What made me want to becoming a software engineer?

Hello ! I'm Xavier Jouvenot and this is my first blog post on Hashnode. 🎉

Some of you may already know me from Dev.to or my personal website.

I didn't know how to start blogging on this platform, and two hours ago, I encounter the article about the Writeathon "4 Articles in 4 Weeks", written by Eleftheria Batsou. After hesitating for about one hour, and since there was only 3 hours left before the deadline of the 22nd of August. So here I am, creating an account on Hashnode in order to start this challenge just before the deadline to post the first article.

Note: the timing may be a little off since I am in France, and I am not sure about the time difference with the deadline provided for the challenge 😄

The start of my programming journey

Some people have always been playing with computers and naturally end up making a living out of the passion of their young years.
I am not one of those people. 😛

Indeed, at 17, when having to decide what to do next with my life, I was completely lost. Without any idea about what to do next, I did the only thing I thought about, I chose the same university and formation as my friends. Not a really smart move, I have to admit. Then, during the summer break before starting the new year, I experimented a little bit with programming on openclassrooms and enjoyed it. I actually always loved solving problems (math problems, for example), so when starting programming, I found a domain where everything was "problem solving and loved it.

So if you were only looking at the question "What made me want to become a software engineer?", the answer is: at first, nothing, it all started by pure chance, and after a little time, since I always loved problem solving, studying programming resonated with me really quickly.

During university, I learned a lot about programming, software development and about the job of a software engineer. It was all very interesting, but the most relevant experiences I had, at that time, were some internships which confronted me to the daily life of developers and computer scientists. Those experiences, with everything I have learned during the universities, prepared me relatively well for the professional world of programming. 🤓

My life as a software engineer

Even if it is only by chance that I start my journey to become a software engineer, I can't say, after more than 7 years I think it may be interesting to see why I still want to be a software engineer.

After university, I've started working for a startup developing a new product for musicians and producers. And after 7 years, I am still working for the same company but I have to say that my relationship with my work, my status as a software engineer have changed a lot. Even so, I am still happy to be a software engineer.

As always, I still love solving problems, and more than that, now, I like to help people, to make their life easier, which is, for me, what a software engineer does. Actually, if I had to resume the role of a software engineer, I would say:

A software engineer is someone who uses technology to provide a simple solution to someone else's problem.

And now, instead of only solving the problem of someone, I try to provide repeatable and easy to understand solution to everyone facing one problem. And I love it. It is by no means easy, but this is what I like to do, and I will probably continue doing it for a long time. This is also why I start blogging, and why you are reading this article right now. 😊

Conclusion

My life would be very different if I didn't start this journey.
But I have no regret about it, and I hope that you, dear reader, will enjoy it as much as I am 😉

Thank you all for reading this article,
And until my next article, have a terrific day 🙂