To new beginnings...

To whomever manages to find themselves through the vast corners of tech social media to my humble blog beginnings, I hope you enjoy my journey.

I am most definitely not one to really write out my thoughts, let alone share it to begin with, but as the title of this post indicates, "To new beginnings..."

A brief background on myself: I am a 23 year old male, who just four months ago (December 2021) graduated from university in a degree in Business Economics. However, throughout my senior year, I've come to an even more finalized realization that I really did not want to pursue any standardized career pertaining to Business Economics, but instead become a Software Engineer.

The scene of my walking to shake the hand of the dean of my major during commencement is still vividly living rent free within my mind. Why you may ask? Well it's because with each step I took, I was inching one step closer towards knowing I wasted 5 years of my life on something I wasn't really invested in. Traditional jobs like "Business Analyst", "Financial Advisor", or "Accountant" just didn't suit me. Better late than never I guess to realize this.

With one software engineering internship under my belt coming off graduation, I was to say very ill-prepared for trying to pursue a career in such. Fast-forward four months to now (April 2022) and after receiving rejection after rejection I've come back to the drawing board.

As a self-taught developer, I am already at a disadvantage when applying for any roles. There are tons of people out there applying for the same roles, but with way better qualifications. They have that "coveted" CS/CS-related degree. They have way more internship experience than me. Some have hackathon experiences under their belts or they are open-source legends. Despite knowing this, after much clarity, I am confident enough to know that I wasn't really preparing like my life depended on it.

My resume is not as great as it should be. I have yet to complete my portfolio website. The projects I have listed are not even hosted as web-apps. I have not networked nearly as hard as I should have within the past four months. I have not had the motivation to truly go out of my way to not only improve in these areas, but also go out of my way to learn new technologies. A nice way to put my situation is to say that I have become stagnant.

Knowing this, I think it's about time to take accountability. If I really want to become a Software Engineer or better yet penetrate the tech space, then I need to put myself out there and truly work for it.

In order to do this, I have set some goals for myself before I go back to applying to a bunch of junior, entry, and apprentice level positions like it's a 9 to 5.

One: I will start blogging my journey.

• I don't have a set schedule for when I will release posts, but I will make sure to jot down what I am doing.

Two: I will finish my portfolio website.

• This is something that I was most definitely lacking that would have made me look a lot more enticing for developer roles. These days, having a developer portfolio I feel is almost mandatory as it's a means of showcasing your work.

Three: I will create more complex projects / improve existing projects.

• I won't be able to finish my portfolio website unless I have projects to put on there. As a self-taught developer, aside from my one internship, my personal projects are my most important resource in showcasing that I am fit for whatever role I am applying to, so they need to be enticing.

Four: I will improve my resume.

• By completing number two and three, I will be able to improve my resume drastically. With number 3, I'll be going out of my way to learn more technologies, while improving on existing ones I already know, which I will be able to list on my resume.

Five: I will work on being more open for networking.

• This one will be hard, considering I am an introvert by nature. I have made strides in lurking in web dev twitter, but overall I feel as though I am the type of person to go out of my way to reach out to people. Nevertheless, I will still try to be more open.

It's a different story if people hit me up as I'm more willing to talk! If you have come this far to the end, then feel free to follow me on twitter @justinclenista Not sure when I can come out of my comfort zone to start regularly tweeting, but I am always open to talk and make new connections (even though it's contradicting to what I said in the point above).