This Buddhist monk-turned-tech worker relies on his avocado farming experience

This is How I Got Here, a series where we chart the career journeys of technologists. Want to tell your story? Get in touch.

William D. Lavery is a lifelong learner, whether that’s about lawsuits, technology or even avocados.  

In 2004, he fell into a job managing an avocado orchard in California. But before that, he led a more traditional nine-to-five career path. First, South Jersey-based Lavery, 51, went to law school and became a law clerk. After about two years, he wanted a change of pace and left to join a Buddhist Monastery where he tended to avocados. 

After 17 years at the orchard, Lavery left in 2021. Having a career in the avocado industry was becoming less stable and he wanted a change from living in a monastery, he said. 

So, ready to move on again, he’s finally landed in tech. Lavery moved back to the East Coast and his friend encouraged him to try a bootcamp. 

He went to the online Turing School of Software and Design in 2023 and completed three out of four “mods,” or classes, before starting to look for work in March 2024. He’s currently in the phase of looking for his first tech role. Bootcamps have lost some popularity over the last five years and while some say they’re worth it, you’re not guaranteed a great job right after finishing. 

Through the pivots, Lavery said he felt like he’d seen where each career could go and wanted to find a new challenge. The variety of options in tech appealed to him, and he knew that he could go in a lot of different directions with those skills. 

In this edition of Technical.ly’s How I Got Here series, Lavery discusses each phase of his career and why he constantly stays moving. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. 

Why were you interested in joining tech? 

When you go to bootcamps, you meet a lot of people who are making a career change. They’re in all different phases of life, but certainly more middle-aged people and older than you would find entering other fields.

In other professions, there’s more of an emphasis on pedigree or bullet points on a resume. Whereas in tech, you’ll have a technical interview, you’ll be asked to solve problems, you’ll be asked technical questions. You’ll be evaluated based on your ability to be a member of a team. All those things appeal to me.

I like collaboration and the idea of building and fixing things in engineering. There’s a level of ownership there that’s very appealing.

In tech, they’re more interested in what you can do now and going on into the future and they’re less concerned about what you did or didn’t do before. If you can do the job, you’ve got a shot. 

What are the common threads between all your careers?

I’ve always enjoyed working as part of a team. One of my favorite things about clerking was hiring and training interns when I worked in law. The mentoring relationship, where my judge was mentoring me, I really enjoyed.

That was something that I sought when I went to the monastery, and it’s something that I’ve been seeking in tech, as well. I’m always looking for that, whether it’s a job opportunity or just other people in my bootcamp or other people that I meet when I’m networking.

I’ve always enjoyed doing research and teaching myself new things. In tech, if you’re going to survive, you’ve got to keep learning new things. My favorite part of the bootcamp was group projects, working on something together.

I didn’t plan on being an avocado grove manager, I just taught myself. In law, there is a similar process when you graduate, you have to teach yourself how to be a lawyer. 

What are you looking forward to in a tech career?

Being able to contribute to a team and collaborate but also actually have some ownership, and having that skill that’s in demand, those options and that flexibility in terms of work. 

Tech is very refreshing and the work culture just seems a lot healthier. You do find in tech people who are really passionate about their work, and that’s a really nice environment to be in. 

Tech’s evolving. It’s a little scary too sometimes, but it’s also exciting to not know what you’re going to be working on next because the field is changing.

What advice do you have for fellow career pivoters?

Look for mentors because they are out there. There are people who enjoy sharing their knowledge and experience and their help is invaluable. But you’ve got to put yourself out there and take the leap. 

People think that networking is in terms of, what can this person do for me, but I think good networking can be you doing something for someone else. Networking is a long game, so you’re really trying to cultivate relationships.

Don’t be afraid to fail and don’t be afraid to ask stupid questions. The important thing is learning and I think most people in tech appreciate that. You can get a lot more help and make more genuine connections by being willing to be vulnerable.