I'm curious about what has everyone's journey into being a developer and as a developer or even after has looked like. Like a choose our own adventure, I feel like a developer's journey could look very different from one person to another. In sharing I hope we could show others how they can potentially navigate their careers.
You could also share what you aspire to. Perhaps you're a certain type of developer and would like to aspire to a certain role or career path.
Here's a little template that could be fun to help visualize your journey for others.
[Role title]
Description
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[Role title]
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[Role title]
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-- <-- indicates where you'd like to go but not there yet.
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[Future or aspirational title]
This could be where you'd like to go in your career. Could be based on a path as a developer or not.
Top comments (22)
Thanks @highcenbug for sharing. Would love to hear how you made the transition from
Relationship ManagertoFreelance Developerwere you self teaching yourself leading up to the transition? Or did you take a course of some sort?Hi Michael, I hold an undergraduate degree in Computer Science. I somewhat retained the memory of some of the lessons I've learned while I was still in college hence the transition was not too difficult in my case.
While I was a Relationship Manager, I tried to build & customize my own Shopify store on my free time which led me to discovering GitHub, which then led me to freeCodeCamp, and some courses on Udemy, LinkedIn Learning & on Skillshare.
Very cool! Were you in undergrad somewhere along the timeline you shared or did you have your degree before working?
No, I was a college undergraduate. 😄
Very cool! Thanks for sharing :) Really dig the journey you took. Looks like you have a lot of experience as a non-developer. Would you say some of the skills you have from your prior jobs helps as a developer? Really believe it would.
Definitely! Working in a call center somewhat helped me gain an understanding of how people living in Canada and Australia think. Sales taught me how to stand my ground and persuade 😄. Being a Business Development Executive in a startup taught me how to think & create strategies on my own(aligned with the companies vision, of course). And being a Relationship Manager taught me how to sell in a building-a-relationship-with-the-client manner 😄
This looks like some fun in the "what a long, strange trip its been" sense, so I'll give it a whirl.
Erik, thanks for sharing! Loved reading about your journey. Curious what the transition was from CIO to freelancing/consulting. Was it a big jump to make this transition or were you working towards this with a financial cushion?
I did set aside some runway, but also stacked the deck in a few other ways in my favor. I agreed to consult for the company as they transitioned to a new CIO, and I had a few other engagements lined up for when I left, as well. So, it was a combination of runway and bookings out of the gate. (I also had a working spouse, so that's a help as well, of course)
Very cool, thanks for sharing Erik!
Here's my 3 years journey for now.
[Electronics Engineering Student at PLM, PH]
Studied some basic coding like c and matlab.
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[Associate Software Engineer]
Accenture Inc.
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[Application Development Analyst next level from ASE]
Accenture Inc.
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[Senior Software Engineer next level from ADA]
Accenture Inc.
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[Full Stack Developer]
Willis Towers Watson
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[Full Stack Developer]
Hammerjack Ltd.
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[CTO]
My own startup company together with my trusted friends :)
Wow that's a great advancement in 3 years! Hope you achieve your CTO dream soon. Definitely working with good people is a highlight.
[CS Student]
Just the basics.
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[Freelancer web developer]
Mainly static websites for small businesses and Wordpress blogs
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[Full time .NET Developer]
At a relatively big hospital here in Nicaragua. My biggest career achievmement yet
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[Game Developer]
Managed to publish my first game on mobile platforms called "Eden: Fruit Catcher Game".
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[Game Developer]
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Have my own game development studio and a portfolio of high quality games.
Very cool Carlos! Congrats on the .NET position and publishing your first game! That's a huge accomplishment!
Thanks! It's been a journey for sure and I still have A LOT to learn, but I still try to keep moving forward even when problems get complex or impostor's syndrome attacks :D
Oh man tell me about imposter's syndrome...I've learned that taking tiny steps forwards helps with the sometimes paralyzing effects of imposter's syndrome.
[Bachelor's student of engineering science, focus on aerospace engineering]
Took required courses in C, FPGAs, Smalltalk. Almost got lured away from aerospace engineering by computer engineering because I loved both. For my Bachelor's thesis, wrote a Java applet to teach a fluid dynamics concept
[Master's Student in Aerospace Engineering]
For my thesis, wrote a flight simulator for an experimental aircraft my colleagues were building, prototyped in Matlab and implemented in C
[PhD student in Aeronautics and Astronautics]
Developed a new optimization algorithm, applied to aircraft design, and implemented it in Matlab. Ported an ancient Fortran IV aerodynamic code to Matlab. Dabbled in Python for the first time and loved it
[Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering]
Didn't code much myself but supervised students and postdocs who did. Found academia wasn't really for me.
[Aeronautical Engineer]
Worked in a group to design a specific part. Automated the analysis process with Python.
[Lifecycle Engineer]
Weird title but it essentially meant I did a lot of statistics to predict failures in aircraft parts. Automated a good chunk of the job using Python
[Data Scientist at Aerospace Engineering firm]
Current, new, role. Title is data scientist but the team is so small I am now essentially a full stack developer. I can do data science and Python but I know nothing about the front end so I have a lot to learn.
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I don't know where I want to go. I am enjoying developing full time for now. I don't want to go into management so my options may be limited.
[Video Game Player]
Kid playing video games
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[Artist]
Kid learning to use Corel Draw and Photoshop
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[Computing Art Major]
Learned to make fine art with computers.
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[Flash Developer]
Making kids games and video players
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[Backend Developer]
As flash died, tried millions of different things.
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[DevOps Architect]
Current job.
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-- <-- indicates where you'd like to go but not there yet.
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--[Developer Coach, trainer, teacher]
I want to help people and the industry get better.
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--[CTO]
One day...
Here's my journey, It's an inspiring one.
dev.to/iamshivampandey/my-story-so-far-as-a-developer-1e38