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Discussion on: What was your first project as a professional developer?

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nathanenglert profile image
Nathan Englert

And no one could locate the source code

Sadly, I've ran into this same issue a few times.. some even recently.

They not only used that software internally, but they also sold it to other companies.

This is amazing. Were you the only one working on the rewrite? Did you use that experience to springboard you into other development jobs?

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kspeakman profile image
Kasey Speakman

I was the only one working on it. I can't remember the exact timeline, but I imagine it took me a pretty long time. PHP was a recent phenomenon, so I taught it to myself as well as rudimentary HTML and CSS. I also used some very basic MySQL. I didn't even learn about indexes and foreign keys until several years later. :)

I remember the experience solidifying that I didn't want to do programming for a living. That I instead wanted to focus on sysadmin (now called Ops). But employers kept finding dev work for me to do once they caught wind. And through a previous employer, I kept picking up dev side projects for extra money. Until I eventually decided if I was going to keep doing it, I had to figure out how to make it not such a brain-frying experience. Today, 19 years later, (as part of a great team) I love it and I don't want to do anything else.