Any Indonesian here? I've got a job!

Hello, I want to share my story about getting a developer job. My job is currently in the front end side.

I’m from Indonesia. Tech industry is growing fast here. Even though the salary of software developers generally lower than those in developed countries, the pay is still good for the living cost. But they are really selective to get a new employee. I think it’s like that everywhere.

I want to share about my past first. I was quite good in school. I have some problems in high school but it is not much compared to my recent problem.

I went to one of top universities in the country, I chose a department that is a fusion of electrical engineering and computer science. My GPA was quite good too.

I didn’t code much in university. I was taught C/C++ and many theory about computer. The program is about microcontroller, robot, sensor, something like that. I’m still not good at C right now, but I’m currently learning it.

In last year of my study, I faced several problems then I chose to drop out. I still blame myself for easily dropping out. But it already happened.

After dropping out, I was unemployed for, if combined, maybe 12 months. I worked as food delivery man, on demand motorbike service driver, and a contract worker of government institution.

In mid (June/July) 2018, I found a software developer job that accepted anyone without degree on condition they pass the test. I was interested then I learned HTML/CSS/JavaScript from w3schoolsdotcom.

Then I found FreeCodeCamp don’t remember why I finally met this website. I was motivated to complete the course (but actually I still didn’t complete the course). I solved the problems one by one. I didn’t understand much of React and Redux in the course. I skipped it, learned them from other sources, and built some projects, including FCC projects.

I started applying in October. For Indonesians, maybe you can take a look at techinasiadotcom, there are many jobs for software developers. I applied to dozens of companies. I had around 9 or 10 interviews (phone/video call or face to face) and technical tests.

In early December I was called by a CEO of the company I applied. He said that he was interested to employ me. But he contacted me in late December. I got a technical test to create simple kanban board.

Several days later I was interviewed on the last day of 2018 but I had bad internet connection so it was postponed. Then two days later, in 2nd of January, I went to their office to do an interview. In the afternoon same day, he called me that I was accepted and he expected me to work the next day.

It seems like a second chance for me. After dropping out, I got a job (not closely) related to my major in university.

I’m quite lucky to get this job. Until now, I’ve never contributed to open source projects. I want to do that but I’m still clueless. But other tips like learn something new, code everyday, build some projects, I did that.

Learn something new is really helpful.

One of technical tests I took was about calling an API. At that time, I still don’t understand what API is. I passed the test, but failed the interview.

Another case, I was interviewed and then was asked about React life-cycle components. I’ve used them at that time, but I didn’t have deep understanding. Also about virtual DOM in React, I really didn’t know. So I learned those.

Now I think I was really stupid, not knowing life-cycle components but still daring to apply.

Hope my story will motivate you all. Feel free to ask me about anything.

Thank you. Terima kasih.

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Congratulations on getting your job as developer!

I’m still on my way to learn everything here and I won’t stop learning, I wish I will be successful like you as well in the future and get my dream job. Hope you grow more sooner or later!

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Trimakasih mas sudah memotivasi melalui postingannya. Selamat dan sukses…
Btw, Salam kenal saya Samuel dari Batam

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