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Discussion on: What was your first big step in this never ending journey?

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leightondarkins profile image
Leighton Darkins

My first big step?

Let's start with my first, accidental step...

I accidentally took an Intro To Programming unit in my second year of university. I was studying Music Production and Technology at the time and, skimming through the available elective list, I saw "Programming I" and immediately thought "oh cool, I could learn some advanced MIDI tricks or something".

Wrong!

I showed up to the first lecture and knew straight away that no music was gonna be happening in that room. But I also thought, "I like computers and video games, and this could be handy for writing my own audio plugins one day".

It took one week for me to be hooked. I had so much fun! The problems were challenging, the people were interesting and I found myself 100% self-motivated to do the work - I was that annoying kid who finished his practical assignment the day he received it. Not because I was a brown-noser, but because it was just fun.

By the end of the semester I decided that music was important to me, and it would stay a hobby, but my professional future laid with software. So I transferred to a more technical university and plowed through a software engineering degree.

My first big, and intentional, step was applying for a Junior Software Engineer role with a big bank after having studied software for less than 6 months. I had no pretence about my skill, I knew I wasn't qualified, so I had no fear going into the process. Worst case: I'd apply again in a few years when I was more appropriately qualified.

Plot twist: The manager I interviewed with liked my moxie, and gave me one of the three available positions, on the condition that I pulled my own weight through my probation period. It wasn't some low-rent internship, they expected me to be as productive as my peers. So, I worked a little harder that I would have liked to, but learned a lot in the process.

It's been over 5 years now, a couple of jobs have come and gone, but I still find writing software as challenging and fun as I used to. So that's nice 😊

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marksasp95 profile image
Marco Suárez

That is awesome! Like love at first sight!