INSPIRING STORY
In 2 years from Junior Dev to Frontend Tech Lead [Part.2]
I’d like to tell you my programming journey and sum it up with my TOP 5 universal rules of success that I have followed ever since then to this day.
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Agenda
Working for BIG4
It took me over 2 months to find a job as a Frontend developer but I succeeded! After the technical interview, my programming skills and knowledge were ranked as Junior+. I was in shock and my first thought was “my preparations were insufficient” but then I realized how really big the competition in this industry is. In preparation for the Mid position, I took someone else’s Junior position. And another thing.
I get hired by one of four the biggest accounting companies in the world.
Crazy. I couldn’t believe it. It was more than a dream come true. I started working at the beginning of February 2022. After all, I was assigned to one of their projects as a Fullstack developer with NodeJS, because they knew I had experience with backend and databases. My first project was… tough. Messy, not modern, complicated, buggy code to maintain. This was a hijacked project that our team was supposed to fix. I remember my first task very well. I was sitting at my desk, looking at the laptop screen, and didn’t know where to start. I started to panic and cry. I work remotely but I think I would start crying in the office too. It was a very different experience than I had before with the code. It overwhelmed me. I spent each day 8 hours (or even more) on this task. Without breaks, eating, drinking… I felt again, like I shouldn’t be here. I’m not cut out for this.
Michał talked with me many times. Helped me get through this. I continued learning programming because I saw that wasn’t over. This was just the beginning of my journey. I started to learn new things beyond programming skills such as estimating my work and working with the big team. And also in the case of programming skills, I started to learn new areas that were never explained in any course because the teacher was life and real-world cases and problems.
Expect the unexpected
Every day, every week, every month I was getting better and better. I did my job the best I could. I learned not only from my husband but also from other experienced developers on my team. Each time I took on more and more complicated tasks. I was challenging myself (which wasn’t hard because most of the things were for me difficult in some way and unexplored). Over time, the team got to know me as a person who was not afraid of anything. Even though I didn’t know the library or how to do something, they knew I would learn very quickly, because I am open to new things.
After 7 months I was promoted to Mid due to the skills and knowledge I had proven.
It happened in August 2022. Then I took part in a few different projects for several months. Once I was assigned to the end of the project to help the team reach the deadline. Another time, I took part in creating a whole new project from scratch. I don’t know when it happened but I started to feel like a professional. I was proud to be able to truly call myself a programmer. My worries were replaced by everyday satisfaction and excitement about my job. I can honestly tell you, that I love what I do.
I was putting myself to be humble and focused on learning from and listening to people smarter and better than me. There were better days and worse — as always. But working on yourself makes you progress and develop. I thought everybody would feel the difference between me (as a self-educated programmer) and other programmers with computer science degrees but they don’t. And even they emphasize how important is this self-learning ability which usually they don’t have and I (and people like me) do. When I’m speaking with my Team Lead or Tech Lead they tell me about their work and their experience and they share with me their observations and opinions. I want to learn because someday I want to be like them. And I thought it would be in the next few years, not weeks. Life is really surprising. A week ago
I was asked to take the FE Tech Lead proposition
in my current team. I was speechless and thankful.
That’s why I felt nostalgic and wanted to share with you my story. Recall the entire journey. What I felt, what I thought. Tell Ola from the past — you did it, you made it... Good job. And let me tell you that nothing is impossible.
I made a summary for you with 5 rules that I have followed ever since then to this day.
5 rules I followed
- STOP thinking => START doing
I realized that there are just a few decisions in life that CANNOT be reversed. So in this case, you can start taking bolder actions. If it turns out that it was a mistake, then… you can always change the direction. This is self-development. People have a habit of sticking with bad decisions for too long. Growth lies in variability. - What impresses us, is what we should start doing
This is a form of projecting yourself onto other people. Certain things, professions, and people attract our attention for a reason. They arouse our admiration and respect. Look for such moments in your life and move towards them. - Have an attitude: it’s a skill like any other. You’ll learn it. Like every human does
It’s common for us to think of ourselves as inferior to others. That we are missing something. We compare ourselves to people at different stages of their life paths. We expect too much from ourselves from the start, which is why we never get started. Think about the beginnings. Everyone is born knowing and understanding nothing. Each of us learns something every day. Try to approach new things with the openness of a small child. Enjoy the learning process! Treat every skill the same, without distinguishing between difficult and easy. It’s all a matter of understanding. If you understand something, it becomes simple for you. If you’ve never cooked, even making scrambled eggs will be Mount Everest for you. Each of us started this way on every topic. - Be afraid and keep doing
When the first shot of motivation disappears, the sad reality begins. This is the most difficult moment on your path. Various thoughts come to your mind. You have more and more reasons and excuses to stop doing what you’re doing. And worse, you start to worry and feel fear. The progress is too slow; the results are unsatisfactory etc. You start to question whether you’re cut out for it or not. In previous rules, I told you that “people are sticky with bad decisions for too long”. How to recognize whether you should change your path or stay and work on consistency? The slight difference lies in your attitude toward what you do. Think, what do you feel when you do this? Worries and thoughts are taken aside. Results also. Only you and this activity. Do you feel happy? …the fun? …satisfied? …relaxed? …or positively stimulated? If you feel any of the positive emotions — you should keep going, keep doing, keep practicing. If your answers were negative I would recommend you to look for a better direction for yourself. Even when the results are great, it comes at your expense. Remember about self-love. - Learn from the best
Learn from their mistakes. Be humble. Listen to what they say. Contrast it with your experiences, knowledge, and skills. Be inquisitive. Be curious. Make it your hobby or even a little obsession. Remember, if you understand something, it becomes simple for you. If you practice, doing these things becomes more enjoyable because it’s easier each time.
Gaining knowledge from other people is your chance to speed up this process. You start to feel the real change, progress, results, and satisfaction.
I’d love to read, what is the story of your life?
