My path to IT – how a sales team manager, became a programmer
To be honest, you can read about working in IT every day. Professional development, great working conditions, impressive benefits or high wages – these are some of the most often used comments in the industry which unfortunately, are not the case. I would hear this as well. After seven years of working for the largest telecommunication company in Poland, I said “enough”, I decided to try my chances in IT.
In this article, I will tell my story. I will show you how I changed my profession, and how the first months of working as a Java Developer at Eversoft, looked.
Changing your profession – not as scary as it seems
I started to think about changing my profession at the age of 31, in the middle of 2018. I wasn’t enjoying myself and I was struggling. The constant stress, the targets, the tense atmosphere, and the constant deadlines- all these factors contributed to my decision. I went out on a break with my colleague, we started to talk, and I had an idea: “We should have become programmers”. The very next day, I tendered my resignation, and began to consider what I needed to learn, what qualifications I required, what were the skillsets of a programmer? Are there any special requirements in this profession?
I discovered the answers to these questions long after I was in the business. Now I know, that there are no special requirements to become a programmer. I’m not saying that changing your profession is easy and pleasant – it’s not. The good news is that all the necessary requirements can be met by almost anyone. You simply have to be prepared to work hard, learn a lot, and be consistent. Tenacity is an incredibly important feature. It will come in handy, especially when some tasks seem to be difficult. You must search for the solutions, try a couple of dozen times until you achieve the desired result. You must always practice. You have to write the code. Lots of it. Only practice will help you learn new things.
My IT professional path
I started my new profession with almost no background. I didn’t want to spend thousands on courses on the basics of programming. As I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that my new chosen profession would be right for me. As I had quit my job I now had the time to commit 6-8 hours a day to learn. It took a couple of months or so. Yes, that is how long it took at first. I’m not saying that you should follow my lead and quit your job, but you must plan that you will commit a certain amount of time to work on coding.
When I started to look for sources to learn from, I discovered that there were plenty. The number of sources were overwhelming.
That’s why I want to give a tip for beginners: if you want to start learning, begin with buying a course, e.g. on the udemy.com platform. Try to learn it by heart, and look for additional sources when the first problems appear. This will, at least in the early phase of learning make it easier for you to organise your work and will not cause you to get discouraged by the number of the sources. 99% of which you will probably never use.
I started out by reading blogs on the subject matter as well as YouTube videos dedicated to programming, in order to understand where to start. The choice for me was Java. I followed the tutorials and started to code. I realised, that my choice was good and I was getting more and more involved in learning how to program. I started to harass my brother – a programmer – with hundreds of questions. His early words of encouragement (before he stopped taking my calls) and pointers, were crucial for me to work and to focus on my goal.
The goal was to learn programming to a degree, allowing me to find a job within six months. I had to hurry, the money I had put aside was slowly running out.
And then it happened. I stumbled upon an advertisement encouraging you to submit for the “Code to Career” (“Kod do Kariery”) programme started by Eversoft and Asseco Academy. I was selected from among 700 candidates and along with more than a dozen other’s, I began my four-month course. The most intense four months of learning began. An evening in a bar with friends? A concert? A film? Forget about it! My brain was doing a marathon of learning back then. Every day I was coming home from the course I would sit and work on the code again, just to learn a little more by myself. If you choose a course like this, you must be ready to put in the hours. In my opinion – it’s really worth it – it’s been a long time since I felt such satisfaction. After my 47th correction, the code started working, and it did exactly what I had planned.
The course helped me realise one very important thing. It doesn’t matter which coding language you start with. You will probably change it a couple of times, depending on the project requirements. During the course we started with Java. Then we were introduced to Angular, AngularJs, and then HTML, CSS; and JavaScript. The best time to decide what you want to do is whilst you are on the course. Coding for mobile devices? Game development? Bot programming? I really didn’t know at the time. After the course I decided that I’m happier with front-end, and that is what I do at Eversoft. In my spare time, I like to write games in Unity and recently I programmed my own bot using JavaScript and the Johnny-Five library.
Conclusion? It doesn’t matter where you start, just start. In time you will figure out what floats your boat.
Starting to learn – where to look?
I spent a lot of time doing research, and I gladly share the sources with you:
- The Traversy Media channel on YouTube (https://tiny.pl/tn91r)
- Wes Bos – JavaScript 30 (https://javascript30.com)
- The Udemy platform (udemy.com) – Brada Traversy & Maximilian Schwarzmüller’s courses.
Additionally, browse the code of others available on GitHub (www.github.com), and get into the habit of using the StackOverFlow platform (stackoverflow.com), when you have a problem with anything.
Remember one thing, no course, bootcamp, or internet tutorial, will show you, how working with a commercial code works. Only by working with such a code, you will begin to solve actual business issues. I have a feeling that what is important, is that with the start of my career at Eversoft, I began to learn. Because, what I had previously done may have given me a feeling of development but it was little in comparison to what working with a real project had given me. Be aware that in this profession you learn every day. Therefore, you must enjoy learning and display the urge to learn. I like it, and it gives me huge satisfaction.
In summary I would like to give you an additional tip. If you have decided to change your profession, and switch to being a programmer. Do not start with a boot camp costing thousands. Start with learning by yourself, test yourself, your determination and patience. Setup a profile on LinkedIn, add and observe people from the industry. It will enable you to establish appropriate contacts that in the future, will help you find that first job in your new profession. Do not be afraid of unemployment in the first instance. The work will turn up in time, as well as your skills of writing better code.
Now go for it! I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
Author:
Rafał Tupacz
Junior Java Developer
