Daniel: The Prologue

#javascript #beginners #datascience #webdev

Radical Intro

Computer Engineering Graduate, Software Developer and now a self acclaimed Data Enthusiast. My name is Daniel and I would like to share my ongoing journey. For starters, I've been a by the book type of student, not too bad at learning and deeply respect engineers. Unfortunately, I didn't start coding on my dad's calculator when I was 5 years old and team up with 2 of my friends to start a $20M start-up at 18. Frankly, it's not much of a journey yet at all.

Finishing School

Having graduated from university last year, I wasn't really sure of what to do next with all the skills I had been taught. Whether to pursue a career in software or hardware, whether to go back to school or to enter the working world. These questions were just the start of a list (or array) of questions and actually, pretty easy to answer as compared to decisions I'd have to make next.

I got an opportunity to work as a Full-Stack Developer right after school. I thought it was a pretty good chance so I didn't hesitate to take it right away.

It's dangerous to go alone! Take JavaScript.

I was pretty nervous because I hadn't used JavaScript much in school so in-between my final project and first day at work I used my favourite form of studying... reading (I'm so fun). I went through Head First JavaScript Programming to get my fundamentals in check and became the best JavaScript developer of all time, since then I've developed 3 frameworks, contributed to a dozen open source projects and helped Jarred Sumner save JS... is how I thought it'll go. I merely just started my first day of work.

The first days were calm, I had a mentor assigned to me and was given a study guideline to follow. And THEN I became the best JavaScript Developer! Still wrong... but didn't those guys on YouTube do it in one 3 hour long video? And haven't I been making for loops in class? Pfft, come on, how hard can it be.

The guideline covered various topics in web development. HTML & CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript and a nemesis I'll be tangoing with for the next year, ReactJS Cue Mexican standoff music. What better way to get started than to create a To-Do list app with React. Seemed pretty neat, y'know components, props, hooks...memoization? Meh, I'll be in good hands as long as I followed the tutorial step by step...Done! That's everything I needed to know about React right? I'm totally a Full-Stack Developer now. You're probably tired of me being wrong at this point. I was as well, honestly I didn't know it yet.

It's Showtime!

For my assessment, I was tasked with a backend project using ExpressJS and an Object Relational Model (ORM) of my choice in TypeScript. It wasn't bad, I think I did pretty well, unfortunately the Frontend Dev left the company before we could end the assessment so it was never completed. One of many unfinished projects to come!

My mentor thought it was pretty good himself and quickly onboarded me on a big project the company just got. There were only 3 Devs on the team when it started, my mentor and his 2 mentees. Safe to say I was one of the founding fathers of the project (I took pride in that). Okay, time to get my hands dirty with all these new tools in my toolkit. On the project, I was mainly assigned frontend tasks. It was rough. I had to go back and play Flexbox Froggy and learn how to use Tailwind. I was in and out of package docs. I was giving reports like I worked for J. Jonah Jameson. I was learning a lot and at a rather fast pace, but funny enough I felt like I was in my element.

Hills & Valleys, Highs & Lows

After some time, the project manager came to appreciate my work and I was onboarded onto other projects. Some of which I was the sole Frontend Dev (not bad for a rookie huh). On those projects I was able to deliver, they were short and rather small but on my main project my glory was reaching a plateau.

Things weren't really going my way like before. The main project became too big and clunky for me to properly run locally, there were daily constant changes to the design requirements and I was given this dreadful music task to sort out (I still hear the song in my nightmares). I found it really difficult, so difficult that I started disliking JavaScript and in some ways coding and let's not ever talk of the imposter syndrome (NOW I know that's normal). I was really frustrated because, not to toot my own horn but "stuff" in general come easily to me. I wasn't sure what to do in the face of this roadblock but I had to do something about it, and do it now.

Luckily, during this period, I truly discovered the merits and even joy of collaborating with others. My teammates and seniors provided invaluable assistance, whether it was through guidance, reviews or even giving me their own laptops to complete tasks. I also have to give myself props (Look mum, a React pun!) because I was able to face the challenge head on, practice discipline and learn from the experience. I'd spare the details for "Describe a time when you had to solve a problem at work" in a job interview.

Onto the Next!

As all things do, my time at the company had come to an end and my contract was up. I said my goodbyes and for the first time in a long time there was a calm period in my life, so I starting thinking a lot about my next venture.

Do I want to continue being in tech? Yeah, I enjoyed Software Development.

Was I going to stay in Web Development? I mean I know a lot of people and 90% of my friends do it. But no matter how hard I thought about it, my answer was no. Not that I want to throw it out the window but I felt there would be a more suitable field for me.

Oh no, now what do I do? I'm a 22 year old man who hasn't figured life out yet and is spiraling to my eternal doom, this thought came to mind often. I kept scouring the interwebs until one day something caught my attention... Data Science (maybe I saw how much they make, idk). Hmm, data science, I mean I like Math, research is cool, I've done a bit of AI & ML in the past and I like learning stuff in general. This could be a good fit for me and my strengths. I made a decision (yeah, it was the salary) and decided to put all my efforts into becoming the best Data Scientist in the world. Haha 6 figure salary here I come!

Gnarly Outro

This blog is very important to me since it's my first, I like writing and I've always wanted to do it ever since I started binge watching Fireship videos. The next may not be as non-technical and I'd like to make more posts on things I learn, the way I learn them. But please do come back and support me on my journey. I'd like to show both of us where my mind and prowess can take me.