This seems to be the trend, make the first post a 'hello' of sorts, so, hello there.
My name is Vanessa O, and this is my Dev.to blog. I feel the need to tell a story so grab a cup of coffee/water/your favorite poison.
This is the story of my transition to a fully tech career.
It all started in 2007 when I read a book by Jefferey Deaver, The Blue Nowhere. Now, the book in itself was a fairly common story, one bad guy and one good guy, at least it was supposed to be a fairly normal story...that is, until I got to chapter 2.
I was introduced to the 'good guy', a computer hacker who built computers with anything from a spoon and a few batteries, he was bad but still less evil than the main bad guy.
The chapter numbers were in binary code and that was the first thing I noticed, so as a young kid, starry eyed and curious about everything, I went on a research on binary code and what it meant in computers, I. Was. Hooked from then on.
My First Time
The first thing I tried my hand on was HTML(Hypertext Markup Language), I built a very 2007 looking website with my basic knowledge of HTML, it was basically a page listing the different types of fish (I found it recently and Oh. My. Goodness). It was basic but that was the first time I got a thrill out of building something from nothing. I felt like I was well on my way to being the hacker from The Blue Nowhere.
Next came CSS(Cascading Style Sheets), now this was fairly easy to grasp, even then. I simply made some notes and thought "Sure, I'll just try to memorize all the color and font related tags" HA! (PS: This is 2020 me laughing at 2007 me).
Back to me and coding. So the next monster I had to slay was
JAVASCRIPT...DUM! DUM! DUM!
I am laughing writing this because I remember the almost impossible frustration I felt then, I had the idea that if I could just get past Javascript, I could become the hacker of my own dreams. Long story short, I gave up on my dream to become a social engineering sleek hacker when I hit the roadblock that was Javascript.
Architecture Calls
I should say here, I graduated with a Bachelors degree in Architecture from Obafemi Awolowo University. It was a ride and a half, filled with a lot of late nights, drawing and researching, and no-code. I was so focused on schoolwork, so I had no time to get back in the coding game, however, I did meet some interesting people who kept me close to the Code.
Graduation and more Javascript?
After school, I had a fun time working as an Interior Designer, but I was curious about the programmer part of me that was lying dormant like a lion in a den, waiting and watching for the right time to spring out. 2017 was the year of The Spring.
Cut to 2017, I made a list of all the skills I needed to build, and HTML popped up again, it took me a while but I added Javascript to the list, and then I got to learning. I breezed through HTML and CSS to conquer the beast that is Javascript, at least I thought it was a beast. Now however, I know it is a fire breathing hydra monster with 10 eyes.
Cheers to the freakin' 2020's
I'll cut the story here and bring you to 2020, 3 years and 1 internship, 4 programming languages and a lot of code review later, I have made the decision to go fully into tech. It was not an easy decision to make, I DID love building and designing houses, but I found that my curiosity is much more heightened when I have a coding problem before me.
Am I scared? Yes...Will I give up? It took me a long time to get to this point, so no, I am in it for the long haul. I will make Javascript my lover and probably drag many of you on my journey to building a community of Javascript lovers.
So, like I said, hello world and welcome to my Dev.to Blog.
PS: If you're looking to start on your tech career this year, you can download this checklist of 14 careers in tech and the programming language you should learn first.
Top comments (3)
I absolutely love these kinds of stories! The journey's never easy, but you can be sure it's all worth it in the end :) My cousin went through a rough process until he got the job of his dreams. That's why I'm so intrigued whenever I see a similar story. In this field, you guys are working, can change people's lives, and often don't even realize it. For example, he and some former colleagues created an app that helps design a room virtually. Isn't that amazing? I believe it eases thousands of people's work and life. So, go on and chase your dream as well!! Keep us updated, and I wish you the best!
Can the design a room app factor in different curtain styles and headings? Or does it not go into that much detail?
Funny. That used to be my favorite book for years!