I got a developer job - a dream comes true for me

Today i accepted my first developer job so i figured i would share my story with you to hopefully motivate some of you.

My Journey

The Past

My journey is quite a long one - i have written my first lines of code probably 15years ago, as i was always fascinated by computers.

Unfortunately i was a very lazy student which meant that i could not go to university. So i went into an other profession and gave up on coding. Until 2010 when i started to attend evening school to finally be able to go to university to study software engineering.

The Present

In 2014 i started studying software engineering at university. In November this year i felt confident enough to apply for jobs and after about one month of applications i got a job as a java developer.

The Future

Getting a job is just the beginning of an even larger journey, my goal for the next year is to get up to speed as soon as i can so that i can be a productive team member. This is a bit scary but overall i am very happy for the opportunity i have gotten.

#Learnings

  • I dont believe in talent - if you put in the work you will be successfull
  • Focus on the fundamentals not on new languages or that trendy framework
  • If you dont have a degree you need to showcase of what you are capable - put your stuff on github
  • You will fail whiteboard interviews and some people will try to bring you down - work on your interviewing skills and dont let anyone tell you of what you are capable or not.
  • Get a mentor
  • Im lucky that education in my country is free, but i think my FCC Certificate also played a big role as it showed people that im serious about learning.

TLDR: If i can do it, you can do it to - work hard and success will follow!

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Nice:ok_hand:thanks for the motivation BTW which country are you from @Horv87

@MuiaKigondu im from Austria :slight_smile:

Aaah! Guten Morgen! :slight_smile:

Guten Morgen :slight_smile:

Thanks, it’s just what I needed. Been lacking motivation lately, and your post gave me a bit of motivation. :slight_smile:

I’m also considering applying to university for Computer Science while doing FCC. Do you think one can manage the two? Do you work in backend development or is your job not in web development? Also, what FCC certificates do you have?

Thanks again for your post, and congrats for getting the job! :slight_smile:

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@Horv87 Congratulations on getting your first developer job. I completely agree with your advice. Especially:

You will fail whiteboard interviews and some people will try to bring you down - work on your interviewing skills and dont let anyone tell you of what you are capable or not.

Learning to code well enough to get a first developer job comes down to persistence. And your success is a testament to that.

Good luck getting geared up for your first few weeks at your new job, and continuing to grow as a developer.

Im currently working part time (16h/week) while studying and also doing FCC and other projects on the side - so its definitely possible. The job will be mostly java - not sure if front end or backend. I only got the Frontend Certificate but i plan to get the backend certifiacte aswell but currently i dont want to split myself up all over the place so i focus on java.

Good luck on your journey, i really believe that you can do it - put in the work and you will make it.

@QuincyLarson thank you for the kind words, and also big thanks for creating this awesome community.

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Congratulations man, hope me and my fellow campers can land our dream jobs too asap.

Congrats on the new job! Your story is very inspiring.