How I became a software engineer in 6+3 Months : Dev Retro 2022

Hello, fellow developers and people who aspire to be a developer and planning to do so. I hope you are doing great, if not I wish for it.

So, my name is Mohd Asif and I'm 28 years old history student & researcher turned full-time software engineer. In this article, I'm going to unwrap my coding journey / "Dev Retro 2022" with you. So fasten your seatbelts and get ready to know the story of a person who wanted to be a doctor while in school, studied history for five years to become a university professor, turned to freelance researcher & photographer to earn money and ended up becoming a full-time frontend developer.

Context

All of us recently have seen and gone through the horrific experiences of Covid-pandemic. That unfortunate period provided me ample time to think about death & poverty in particular and on love & loneliness, food & fitness, family & friends etc in general. We know that this pandemic period was not as easy as it seems now.

It was the second wave of covid, I was working on a project part-time. After months long of thinking process, finally the time has come when my mind started thinking more practically & in alignment with reality instead of idealism. I had spent 5 years of my life studying history at two prominent institutions of our country, the University of Delhi & the Aligarh Muslim University. Instead going for Ph.D I changed my plan to work but failed to secure a job based on my academic qualifications. So, started doing freelancing gigs, sometimes worked as a researcher for writers, sometimes as an archivist & photographer.
Though I worked in diverse field and learned a lot, one thing I noticed was that almost all the jobs except one were underpaid. In the meantime from personal experiences, I realized that we can't ignore how important place money has in our lives and society. So, it ended up with the money and I became more money oriented which was missing from life.

The breakup of 5+ year-long relationship

While in school I opted for biology to become a doctor, but in college, I took history as my major subject. Initially, circumstances made it to choose history but over time we started understanding each other and this relationship continued for more than 5 years as during my master's history was my major subject like graduation

As this relationship was not yielding any good monetary results, so somehow I convinced myself not to hook myself to some particular subject/thing/discipline. If I want some good payscale then why not learn some new skills than regretting and getting frustrated? So, this is how I decided to switch my career from history/social science to something new that can pay me well, so I can have time to think, have good food to eat, and can supplement the income of my family.

Chose frontend development

It was time to decide where to go now. At this decisive juncture, my friend Mani gave me the right direction and advise at the right time. As getting a skill base good job was a priority, as a result, Mani suggested learning frontend development would be a good idea. As frontend development can be learned in a comparatively shorter period.

Started Learning

In July of 2021, I finally started learning parallel with my part-time job. I decided to learn from a Bootcamp called Neogcamp. The camp was structured into two levels, to enter the paid 6-month-long level one, the applicant has to complete level zero of the camp and pass the interview. I learned basic HTML, CSS, JavaScript and a little bit of ReactJS by doing level zero of the Bootcamp. I have made all the required projects to get into level one as at that moment it was the only option to get succeed in what I have started. By the end of October, I was able to finish all the projects and blogs. Though my learning was not consistent, I used to take long breaks from coding, there was a case when I took more than one-month long break, and the weak long break was common. On looking back from I can see I have spent less than two months on level zero.

Rejection, Depression, Loneliness

In November 2021, On the bases of my completed projects, I have given an interview to enter level one of Neog Bootcamp. I was pretty confident that I'll go through this interview process and will be the part of camp to learn frontend development. On the contrary, I received a rejection email and on reading that my confidence shattered at that moment I thought my plan of becoming a developer has come to end. Though Mani, was there to say its not the end I was not listening and giving attention to what he was saying.

So, November went to an end, and December has gone too but I have not coded anything yet. The project I was working on was also ending in December, and this was also giving me anxiety. January came but I was lost and in a state of confusion. On one side I was looking for new projects on the other side I wanted to start coding and work as a developer. One day Mani said, "Don't go for chillar(penny), think big and be confident in what you are doing". It was a small but straight statement that time helped me to take a decision and as a result I decided to learn full-time and not take any work. So, by mid-January 2022 I started coding again.

It was the time when I got frustrated as I thought that I already knew things but after not coding for more than two and half months I forgot everything. So, kind of I had start from scratch.

After 15 days I started gaining some confidence & building pace. From mid-January onwards, there has not been more than one day-long break in my coding learning. There were times when I used to feel lonely, angry, frustrated, and hopeless. In March I documented here how my emotions were moving in a zig-zag way. Though in all states of mind, I have been focused on my decision and that is the reason I kept myself devoted to learning. It was my work, me and my friend Mani and the reasons to work on my decision that was helping me to battle anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

Built 5 projects

It came to my knowledge that project-based learning is a great approach to learn fast. Now, it was time to learn alone and follow the instruction of my friend who now became my mentor too. I have built the following five projects

• Duck Bukart: an eCommerce Web app, where I have used CSS, JSX, JavaScript, ReactJS, Redux toolkit, Context API, RESTful API etc.

• https://mohdasifabid.hashnode.dev/my-coding-journey-so-farDuck Tube: a video library, built using the above-mentioned tech stack.

• Duck UI: a component library built using pure HTML5 and CSS3. Duck UI comprises some commonly used components like input, alert, modal, button, card, avatar, etc.

• The remaining two projects includes a note-taking app, Duck Notes and a social media app, Duck Speak. These two were also built using almost the same tech stack.

Confidence graph

I was learning consistently and had a clear mind and single focus and as a result, I was getting confident day by day. Though there were low times too. The work in which I was putting my efforts was convincing me that I'm going in the right direction. This building project phase was an amazing experience it made me feel like I'm the part of tech community and I think this was the reason for my confidence to write publicly in a blog that I plan to get a job by July. This confidence made my planning true as in the July 2022 I received my offer letter.

Problem-solving

Once my projects were done I started solving problems that the usually interviewer asks in a frontend interview. I have solved a large number of problems and these problems were from JavaScript, and ReactJS mainly but CSS and HTML problems were there too though in lesser quantity. While solving problems I hadn't abandoned my projects & continuously polishing according to my understanding. At the beginning of the problem-solving phase, I almost thought I don't know anything and lost confidence but after practicing for over 10 days I have started solving problems more quickly than before and gained more confidence.

Mock Interviews

Then there comes the time to test my learning & knowledge. I gave 10 mock interviews in total and at first, I was feeling I'm ready but in the second interview, I was lost and was looking left-right. From 3rd interview, I started learning the asked questions in the post-interview time. Every day I used to go through my notes to revise and used to solve the problems.

Hurre! Got the job In July 2022

Though I have started in July 2021 it was Dev Retro 2022 in which I invested myself seriously into learning frontend development or say software engineering. Once you are market ready and actively and constantly looking for your first job that means you entered a phase where you will feel excited and nervous, sad, happy and dreamy. Thoughts like after getting my first job I'll do that or that, I'll call that person, or treat my family, etc keeps coming to mind. Then you come to sense and realize you have not got the job yet and start feeling nervous. I have given three rounds of interviews with a company. From my end interview went well so I was expecting to hear back. For some time, I heard nothing from their side and as result, I stopped checking my email for a day or two. It was 5 AM when I checked my email before going to sleep and then I saw the offer letter and thereafter couldn't sleep for a minute. The moment I was working finally came and I was enjoying it. I received the official designation of a Software engineer and a good pay scale.

This blog is the submission for #DevRetro2022 / #devretro2022, an event by #Hashnode and I would appreciate it if you would like to share it.

If you like my journey leave your reactions and comments down below in the comment section and I would love to know about you & hear your story. Lets connect on Github, Twitter & Github