Colin Bethea: College "Opt-Out" to SDE II at Afterpay

Welcome to Formation’s Fellow Spotlight, a blog series designed to introduce you to former Formation Fellows who have landed their dream jobs. Today we’ll meet Colin Bethea, Software Engineer II at Afterpay. Colin skipped college and moved to San Francisco to try and break into the tech space with an app he created. After just under 2 years of full-time software engineering experience, he joined Formation. Here’s how he went from a 18-year-old college “opt-out” to a Software Engineer II at Afterpay.

What originally got you interested in engineering?

I learned to program in high school. I was interested in entrepreneurship and building products from a young age, but I realized quickly I’d have to outsource everything if I didn’t have programming skills. Additionally, I saw software as a scalable field I could enter into myself to build my own products through sweat and hard work. So, I spent time in high school learning how to code.

After I graduated from high school, I was fortunate enough to be able to take a gap year, which means I became what I like to call a college "opt-out”. I decided I was going to move to San Francisco, so I found a room for rent online and moved into a hacker house.

What was your educational and professional background prior to Formation?

In high school, I was always building stuff. I built two products in four years: a note-taking app called Athenify and a productivity app called Stratagem. After creating these, I was confident I could build out simple projects. I knew there were a lot of things I didn’t know yet, but that I could learn from getting some work experience. After I graduated from high school, I was fortunate enough to be able to take a gap year, which means I became what I like to call a college "opt-out”. I decided I was going to move to San Francisco, so I found a room for rent online and moved into a hacker house.

Initially, I met a lot of people, networked, and tried for about 5 months to get my app funded. I could feel the momentum kind of fizzling out, so I decided to try and get some industry experience. Not having a college degree made it difficult to break into the industry. I finally landed a job at a company called Candor. In the year and a half I worked there, I went from being a really junior engineer to leading a small team building out infrastructure for wealth management. I learned so much so quickly! While this provided me with some great industry experience, I eventually started looking for other opportunities to work at a larger, more established company.

What made you want to up-level your career? What problem were you facing or what opportunity did you want to pursue?

Before Formation, I had never done a real interview loop. I kind of stumbled into my role at Candor without having to do any structured interviews. I wanted to get some interview prep and exposure to make sure I didn’t walk in unprepared or get flustered during an interview. Referrals were also important to me. There were a lot of companies I wanted to break into, and access to those referrals would help increase my odds. I knew Formation would provide all of this.

There were moments during my job hunt where people at Formation who were experienced and knew how to handle certain situations helped me avoid some mistakes, and I’m so grateful for that.

How did you find Formation? What other kinds of training did you consider, and why did you end up choosing Formation?

One of my roommates at the hacker house, Nic, was a Formation Fellow, so I had known about the program for a while and even met Sophie. I considered interviewing.io and other platforms with mock interview services, but I didn’t even know if I was ready to interview, so spending money on mock interviews felt silly. There were moments during my job hunt where people at Formation who were experienced and knew how to handle certain situations helped me avoid some mistakes, and I’m so grateful for that.

What was your specific goal in becoming a Fellow?

I wanted to come in as an L4 at one of my target companies. By the end of my time at Candor, I was leading a small team, building out all the systems, so L4 felt like the right level. I also wanted to work for a strong brand on a team I liked. Out of my target companies, I hit 2 of 3.

Mentors provided good, tactical feedback on what to work on during interviews. They pointed out particular points of weakness that I could actually go and work on and make myself a better engineer.

How did you work with the Mentors?

Pretty good! I got to work with some great Mentors from Facebook and Microsoft; they always gave really good feedback. Two major perks of working with the Mentors were:

1) I became more confident performing under pressure in front of senior engineers who were experienced and there to help me avoid some mistakes. 2) Mentors provided good, tactical feedback on what to work on during interviews. They pointed out specific points of weakness that I could actually go and work on to make myself a better engineer.

What did you think of the tech platform?

I really liked the job hunt tool in particular; it was very, very convenient. I actually wanted to build something like it for myself, but Formation already had it! A lot of programs have different tools, but this one was really cohesive UX-wise and kept me very organized.

How did you measure your progress/success through the program?

At first, I could measure my own improvements on the platform. Then I started interviewing and I could see that I was passing them. It gave me confidence early on once I got my first of the 5 offers I ended up receiving.

My communication skills were good coming into the Fellowship, but my speed, code quality, and clarity of thought improved greatly because of Formation.

How did your interview skills improve with your Formation training? How did you benefit from practice interviews?

I’m not naturally attracted to doing Leetcode and algorithmic problems, so having structure and forcing myself to practice them was really important. Now, I can do them relatively well! My communication skills were good coming into the Fellowship, but my speed, code quality, and clarity of thought improved greatly because of Formation.

I also found that most interviews are laid out in the exact same format. I realized that if I could do well in one, I knew I could do well in others. I started to really get into a flow once I realized this.

What team are you on in your new role?

I’m a Software Engineer II E4 on the Commerce team at Afterpay.

“Quick-Fire” Questions

First code you shipped?

Static website vanilla javascript and HTML

Proudest moment?

Getting that validation that I could get multiple offers. I had a lot of doubt for the 2 years I was in San Francisco with no degree as a teenager. When I received a bunch of offers over a matter of days, I finally felt like, wow, I made it. I conquered that doubt.

What I found in Formation was a community where people were present and talking and helping each other. It was refreshing, and it made it more human.

Favorite group session?

Systems design was definitely my favorite by far. I just personally really liked the instructor Tony Nguyen. It was very open-ended, and I could contribute my opinion and not be confused if people had differing opinions.

Biggest surprise about Formation?

That it felt like an actual community. At first, I thought it was going to be a bunch of async reviews, grinding on leetcode, etc. What I found in Formation was a community where people were present and talking and helping. It was refreshing, and it made it more human.

Anything else you want to share?

Formation is great; it’s helped me tremendously. I would highly recommend it!

Ready to accelerate your engineering career? Level up like Colin did and apply to our Fellowship.