Entering the Tech World Without a Map

A year ago, I barely knew what DSA or full-stack development even meant.
I just knew the tech world looked fascinating—like something magical happening behind the screen.

Fast forward to now: after my first year in college, I’ve built full-stack projects, earned 10 Dojo belts, led hackathon teams, and discovered so much about myself along the way.

This is my story—unfiltered, sometimes messy, but very real.
If you’re someone who feels clueless right now, I hope this shows you that you can figure it out.

🌱 Starting From Zero

I still remember the date—29th July 2024, my first day of college.
I walked in as a completely clueless first-year student.

To me, the tech world was this shiny thing people on the internet talked about—AI, machine learning, startups changing the world.
I honestly had no idea what it actually took to build any of it.

All I knew was that I was curious. And that had to be enough.

📺 Too Many Roadmaps, Too Much Confusion

Like many beginners, I turned straight to YouTube.
Everywhere I looked:
👉 “Become a Web Developer in 3 Months”
👉 “Top 10 Tech Skills for 2024”
👉 “The Ultimate DSA Guide”

And instead of clarity, I felt more lost.

This field is huge, and when you don’t have any direction, you start questioning everything:

Am I starting in the right place?
What if everyone else already knows this stuff?
Will I ever catch up?

If you’re there right now—trust me, you’re not alone. I was exactly the same.

💬 Asking for Help (Even When It Felt Awkward)

Eventually, I made a LinkedIn account and started sending connection requests to seniors and professionals—without expecting replies.
Some ignored me. But a few kind people actually took time to answer.

Everyone had different advice, but one message kept coming through:
"Just start somewhere. You’ll figure it out."

So I did.

🧩 My DSA Journey

I picked Striver’s A2Z DSA Sheet as my starting point—and honestly, it gave me direction when I had none.

I went from:

Basics like loops, arrays, recursion
To advanced concepts like DP, stacks, queues, and binary search trees

I watched Striver’s Take U Forward videos when I got stuck (which was often).

Eventually, all those small steps added up. I earned:
🏅 6 Dojo belts in Java
🏅 4 in Python

Even now, I still fumble sometimes—and that’s okay.
This is my pace, and I’m proud of it.

🌐 Getting Into Web Development

In parallel, I started learning Web Development.
HTML and CSS were my starting points. My first projects were:

Amazon landing page clone
Netflix landing page clone
Responsive navbars

Then I discovered JavaScript—and suddenly, websites felt alive.

I built:

Calculator app
To-do list
Interactive form
Weather app (with live API)

By December, I made a leap into React.
I created my first app using Vite : a weather news app. I learned about components, props, state, and dynamic rendering.

And yes, I finally figured out Git and GitHub—that felt like a milestone in itself.

⚙️ Embracing the Backend

In January 2025, I dove into backend.
I chose the MERN stack and followed Chai Aur Code’s Node.js course.

I learned:

Node.js + Express
REST APIs & CRUD
MongoDB, SQL
JWT Authentication
Cloudinary
CI/CD deployment (Render & Cloudflare)

My first silly full-stack app? A Conspiracy Theory Generator 😄
But it taught me everything from deployment to API logic.

Then came my bigger projects:

🛒 E-commerce Platform
🧠 HRX – Flexi Workforce Hub

HRX was my capstone project—a full-stack HR platform with:

Role-based access
Leave, payroll & performance tracking
JWT + Google OAuth
Redis caching
Cloudinary integration
CI/CD, Jest for backend testing

Seeing it all come together felt surreal.

🎨 Rediscovering My Creative Side

Even while I was buried in code, I never lost my love for design and aesthetics.

Using Figma, I designed wireframes and UI prototypes.
For me, great software isn’t just functional—it should feel good to use.

You can also explore my Figma community profile to see some of my wireframes and prototypes:
👉 My Figma Community Profile

🤝 Finding My Community

This year, I joined two amazing communities:

AWS Cloud Club – I manage our social media presence
Devcrest – I helped build the community website with seniors

I also led a team in Smart India Hackathon Prelims 2024.
Our project, Virtual Herbal Garden (with 3D Spline models), made it to the Top 5 out of 292 teams.

Later, I participated in LNMIIT’s 72-hour hackathon, where I got my first hands-on exposure to AI model training.

✍🏼 Why I’m Starting This Blog

Somewhere along the way, I lost touch with something I truly loved—writing.

I’ve always written poems, stories, thoughts.
But in my hustle for tech, that creative side took a backseat.

This blog is my way of bringing it back—and documenting the wild, beautiful journey I'm on.

🧭 What’s Next?

If you’re curious about where I’m heading:

I’m exploring AI more closely—reading documentation, learning about OpenAI, and experimenting with models.
I’m determined to strengthen my DSA skills further.
I’m looking for internships and more hackathon opportunities to keep challenging myself.
Continuing this blog and building my personal brand.

💌 For Anyone Just Starting Out

If you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unprepared—this is your sign.

Don’t wait for the “perfect time.”
Create the right moment.

Start small. Build messy things.
Message that senior. Watch that first video. Push that first commit.

You’ll be surprised how far you can go in just one year.

Thanks for reading my story. 💖

📌 Let’s connect:
🔗 Portfolio
🔗 LinkedIn
🔗 GitHub

I’d love to hear your journey too.

🌟 Entering the Tech World Without a Map: My Story So Far

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