Carlitos Willis: A Years-Long Journey to Reach Gusto

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 Carlitos Willis, a Full Stack Software Engineer at Gusto. Carlitos grew up in the foster care system before moving in with his aunt and uncle at 12 years old. He earned his AA while in high school, but it would take years before he would be able to land a meaningful role. Here’s Carlitos’ journey to becoming a Software Engineer at Gusto.

What originally got you interested in engineering?
I grew up during the Tumblr and MySpace days where, like many people, I was unknowingly coding in order to add songs to my profile and make it look good. I didn’t even realize what I was doing at the time! Then, in high school, there was a huge push to do one hour of code at the tail end of our Senior year. There was a musical artist I liked who put out a new album and a script to go along with it. The script had a feature where you could mess with the HTML and get a secret remix. I remember that sparking my interest in coding, and I thought it was so cool that coding was colliding with my world of music. In college, I took some programming courses and it also dawned on me then how coding plays a role in almost everything: art, music, games; it’s just everywhere.

Music was one thing I could rely on to get me through all the change.

How big of a role has music played in your life?
I grew up in the foster care system. When I was 12 or 13, I moved in with my aunt and uncle in San Diego. That was also around 2008 when the economy was collapsing. Because of that, we had to move from San Diego to Fresno, and I remember having a difficult time adjusting. Music was one thing I could rely on to get me through all the change.

I didn’t really talk to other kids at school about my time in the foster care system; it’s not something that would naturally come up and, if it did, there was always a chance I’d get made fun of for it. So, talking about the latest tracks and albums became the way I related to other kids. I learned from a young age that music would be my go-to escape and comfort whenever I found myself in a weird social situation. To this day, I still have a huge passion for music; I make songs and have created music-related apps.

I thought about doing a bootcamp like one of my college roommates had done, but my credit was ruined and I couldn’t afford the $2,000 deposit.

What was your educational background prior to Formation?
My aunt filled out applications for my cousin and me to go to a charter high school designed for college-bound students. My cousin was accepted, but I wasn’t. That wasn’t good enough for my aunt, so she went down to the school and fought for me until I was admitted. While I was there, I earned both my AA and my high school diploma. I didn't know much about coding or Software Engineering as a career back then; I thought I wanted to be a doctor.

After high school, I went to UC Berkeley. I spent three years studying Cognitive Science before I had to put my education on pause because of the financial burden. I knew, from the courses I took, that I liked how challenging coding was. I thought about doing a bootcamp like one of my college roommates had done, but my credit was ruined and I couldn’t afford the $2,000 deposit. So, I took a year and a half off to work before getting back on the software engineering track.

With a $2,000 loan from my girlfriend, I enrolled in a bootcamp. After I graduated, I had a hard time landing a role, so I decided it might be time to go back to school to finish my degree. I enrolled at Berkeley again and graduated this year with my BA in Cognitive Science.

Despite graduating from a bootcamp, I still had interview anxiety and I wasn’t confident in algos.

What problem were you facing or what opportunity did you want to pursue? Why did you end up choosing Formation?
I mentioned I had a hard time finding a job after the bootcamp, but I actually had an incredibly difficult time doing so. I spent 6 straight months job hunting and interviewing. Despite graduating from a bootcamp, I still had interview anxiety and I wasn’t super confident in algos. So, that’s when I decided to finish my college degree and revisit my engineering career later on.

Right around that time, Sophie reached out to me about Formation. I was set on finishing my degree, but I kept Formation in the back of my mind throughout the few months of coursework I had left. When I graduated, I reconnected with Sophie. I had done my research and there was nothing comparable or in the same lane as Formation, so it was an easy decision to apply to be a Fellow.

Working with the Mentors helped me find my areas of insecurities but also areas of confidence. Formation has such a well-rounded group of Mentors and I got a ton of interview practice with them, which was exactly what I needed.

What was your specific goal in becoming a Fellow?
I had a broad goal of getting into a big tech company and starting my career. I get extremely anxious in certain situations; technical interviews are a whole different world of anxiety. I was comfortable building projects, but if I got a coding challenge I hadn’t seen before, I would flunk. I lost tons of opportunities because I couldn’t pass the technicals. I knew I needed a lot of interview practice.

How did you work with the mentors?
The Mentors were all super encouraging even as they were critiquing my work. One of the Mentors, Kyle Gabriel, was really hands-on and walked me through a ton of stuff. Working with the Mentors helped me find my areas of insecurities but also areas of confidence. Formation has such a well-rounded group of Mentors and I got a ton of interview practice with them, which was exactly what I needed.

We set up a timeline based on when I wanted to land a job. I could look at the timeline and see how dates updated if I took too long or went faster through the program. Having that present and then knowing exactly what I needed to do in between was super helpful.

How did you measure your progress/success through the program?
We set up a timeline based on when I wanted to land a job. I could look at the timeline and see how dates updated if I took too long or went faster through the program. Having that present and then knowing exactly what I needed to do in between was super helpful. I measured my success by that timeline, how close I felt I was to getting interview-ready, and having things in my job hunt funnel. Also, I knew I was progressing when I would see a new problem and not know exactly what it was but then confidently go figure it out because I had the foundational skills to do so.

How did your interview skills improve with your Formation training?
The Engineering Method that Formation teaches is a robust approach that I found extremely helpful. Having that in my tool belt and then having the exposure to very tailored problems that built on each other helped me get unstuck during interviews. I had two back-to-back technical interviews where I can pinpoint exactly how Formation helped me.

In one interview, I was given a problem I had just seen (and learned to solve) at Formation. In the second interview, I was given a problem where I was able to use a similar framework to approach it even though it was a completely different problem. I wouldn’t have been able to solve it if not for my Formation training.

How did Formation help you prepare for your new role?
During my Fellowship, I had to do edits on my PRs, use unfamiliar tools, etc. I am doing those exact same things in my new role. Formation helped make me a well-rounded engineer.

What team are you on in your new role?
Growth Acquisition Engineering Team

What is a project you are working on in your new role?
I’m implementing my first experiment by myself, which means testing things to see what’s leading to the most qualified leads or conversions. I’m on a very marketing-connected team, so I’m working on something a manager has submitted to see if we can learn more about the product.

“Quick-Fire” Questions
First code you shipped?
I worked on some updates to the pricing page on Gusto. It’s very customer-facing and I’m proud that it’s my work.

Favorite group session?
I can’t pick one specific session type because I really enjoyed a lot of them. I liked having a weekly standup with a small group, weekly retros, and weekly game sessions. Formation is such a community; I miss the people I met through my Fellowship!

Biggest surprise about Formation?
That they believed in me. That they made an investment in me. Formation really gave me the reassurance that I could actually do it and land a role at the end of my Fellowship.

Join Carlitos and other Fellows who have made the leap to advance their careers and apply to our Fellowship.