they really can do it. He’s excited to be able to prove that to people, as he’s done that same journey himself.