This is getting ridiculous

I was told today that with much surprise, I have been promoted once again. Literally 4 months later and 7 months into my journey towards developing.

So what is going on?

7 months ago I spent 72 days in the hospital with my son, due to him being born 2 months prematurely. The initial 2 weeks I took off work and only living out the trunk of my car diving 25 miles back and forth every other day. When I walked into work I had a new perspective on life and my career path.

1. I wanted to be home with my son more
2. I really did not want to do sales the rest of my life
3. I want to be part of something great and design my own career path

I have experienced tragedies in my life, but having my son being born prematurely after having no issues in pregnancy was extremely scary, but it also put my life in perspective. I spent most of my college career knowing that I was going to be a financial adviser and sell investments. Well, I came across many obstacles in that plan including being unable to secure entry level employment in the Finance field....not even in a bank!

There could be many reasons why I never got to where I wanted to be, it was mainly due Financial Crisis, but that is in the past and as of last summer I gave up on that dream. I instead gained employment doing entry level work at a local IT distributor, which happens to be one of largest corporations based in Central Florida. I literally spent my days(actually nights since I worked second shift) doing a job I could do with my eyes closed. I was extremely over qualified, but I used the time work on my skills, those skills are what I used to get where I am today.

Fast forward 4 years later, today I was told I am once again being promoted. Promoted into a consultant role where I will have less stress and more freedom. There is a pay increase with this position but it still leaves me less than the start of a Jr. PHP developer at my employer. My drive and determination has gotten me to the place where I am today and I look forward to where it will be taking me.

If you have been reading my blog for a while then you know I was focused on gaining a Ruby position when I got my last promotion. This promotion actually makes things very interesting since now I am making a very comfortable salary, and really can't make the jump into a bootcamp or a non-paid apprenticeship (granted that my wife would kill me). I am still in talks with 3 of the 5 companies I have applied myself and still considering moving out of state if necessary, but have to make sure the jump will need to be worthwhile.

With all that being said I will still be pursuing my ultimate goal which is a dev position, but with more of the focus on the opportunity. The experience is worth more than the money I will be paid, and I look forward to receiving responses from the applications I have.

For those still keeping score, I will write a post summarizing this and next interview's scheduled for next week.

Company #1: 2nd interview concluded
Company #2: No response after 1st interview, I will reach out next week (sort of busy interviewing)
Company #3: 2nd interview is next Tues
Company #4: DENIED, it was a great talk, but I was not a great fit.
Company #5: No interview yet, but I have submitted my code test in Ruby.

Have you applied to any Jr dev jobs? What responses have you been getting? Do you have any advice for me?