How My Life Changed When I Became a Software Engineer

It is well known that dedicating oneself to software engineering today is a real success. There is a lot of job offers available. The salaries and conditions are a dream. In the end, is a job that, beyond being psychologically hard, is very grateful to those who practice it.

I was completely unaware of this world until exactly 3 years ago. When I had the option to choose my university degree (10 years ago), I thought of computer engineering. Due to lack of knowledge, I discarded it and my life headed elsewhere.

Having said that, I want to explain how software development has changed my life. We will start by knowing what I did for a living. And we will solve some questions like:

• Why did I leave my job to become a software engineer?
• What was my path to achieve it?
• How long does it take to get a job as a developer?

As always, let's start at the beginning.

In 2019 I work as a production and project manager in a startup in Barcelona. We dedicated ourselves to recruiting professional video game players. Working on an audiovisual script with them, and ended up making videos and courses. In that way, our users could learn to play video games as a professionals. That amazing company is called Gamestry. Go and checkout them if you're a gamer!

What a surprise when our CEO informed us that we were going to San Francisco for 6 months to work from there. Those who know me will know that this was like a dream come true for me. 6 months in the heart of San Francisco. All-inclusive. And sharing space with 15 other startups. We were all chosen by the same accelerator program called BoostVC.

6 months in the heart of San Francisco. All-inclusive. And sharing space with 15 other startups.

And here comes my "aha" moment.

Leaving aside the experience itself... I discovered something new during my stay in that office surrounded by so many startups. Black screens.

If you're a developer with a dark theme enabled I hope!, you will understand what means "black screens". That's right, I found a code editor (with a dark theme) on at least one employee of each startup.

My curiosity came to light. What were all those people doing? Night and day! Staring at a black screen, and typing letters yes, but they didn't make any sense to me back then.

Of course, I asked and got interested in what they were doing:

"This is javascript, and it's a programming language which I use to generate the front end of our product". Bastien, a developer from France, told me that.

Sometime after, I realized that those guys were changing the world with one laptop and a code editor.

I got in love with that idea at that moment.

Long story short... My mind changed. All that I was doing before started to be secondary. And I discovered a new hobby: Building websites with HTML and CSS. You know that feeling that after a long work day at the office you come back home and, can't stop doing one thing? Mine was development and programming.

I've started with the basics on the most known platforms.

Learn HTML and CSS was so easy with an Udemy course, even Javascript. I learnt a lot with the Web Development BootCamp by Angela Yu. Here I not only learnt about HTML and CSS but also Javascript indeep, NodeJs, Express and MongoDB. I still remember when finally I closed the workflow from frontend to backend.

That was another remarkable moment to have in count. Which at the end, makes me realise that I wanted to be a software engineer.

My next step was easy for me. All was about one decision. I know that I want to leave my job and be an engineer, but how? How can I be good enough to land a new job without a degree. And why without a degree? Easy answer. I've discovered the programming world at my 26. I was living alone with my girlfriend and honestly I didn't have time to spent 4 years at university. I needed a fast way to learnt and known all that I need to land a job in a new industry for me. I've chosen a Bootcamp. Specifically, the Ironhack's Bootcamp.

I was living alone with my girlfriend and honestly I didn't have time to spent 4 years at university

And this choice was not by chance, nor by discard. The person who created this campus in Barcelona was Marc Collado, the Chief Product Officer of my first company. Remember the startup we went to San Francisco with? He was the product manager and thus, a person with a lot of experience in the world of programming.

I trusted and trust him a lot to this day. So Ironhack was a safe bet for my career and situation.

So at this moment I had the two most important thoughts to change my professional carrier. First, I have super clear that I wanted to be a Software engineer on web2.0. Now I would love to join the web3.0 space, but that's another story. Second, how to educate myself efficiently and get all the knowledge I need.

Before the BootCamp I was studying a lot. I didn't want to get bogged down in the simple things and wanted to focus on the ones that mattered.

I've started the BootCamp on September 2020. 2 months before I've decided to leave my job and focus on programming. 3 months later, I've finished my Bootcamp in a good shape and pretty comfortable with my knowledge and skills.

The Bootcamp was super intensive. A lot of new concepts, technologies and languages. But when you want something... You work super hard to get to it. And that's what I have done. During more than 4 months, I was reading, eating, seeing, listening and writing code. Non-stop. There was no time for other things than that. Remember that I left my job and my past professional carrier. It was my last card in life, as far as professional career is concerned.

During more than 4 months, I was reading, eating, seeing, listening and writing code. Non-stop.

And, damn, the play turned out great.

After the Bootcamp I was doing two things. Building full stack products by my own and signing up for every job offer I saw.

You can guess the results... Near to 1000 oppositions to jobs, 16 selection processes, 1 job offer. All this in exactly two months since December 2020.

But I got it! 6 months after deciding to change my career, becoming unemployed and attending the Bootcamp, I was able to get my first job as a software engineer.

If you're wondering how, in detail, I did that. What more did I studied. How I setup my LinkedIn or GitHub profile to be more attractive to recruiters. Or what are the tips and tricks to find good jobs on LinkedIn. Don't worry, I'm working on these details in other posts that you can see here in the future! (Probably I will edit this page to give you access to this posts).

And If you're curious about this first job. How I landed it. How was the recruitment process. Or which were the job requirements, don't worry. You can find all the details here.

Important to mention that in my first job I as the only tech guy. The only developer in charge of an interesting workflow that I shared with you in the previous link.

Above all, it's important to remember that being a software engineer is challenging. There are some days when you'll feel like you're not making any progress, and others where you'll feel like every single line of code counts. One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is this: never stop learning. Learning how to build software is an ongoing process, and if you want to be successful at it, you can't expect yourself to know everything after two or three weeks. Keep coding everyday, read blog posts about new patterns and technologies, attend meetups and conferences—do whatever it takes to improve your skills.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is this: never stop learning.

The truth I've learned is that becoming a software engineer, though overwhelming to some, is actually a very fun, creative and rewarding job. While it's true that we are writing code for a living, the process of creating something from within the depths of your imagination can be satisfying. I wouldn't trade this career for anything else in this world; I love being a software engineer.