Becoming a Front End Developer by selling craft beers on the internet - Jesus Olano

00:00

They wanted to do something that just rely on my effort, that it doesn't rely on somebody giving me funds or not. I like the beer business.

00:09

How have you approached allocating those resources and going about actually preparing for finding work yourself in the past?

00:18

I think in my case, it's not a typical case because my background is not in IT. I started with business administration on economics and then, I'm a self learner, I started an e-commerce company, a craft beer e-commerce company, and then I was learning and doing on the way. So yeah, I think in the tech area, I have to always search for advice, to learn new things. And for me right now, looking for a job is a continuation of that, because first, you get to see what the companies are demanding right now. Because sometimes you are in your own company, with your own tech stock and your tech environment, and you don't have that view of what the other people are doing.

01:17

So when you start searching for a job, you can have a broader view of what other people are doing, what they are demanding that gives you some hints to where the sector is going. The industry, where it's going. Also, it gives you hints about how other companies are performing. You are some ways isolated in your own company and you don't have the accurate view. And looking for a job, you get a little view in another company just to say.

01:48

Yeah. So, how did you first start Beer Bay? And, what happened during that process? Because something's clearly happened where you've launched it in 2015, but then you've realized that you've, and you've built it, and you've then started working at Plexus since. I'd love to hear the story.

02:11

When I started way before that, I was living in Denver. I was trying to get funding for a PhD project about microfinance. I wanted to do something that just relied on my effort, that it doesn't rely on somebody giving me funds or not. I had the basics. I had all my knowledge about the business, and trade, and projects, but also I started to see that if you want to start a project, you need either a lot of money in order to pay a lot of people working for you, or to start by yourself, learning by yourself. And also I liked all the work development. I always like it.

02:53

Had you done it before?

02:55

Yeah, I was an amateur web designer, not programming, but web designer that I really like it. So I decided, okay, let's give it a try. I will start, I can keep on learning this that I really like. And I think it's really useful. And luckily enough, I think that I went to a sector that is really now booming, that is a front-end developer, that right now is booming. So I was lucky. Because that's something that you never know, because maybe I wouldn't have any choice of working in another company. So yes, I established my business and then I saw that my business, at first it didn't give me a full salary. It doesn't give them full salary, but it gave me a lot of learning, because I have to learn about front-end design, about SEO, about everything. So I have to say I have to do everything.

03:54

Do you think you would've got that same learning had you worked for another company as a front-end developer? Or did it take you having your own company to get that debt?

04:04

No, definitely not. Because when you first come in, the good and the bad side of having your own company. The good side is that you can do everything, but the bad side is that you do everything,

04:16

You have to do everything.

04:16

So, the point here is that, when I started, I had to learn a lot of things, even legal things, design, development, programming. When you start a company, you have to do, you extend, you finish your taxes. And you keep on saying, oh, I have to do more because I still don't have profit. Do I really press by the finance of your company. And I was, for two years maybe, learning a lot. But also, I think that I did it wrong in the sense that I didn't have the weekends. For me, the weekends didn't exist because I was still learning, because I have to learn this because I have to do this as soon as I can.

05:07

So, at the beginning I think I did it wrong because I worked too much. I didn't have the proper day. So, I think that is really easy when you do something to do a lot of things, work every day, I think it's not easy, but when you are launching, when you're in the mood, you can work, work, work. But I think the hardest part is to know when you have to rest and go have a beer and forget about everything. At the beginning, for me was also difficult to forget about what was going on. If a shipment was wrong, that to disconnect was really difficult for me.

05:47

When did it get better?

05:48

I think it got better when I started working full-time also.

05:52

Okay.

05:54

Because I had the side project and I still was working on it, but I didn't have so much pressure because I had a salary. When I started working for them, I realized also that somehow I was really tired, mentally tired as well. And then after a few months working full-time, taking the weekends for free because I work full-time. And then if I have free time, I do something in my e-commerce. But it was like paradox because I had this two things, but I started to take more free time. And then I realized that I suddenly was more relaxed, not more relaxed, but I have more energy. For example, I used to run and do a sports, and then there was a point that I realized that I was more tired, and I finished my work and was really tired.

06:56

I said, oh, I'm really tired. How can I? Now that I take more free time, I can disconnect more. For example, I realized that I was really, really exhausted, I think mentally exhausted. And it physically also affected me.

07:10

It's always, it's ironic that you built a company that gave people a respite by having a beer. And yet it was hard for you to have fun yourself.

07:21

Yeah. But the point is that also I like the beer business, and also like my work, and I wanted to do the best as I could because I like it. But I also have the bad side that sometimes you get a little bit too much into it. You don't realize that you have to have a break. Now you take like adrenaline. You can run a lot for one hour and you don't realize you are tired, but then you will pass. So it's a natural drug, just to say. So it can be a natural drug. It's, oh, I will work, I will work, this is amazing. But then you don't realize you're getting more tired. And it comes to a point that everything goes down. And then you realize that now I take it more easy. I think it's much better because resting is much better, and then you feel better the next day, basically.

08:22

How did that experience impact the decision you made to join the company you joined next? Were you more picky as a result? Were you actually more relaxed as a result? What did it change?

08:38

I'd say that when I joined my full-time job now, that I have been doing this for two years and a half, that's when I realized that I had to take it more easy. It was really a change of the state of mind, from being really alert, to being more relaxed.

09:00

For some people, I guess, that state isn't what they're looking for. They're not looking for a state of relaxation. They're looking for a state of tension. They have whatever ambitions, and they are fixated on achieving them. And if they were relaxed, they would feel more stressed. For you, it sounds like it's the opposite. And actually the things that you value are different.

Jesus Olano Espinosa 

09:25

Well, this tension, I think, is related of this fear of missing out or something like that. I think right now, our society, how it is, it makes you a lot more anxious because you have a lot of stimulus now. You enter your phone and there are a lot of stimuli there, a lot of people saying, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, look at me. If I take your mobile phone and I tell you, okay, this week, no internet, anything. You will say, "Oh.fuck. I need to check everything. I need to check my Facebook." But then, first week it would be like it's a drug. But then after one month we realize, "Okay, what the fuck?" Nothing happened. That also happens when my company, I was every day checking emails. And then you realize that maybe there are three days without checking email and okay. There are things happening, but that is nothing like the house is burning.

10:29

If you got an itch to go and do something, now that you've gone through that period of craziness, and you've found a bit more stability in your work, do you have that itch to want to go back and do some of it again?

10:44

Not really. I don't think it's the need to do something. I think it's more a state of mind, like a state of. I don't need that state of because I think I never needed it. I just got it without realizing that I got into it. Now I like what I do. I don't really need to be alert 24 hours to be satisfied. I don't know how to express it. I think that the real satisfaction comes when you do something that you like and you do it properly, according to your standards. And that's a little bit of it. It's the same if you need constant attention from people. It's too much up and down. It's better that you have a few close friends that you can rely on, It's the same thing

11:38

As you navigate the decisions you'll make in the future to decide where to spend your time, what have you learned about the thought process that you need to go through in order to decide where to work?

11:51

I already have decided where I want to work. I just have to find a place. What do you want for a place, certain standard of qualities and certain autonomy of being able to affect the product that I'm working with. And of course, that the company, I like what they're doing and are they good people.

12:11

Yeah. I loved hearing about your story. And I think that there are many people who struggle to find the clarity that you do, where you know what those qualities are that you want from where you work next. Thanks so much for taking the time out. I've loved speaking.

12:30

No problem.

Ben Henley-Smith 

12:32

Been great. Take care and speak to you at some point soon.

12:36

Okay. I thank-you very much. Bye.