I was spending two hours on job duties and could read books in the remaining time. But decided to change this.

Imagine you can come to the office and do whatever you want. Read books, listen to the music, surf the internet, watch videos. From time to time you still need to do some work-related stuff. But overall you have complete freedom. Wouldn't that be awesome?

I had all that.

No jokes! I was spending around 2 of the 8 hours on the work itself. All the remaining time was in my disposal. At first it was amazing. I was reading books, 52 per year. Internet was limited so video was off limits. But I had a USB stick with the music on and was listening to it via speakers. Since I had my own little office I didn't disturb anyone. Even my boss was OK with that.

How It All Started

At one point I started to learn the Python programming language. Just for fun. I was interested in how sites and apps work. I didn't put all my time and effort in the process since I had no intention to work as a developer.

After two years of such "work" and year and half of learning the language (I was lazy and studied infrequently) I got tired of it. It took me around two weeks to consider changing my cozy job with a freedom to something unknown, but probably interesting. You may have guessed what was my decision. I found a suitable job vacancy with "no experience needed" in the description and went to an interview.

I was presented with a test which I completed in 40 minutes. They said it was a good result. Some applicants spent way more. Now I would finish it in 5 minutes and would ask for next. But at that time I was so proud of myself. Yet I understood how many things I don't know.

Field Work

I worked on commercial projects, learned new libraries and deepened my knowledge of the language. I was even promoted to a teamlead! Even though it was just a two-member-team, after three months of work it was impressing.

Then machine learning hell unleashed its power on me. Organizational processes would not align with my nature and I decided to move on. At that point my median salary was equal to what I had at my previous job. But it wasn't stable. One month it could be 2x and the other just a half of that. I didn't like this situation.

My next step was a company which required a completely different programming language: great and dreadful Java. Additionally I needed to work with frontend. Salary was stable and without spikes. And it was a work on just one product. At first it was interesting, but after a year I was sick of frontend and started to silently hate the project. I did a little python coding and this activity was bringing me the most joy.

Growth Focus

This is when I realized that python is the most interesting thing to me. I started to read more about the language, learned about frameworks. And after 1.5 years working with java changed the company. About 80% of the work was with my favorite language. There still was a little frontend work but it didn't bother me that much. Projects changed semi-annually and to me it's the optimal period. I was able to finish everything plus a little bit, but there was no reluctance as when working on the same thing.

As a result I found my language and niche where I want to grow. Interesting that not a single company was taken aback when they heard I was self-taught. Most interviews never even bring up this question. I realize it could be the bug (feature? 🤔) of the country I'm living in but who knows. So if you want to get into this field - just make a first move! And if you'll like this and the things will start moving I doubt you'd want to stop. But there is just one condition - always learn something new. You can't be a competent and demanded developer without this.

If you get to this line then thank you! And I hope that my story will help someone to take a step to the new and interesting 🚀