Hello Megha and fellow devs,
I’m sure everyone has heard of that story before: a non-CS major got a tech job.
But every story is not exactly the same, and in this issue of Awesome Developer Diaries, let me share my personal story of how programming found me.
The first time I ever coded is when I took an ‘Introduction to Computer Science’ course in high school. However, I did not actually choose to take this course. It was because I enrolled in the school late and so all the other electives were full. I had no choice but to take this course like it was meant to be. Back then, as a 14-year-old, the word “Computer” and “Science” sounded like a difficult course, so I was afraid I would not enjoy it - but of course, I was very wrong.
Immediately, this course became my favourite. It introduced me to a software called Real Studio, now re-branded as Xojo. In that course, I learned Visual Basic as my first programming language (woohoo! anyone else?) and learned about object-oriented concepts.
I had so much fun learning how to code and the art of Computer Science that it was easy for me to lose track of time when building my assignment projects. This will be quite embarassing to share, but here’s one of my first projects ever built! If you have read my blogs, you’d probably know I’m a huge Pokemon fan haha - it’s quite hard to hide it. So, I built this game called Pokemon Minigames using Real Studio and Visual Basic 😳😳.
The next year, I wanted to take another Computer Science course. However once again, unfortunately for me, I enrolled into a new school and the ‘Introduction to Computer Science II’ course was full.
Seeing my disappointed face, my guidance counselor suggested a course called ‘Pro-gaming: Game Development’. I immediately took the suggestion and registered for the course. After all, what could be more fun for a kid who likes to play games to learn how to build games?
In that course, I fell deeper into the rabbit hole of programming, specifically game development. We learned how to build Flash games using a language called ActionScript 3 (yes, very old technology, I’m old). For our final assignment, we get to build our own games! I love how even though the assignment is individually graded, our class worked together to discuss and design our games. I digged deep into my hard drive to find these games made by my classmates.
From that course, I learned not only how to program and build a game from scratch, but also how to create animations for cutscenes, Photoshop, and so much more. It was the most fun course I ever had, that I went too far and submitted a trailer video (not in assignment requirements) for my final game assignment, Crystal Hunter.
Not only did I ace that course, I also received an award for being the top student of the class. Thank you Mr. Berridge for being a wonderful teacher who encouraged me to do what I love!
Although I absolutely enjoyed building games, I don’t see myself working in the game industry as a career. The industry is notorious for being male-dominated and very stressful. Also, my parents always told me not to make my hobby into a job because it will make me no longer enjoy the hobby. And so, under my parents’ influence and because I wanted to continue enjoying my hobby, I decided to go with a Business/Finance major.
During my undergraduate, I found myself missing a part of me. I don’t feel excited to learn or work in Finance. Learning economics, business strategy and finance were just... okay compared to when I was taking Computer Science and Game Development courses. I remembered how I was really excited to go to Mr. Berridge’s class every day, that I would wish time would slow down when I was at the class...
So in my spare time as a student, I would build more complex games and taught myself Unity and C#; because Real Studio and Flash are not exactly great for making games. These were just hobby games that I built for fun. And I loved them, even though no one but me would play them.
Then sometime during those undergrad years, I was asked by a friend to make a website for his business. I told him that I have zero clue about HTML, CSS or JavaScript. I am just a hobbyist game developer. He said that it is okay because he is not launching his business anytime soon. I can take my time to learn and build his website. And I didn’t know why but I agreed haha.
So I went to freecodecamp.org, you know, that famous website. I did all the lessons and completed all their assignments. And I got all the certifications and became a self-taught full-stack web developer. At that time, I could already build a decent full-stack website with HTML, Bootstrap, some CSS, MongoDB and Node.js. Thank you, Mr. Larson!
My Computer Science friend was surprised that I learned so quickly. He even remarked that he still cannot make a website, let alone a full-stack website. It was then I realized that this is the 2nd time I fell deep into something other than game development.
Of course, my learning does not stop there. It’s time to grind.
For years, I was building websites for small local businesses in town. I continued teaching myself new technologies like React, some AWS products, Firebase, React Native and more. I also started venturing into a bit of mobile app development in Android Studio and Java. As always, my first project when learning something new is Pokemon-related, so here’s my first mobile app ever made 🙈🙈.
Since then, my curiosity in technology and love of building websites/games never stops. I am now a Solutions Engineer at PayPal, where I get to do what I love: learning new technologies, building cool things and sharing them with others!
And don’t worry, my Pokemon side projects are continuously evolving with my skills. My latest Pokemon project is where I made a real-life Pokedex by building a custom machine learning model! Sorry, I digressed.
Presently, I’m not only having fun in my job, but also outside of it. I write on my blog at lo-victoria.com quite frequently, as I love to share my knowledge and learn cool things together with the tech community.
It’s been a long journey for me to break into tech and find my path. Writing this has been no less of a pleasure, and a great nostalgic trip for me. Wherever you are in your tech journey, my final words to you is to never give up doing what you love to do.
Thank you for reading my story. I hope it can somehow inspire or motivate you towards reaching your own goals. If you would like to connect, feel free to find me on Twitter, GitHub, Medium, Hashnode and Showwcase.
See you again,
Victoria from Awesome Developer Diaries