My whole life revolves around computers and the Internet. When I was a small kid I spent my free time playing computer games and trying my best in creating some computer graphics. I created a few blogs and spent my youth crawling from blog to blog. When it came to choosing a field of study at University it was obvious to me to go with IT. I spent my whole life on the computer so it seemed like a perfect choice. But back then I’ve never actually known what programming is really about. I thought it was sitting alone at a desk without talking to people. I couldn’t be more wrong.

Getting into programming

A few of my university courses gave me some fundamentals about programming languages such as Java and Javascript. I got to know basic knowledge about object-oriented and functional programming with minor familiarity with databases. And that was all I learnt. But those fundamentals were essential to start learning on my own. I made some basic applications, for example simple web scraper in Java. I started to fill my notes with small project ideas and implement each one of them. I tried to make it fun so I created an application called Alpacake. It was just a simple mobile game about an alpaca eating cakes. :)

Getting the first job

Before applying for software developer roles I googled example programming questions and learnt answers to most of them. I came across a book entitled “Cracking the Coding Interview” by Gayle L. McDowell. It is commonly recommended to read before interviews in such companies as Google. Then I tried to find some inspirations for my resume. I made sure my resume has a simple and modern design. The most crucial point was to make it all about software engineering, which means it combined only relevant knowledge and skills.

I started to send out my applications and I got first responses in a short time. In the meanwhile I received an offer on LinkedIn and accepted it. That’s how I landed my first job as a developer!

Working as a Junior Software Developer

While working at my first job as Junior Developer I had flexible schedules, which basically means I could work at any hour of the day. Most of the time I spent coding but there was also time for a little bit of fun like playing darts. One of the best parts of the day was lunchtime. I liked spending it with my coworkers at our favourite places. It was time to get to know them better in person and talk about the latest tech news.

The beginning of my work was special because I absorbed new knowledge very quickly. I had code reviews for which I am very grateful. They taught me so much that now I see a lot of things to improve in my projects from the beginning of my programming adventure.

What next?

Now I have almost two years experience in programming and it is a good time to change my job. I believe it is essential to improve my skill set and keep up with industry advancements.

During my first job as a developer, I learnt a lot of specific programming knowledge and also met amazing people. I changed my mind about programming. I thought that it is only sitting on the computer but now I know it is also about interacting with people.