This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Andrew Wang, a 33-year-old senior software engineer based in San Francisco. After working at Amazon, he joined Fermat Commerce Inc., an e-commerce AI startup. His identification and employment have been verified by Business Insider. This story has been edited for length and clarity. When I started my career, you could go to a three to six-month boot camp and get a job. That's kind of what I did. After high school, I attended a boot camp and