Hello Dev Community!!
After spending a lot of time learning, building and throwing things into production praying it works, I've decided to finally post about my journey.
I am currently a CS and Stats double major student at UofT with a goal of breaking into big tech.
Over the past couple of years of building stuff, I've learned one thing for sure and that is it's not always about getting the work done (and in this case I mean just write code and put it into production) but it's about making sure that the product you build (solo or as a team) works.
Now that might be a bit broad but what I mean by "works" is that you accounted for edge cases that might break your application, or making sure it is reliable when you have users.
Now you'll start realizing many of these things as you start putting your product into production which is the beauty of it. If you think too much before doing something, it will never be done and you will never learn anything.
One of the best ways I learned about everything I know today is through hackathons.
Some of you might think hackathons are a waste of time if you don't win. But that is WRONG!
From my first hackathon at UofT, we made a note taking app with built-in AI chat on the side, basically an AI wrapper, which is not very interesting now, but working under pressure teaches you a lot. For example, we pushed our API token to GitHub thinking it won't be a big deal. 2 days later, our API token limit was maxed out and that's when we realized it is much more serious than it sounds.
I’ve faced a lot of challenges, unexpected bugs, learning curves and those small wins that make all the frustration worth it.
Which is why I wanted to start sharing my journey so I can always look back at what I have accomplished and learned and also give any insight to any one who is willing to follow along.
Just learning, building, experimenting and growing in public.
If you are a student or anyone who is trying to advance in their career, what is one thing you would tell yourself 5 years ago?
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