6 years back, when I failed 12th class, I never knew I would be a software engineer one day. But it's been 2 years now, and I can say I’m very happy about the job I do. I can confidently say that I’ve found my Ikigai.
My journey on how I ended up here is a bit weird. I got good marks in 10th grade, so I wanted to study science for 11th and 12th and eventually join engineering. The mistake I made was choosing Biology instead of CS or Electronics. That was because people said you could prepare for both medical and engineering, even though I was clear that I wanted to do engineering after 12th. This decision backfired, and I ended up failing Biology in 12th. That day, I made up my mind: my decisions won’t be influenced by others.
Luckily, I cleared Biology in the supplementary exam. This time, I made my own decisions. I chose the college and department myself: Electronics and Communication Engineering (I was addicted to mobile phones at the time and wanted to learn about them).
In the first semester of engineering, we had “Programming with C” as one of the subjects. Until then, I never even knew a word called “programming” existed, but I don’t know why, it just clicked for me. I liked every class, lab session, everything about C programming.
After the first semester, COVID happened, and we were all locked inside our homes. During this time, I had a very old laptop lying around at home. Since I was bored of video games, sleeping, etc., I started learning Python by watching YouTube tutorials, and my interest in programming grew even more. That’s when I got exposed to backend development using Flask and Django, and I liked it a lot.
But then quarantine ended, and I went back to college, learning electronics again, this time playing with embedded systems and micro-controller programming. I abandoned the Python and backend dev path and fell in love with micro-controllers.
But again, when I was in third year, I was introduced to Java as part of a training bootcamp conducted by our college. I learned Java properly and picked up backend development the right way using Spring Boot. This time, I didn’t abandon embedded programming. I liked both and kept working on them in parallel. Since I was doing what I genuinely liked, I passed out of engineering with a good CGPA and a software dev job in hand.
On August 01, 2023, I joined CodeCraft Technologies as a Trainee Software Engineer. The initial 6 months were a training period, and we were assigned mentors. I have to say, I think I got the perfect mentor who matched my vibe. I learned a lot from him and am forever grateful for the support and guidance he gave.
During this training, I learned JavaScript, TypeScript, and also React.js. I never thought I’d learn frontend, but somehow, I went from loving backend to becoming a total React nerd.
I completed the training in 4 months instead of 6 and was given an opportunity to work on a real project. It was an internal tool for managing company assets and had to be built from scratch. Over the next 2 months, we built the project and rolled out a usable production application. Impressed by my work, my CTO moved me to a real client project.
It was a legacy codebase. The project had been alive for 6–7 years by the time I joined, and the code wasn’t exactly fun to work with. For the first 3 months after joining that project, I was literally depressed. But eventually, I accepted that not everything is sunshine and rainbows, and got comfortable with the codebase as it was.
I also got a perfect manager, someone who listens, gives me enough time, and matches my vibe. He entrusted me with 3–4 big features (I mean very big), and I hope I delivered.
Still, I wasn’t fully satisfied. I felt like something was missing.
Around June 2024, I started this blog. I just wanted to share whatever I learned and thought was cool. I wrote my first post: How I Built My Portfolio
I didn’t want to dump random tutorials and call it a blog. Everything I wrote was unique in its own way. My blogs started showing up in newsletters I was subscribed to, without even my knowledge. That gave me a kind of satisfaction that nothing else could.
At last, I’m pretty happy with how things have turned out, and I’m grateful for everyone who helped me reach here