My Software Developer Journey: A Self Taught Story

Intro

Hey, I'm Idriss! To be honest, sharing things about myself doesn't really come naturally. There's a vulnerability there I'm still not quite comfortable with and I more often tend to downplay my wins rather than celebrate them. But this is a story I am proud of. It's a story about following your heart and staying true to your dreams, no matter where life decides to take you. So come along, I'll walk you through how I became a self taught software developer.

Origin story

I've been into computers and other tech-related things for as long as I can remember. We had an old PC in our basement, which I would sprint to after school every day. Playing games on CartoonNetwork.com, sending emails to girls I had crushes on in school—I was having the time of my life. I knew this was something I enjoyed doing, but I remember thinking there was no way I could actually do this for a job. At 7 years old, it seemed like my only options were becoming a police officer, a doctor, or an astronaut.

University

Growing up, I was taught that attending university and earning a degree was the only path to true success in life. I never questioned this belief because, for the most part, it seemed accurate. Sure, I had heard stories of billionaires dropping out of Harvard and starting their own companies, but I knew that wasn't the case for most dropouts. So, there I was, two years into my degree, feeling like I wasn't where I was supposed to be. It was like I was at a crossroads between what I had been taught be to true and what my heart was telling me. I wasn't sure what I was going to do but I knew I needed a change. I didn't want to take time off of school and do nothing, so I decided to take a sabbatical year and travel to Australia.

A year later

My trip to Australia was incredible (shoutout to Flinders). I met so many people from various walks of life. I came across people who were much older, dropouts, and some with master's degrees - the whole spectrum. I came back home with what I had been looking for, an answer. But even more than that, I came back liberated, free from my family's and society's expectations (turns out solo travelling really boosts your self confidence). In all, I came back ready to drop out. During my trip, I researched the available paths for those who wanted to enter the tech industry without a degree. I would recommend checking out the webdev subreddit. I came across lots of stories, articles, videos, and posts from people who were dropouts but still became software developers (reading those stories definitely inspired this blog, and hopefully, my story can help someone out there too). So with all that, I came up with a plan to become a web developer. It looked something like this:

• Learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a JavaScript framework (React)

• Build a portfolio with meaningful projects

• Network and establish an online presence

• Apply for Junior Web Developer jobs

Now that I knew what I had to do, it was time to get to work.

Payoff

I knew I would need some sort of routine if this plan was going to work, so I focused on learning new coding concepts and building projects for 5-8 hours a day, allowing for healthy breaks, of course. You can't be too hard on yourself :) I would go for any type of projects that interested me, my favorite one to build was my Pokedex (I was playing a lot of Pokemon at the time). After about a year, once I felt that my portfolio contained meaningful projects, and when I had a really good understanding of vanilla JavaScript (no frameworks), I was ready to start applying for jobs. I went through lots of applications and interviews, and after about three months, I finally landed a job! Oh man, landing that first web developer job was incredibly rewarding. It was the payoff of the high-risk gamble I had taken, and I was glad I had done it my way.

To be continued...

As of today, I am 3 years into my journey as a software developer and it's been great. I've learned Python and picked up a few libraries and frameworks along the way but there is still more to learn, and I'm excited for it. Taking that leap of faith, trusting in myself and following my heart are the biggest lessons I've taken away from all this. I am so grateful I was able to follow my dreams, there's more that I want to achieve and I can't wait to bring you guys along. Thank you for reading :)