Hey there fellow devs, I will like to use this post to share my journey so far as a developer. It's sort of a review of how far I have come, and the next steps I am looking to take. Hope you find it interesting and insightful, let's get into it!
I started coding when I was 13 years old, precisely 2013, but I started getting serious with coding in 2017. I didn't have any problem with HTML and CSS, but I realized I was using old courses and tutorials to learn Javascript, and this totally destroyed my motivation to continue learning how to code. I just felt like "Yeah this field isn't for me, I just can't do this anymore!". Most of us feel this way, and trust me all I wanted to do at that point was quit and never go back writing a single line of code again. Surprisingly, something happened to me, I taught to myself that "Yes I have been doing this all wrong, but rather than quit, let me retrace my steps back and start doing things right", what a mindset shift that has kept me programming till date!. When I made up my mind to start afresh and do things differently, I came across Brad Traversy's Youtube channel, and thanks to him, I was able to get myself back on track with JS and learn the fundamentals properly, I really owe part of not giving up on programming to him.
About late 2020 in December, I got a Job!, my first ever gig since learning how to code, I am still on that project up till now (4 years people building 1 Web Application!!, I am tired at this point). I didn't have any experience doing work for a client, and I was desperately looking for money and work to prove to myself that I have what it takes to be a developer. The project is a Real Estate Application built with HTML, CSS, SASS, JS, PHP and MySQL (and I mean custom PHP by the way, no framework, young me didn't know any better then). Here is a link to the website, let me know what you think - HMG Homes.
When the year 2021 came, I kept on improving my skills as a front end developer, I even learnt MySQL from a course I bought on Udemy by Colt Steele (A great instructor by the way 😉). I regret not documenting what I had been learning along the way, this was a huge lesson I got to learn when I joined Tech Twitter (or Tech X lol), and that's why most tech people will advice you to document your learning as you go, it doesn't only help you build an audience but shows you where you came from, which can be a source of encouragment. Around July/August, I got into an internship called HNG Internship which runs every year, it is less of an internship, and more of a competition with 10 stages, I stopped at stage 6, and couldn't continue because of light issues in my area and data (People in Nigeria will understand what I mean). The internship helped me improve my skills and more importantly collaborate with other developers which is a vital skill to learn as a developer. The reason why I hardly ever documented what I did was because I was afraid of putting myself out there, like what will people think of me?, I failed to realize that documenting is more for yourself than other people, you build up a reference that your future self can go back to which can be very helpful. Austin Kleon said in his book (Show Your Work) that "Be a documentarian of your work" and "You can be the best at what you do, but if no one knows you exists, it won't really matter".
The year 2022 came and I was really trying to see how to make money as a developer. The real estate client I am working for will just be sending me money whenever he feels like, as if he is doing me a favor (imagine), but it's kind of what I signed up for right?, you truly learn lessons from experience. I later on got a Job to build a React application for an NFT company which paid me ₦80,000 ($52 as of now) which to me at the time was a lot, for someone looking for money. The project couldn't be completed as the client wasn't all that serious with the application, and the url as of this writing isn't working again, good thing I got the money but I won't be able to show that application to potential employers as real world experience. So my problem mainly is that I have some form of experience, I have built some good projects, but it looks like I don't have experience at all 😂😂, this is why I said earlier that I wish I did a lot of documentation when I was still early on in this Journey, it's actually a bit harder when you know you have done stuff, but it's like there is nothing to show for it (I like to know if you ever being in this position, and what you did)
Fast track to 2023, I didn't get any side gig this year, but I started looking towards getting a full time Job, as freelancing was not as easy as people painted it to be, cash in today, no cash for the next 5 months, I even tried Upwork and Fiverr but they didn't just work for me (Or I didn't try hard enough). I also tried growing an audience on X but inconsistency kept leaving me discouraged, I will start today and stop in the next 3 days, this kept on going until I finally decided to just leave it for the main time. Another lesson I learnt along the way is to be consistent with doing something, no matter the current results you see, you have to stick with it for long to see any tangible results.
Currently in 2024, I am working on getting a Job as a frontend developer, specifically with React. As for my progress so far, I am building projects from Frontend Mentor platform, my current project is the age calculator app. I am working on my portfolio and resume and also trying to be consistent with building my personal brand on X (I am also trying to build my brand on Linkedin but I want to focus on 1 platform for now), consider following me on X @kansoldev. I believe it's not only me, as there seems to be too much to learn this days, it makes you feel like you have not even started, Front end development has really changed over the past few years, but nonetheless it's worth it if you can stick with it.
Thank you for sticking around, and reading this if you got to the end. Being a software developer is a long term commitment, but has a lot of benefiting rewards, afterall nothing good comes easy, everything good takes time to show, so keep pushing. You can follow me on X for more dev tips and insights.
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