My Journey
From the Philippines to LinkedIn's codebase - every step shaped who I am today.
My path to software engineering wasn't traditional. I immigrated to the US at 14, spent years managing retail departments, became a dad, and then discovered a passion for building things with code. Each experience taught me something valuable - problem-solving, leadership, persistence, and the importance of building tools that actually help people.
Moved to the US
Immigrated from the Philippines at 14 - a fresh start in a new world
Started Retail Career
Joined Safeway as Seafood Manager / Meat Cutter
Promoted to Meat Manager
Took over department operations at Lucky's Market
Became a Dad
Life-changing moment that sparked career reflection
Discovered Coding
Axie Infinity community tools inspired me to build. Started Harvard's CS50.
General Assembly Bootcamp
24-week intensive: React, Node.js, MongoDB, Express
Graduated & First Tech Role
Completed bootcamp, joined RadicalX as Software Developer Intern
AI Trainer at Scale AI
Practiced CS fundamentals training LLMs at Remotasks
Encode Club Blockchain
Learned Solidity and smart contract development
Encode Club AI Bootcamp
Explored GenAI tools: v0, Vercel AI SDK
Atlas Agent (Intern)
PropTech startup: Led landing page redesign, built AI chatbot demo, 100+ agencies on waitlist
Year Up Program
Java, Spring Boot, SQL training with corporate readiness (Aug 2024 - Jan 2025)
AWS Certified
Earned AWS Cloud Practitioner certification
LinkedIn Engineering Intern
Built VELMA (3,000+ vanity URLs), led zero-trust security migrations
Internship Complete
Shipped production tools, gained enterprise engineering experience
Back at Lucky's + Building
Returned to Lucky's full-time while developing side projects and exploring opportunities