We all have our own backgrounds of development, some people because they're bored and wanted something to do, some because they wanted to make the most amazing things out there (cough cough Ben and Jess with this website cough cough). I get asked sometimes how I become a software developer and I tend to see it as a quiet interesting story. So here it goes

Where it all began

In a galaxy far far away....wait wrong story. It started when I was 10 years old I got my first computer in the house, well it was actually shared between my family. I had always been interested in how things worked, so I looked at the hardware took it apart. And failed to put it back together again. I was fascinated by the fact these materials we find in the ground can be taken and made into a machine that we can do what we like with.

So after we spent a bit of money paying someone to put it back together I thought to myself "I know how the hardware goes together but what about what we see, what we do with keyboard and this mouse that for some reason has a cats ball toy in it" that's when I got interested. At the time there wasn't a lot of resources to learn, google yes but compared to now vs then well you get the picture.

At the time it was Windows Vista that was the popular operating system on the market (never thought I'd say those words), I was about 10 years old and had no clue how to start so I googled it and found out about bash. Oh yes good old bash. I made some very simple scripts to do somethings that at the time I considered "mind blowing".

I actually found all of these old scripts and uploaded them to github here >> https://github.com/Eros/LegacyScripts

Lets fast forward a bit so you don't fall asleep

The Rebel Alliance has.... NO WAIT WRONG STORY AGAIN. Anyway fast forward about 6 years when I became 15 and I had a Lenovo laptop, at the time I was in a weird stage of life and playing Minecraft a lot, I found a server network named Hypixel and it just blew my mind completely.

Why? Well what the people behind the server had done was things I never thought were possible. They had taken this core game and turned it into something unbelievable this is when I first started to get into Java. I was extremely curious to how they could take what had seemed to be a very basic game and made made/remade some of the most popular games out there in the world. This was a server that (at this day) has taken World of Warcraft, Mario Kart, and even Super Smash Bros and made it into a game that is designed about placing blocks and killing walking tall green pigs.

At the time I had been writing some silly websites mainly just for the fun of it, but this is what got me started. I did a lot of research into how the Hypixel team had taken this game and made something outstanding of their own. After a lot of googling, binging, askjeevesing and poking at a couple of their developers I found myself teaching myself Java. Once I grasped the basics I use the API that had been made for the game (at the time Bukkit now it uses Spigot which is pretty much the same).

I found something that I loved, I loved making Minecraft plugins. But one day I got thinking. Wait this is a powerful tool I'm working here, I can do more than just make some stuff for a game. I can make software DUN DUN DUNNNN. I'll be serious, when it came to the software part I had zero clue of where to begin. So I started up some tutorials on the youtube (TheNewBoston if I remember correctly) and within about half an hour I made a box appear on my screen, with a button that prints out a smiley face.

Just the thought of back when I was 10 years old I was writing a fake matrix hack in batch, now I'm making my computer print smiley faces on my screen, okay not a big improvement

Lets fast forward a bit more

At 17 years old I had been teaching myself the core of everything to do with computer software, what you should you shouldn't do, how to make efficient software and I was loving it. I remember I use to spend my GCSE Art lessons in school programming instead of actually doing the work (i got into a lot of trouble for that). By this time I had created 3 applications that I was very proud of. A todo list, a very basic game called colour-mania, and a jumpscare I used to prank my brother.

At 17 I got my first job, I was working with a close friend of mine for his dad's mobile development company. We had both been highly interested in computers and what we can do with them, as well as extending our new found interest onto mobile devices.

I really couldn't believe that at 17 I was earning money from typing on a screen. I remember one of my teachers said to me "George, you will never get anywhere in life by looking at a screen all day" guess I proved her wrong. At this time I also had began volunteering at Hypixel as a moderator. It has and still does teach me a lot about the work place, I was learning everything from how to interact with our players to providing quality assurance as a bug's team member. I loved and still do love every single aspect of development, and being at Hypixel.

Where am I now?

Well now, over the course of 2 years I worked on multiple different places, mainly private companies and for friends. Now I'm in my first year of university studying for a computer science degree. As much as a pain C can be to learn, I love it. I'm still at the Hypixel network loving it more than ever. Till this day I feel like the Hypixel Community is what truly kickstarted my career, them taking me under their wing as a staff member for nearly 3 years now, has changed my life completely.

Hope you enjoyed, if you've got any stories on this topic or comments, I'd love to hear them.