My background

I studied applied computer science and before that made an apprenticeship in a similar direction. So for me it was always clear that I would end up being a programmer.

Interest in development

I got a programming handbook when I was ten. I was always interested computers as a child although nobody in my family or friend circle shared my interest. When my parents finally got me an old, used C64, it came with a ton of floppy discs and a programming handbook. Nothing shaped my future as much as this I think.

My studies

I'm a autodidact so I didn't really follow a path. But I started this apprenticeship which actually allowed me to spend a lot of time for self learning. As a student I spent more time on my own projects and started working as freelancer already. I think that helped me achieving a lot because I came out of studies with working experience.

My first developer role

I don't really remember unfortunately. I only know that it was for a project funded by another university and it involved a lot of Python and XML. I probably found it on one of the job boards we had at the university.

My recommendations

If you love programming as a hobby, show that passion to everyone and never let the day-to-day work cripple it. You're getting paid for what you love so do what you love.

My background

I have a background in electrical engineering. While I was in my master’s studies I started a music project with friends. I was responsible for website, live streams and social media. I really enjoyed the creative work and so I dropped out of university, took a full-time job in a tapas bar to save money together for a coding bootcamp. Then I moved to Berlin and here I am :D

Interest in development

I started with WordPress and really enjoyed to create something from scratch. But after a while I felt like I wanted to escape the boundaries of WordPress. So I started to learn the fundamentals (HTML, CSS & JS) with online resources. The web has gone through an evolution so when you start learning it today, it can be overwhelming. Also I wanted to go on this journey with other people so I decided to attend a coding bootcamp.

My studies

I started with Udemy and Youtube tutorials. But I really learned to code with Le Wagon Coding Bootcamp. Wes Bos (wesbos.com) has very good JS courses that I took. For people who want to dig deeper in frontend development I can recommend the 'Frontend Handbook': https://frontendmasters.com/books/front-end-handbook/2019/

My first developer role

I am currently working as a freelance teaching assistant at Le Wagon and building my portfolio. Due to COVID19 many HRs are on hold so I try to practice and learn on these days. I’m looking to find a full-time frontend dev role in Berlin.

My recommendations

1.In the beginning 'googling' feels like cheating, but it's not! 2.Ask questions! I think better developers a developers who ask more questions and there are no stupid questions. 3.Failing is part of the process. You cannot get around it.

My background

I had a scientific baccalaureate, and a two-year degree in Computer Science (Digital system with computer and network option) (SNIR)

Interest in development

I gained interest when I started learning and coding apps. At that time I was coding with Android and Java.

My studies

I started after my A level (baccalaureate) with a two-year degree in Digital System and Network. I am at the moment a Computer Science student. I'm not sure what path to choose yet, because I'm getting more amd more interested in coding video games!

My first developer role

My first job was an internship as a Web Developer. It helped me a lot to figure out the role I really want in the future.

My recommendations

There is a lot of domain possible as a developer. Try them all, maybe you will find the perfect one for you!

My background

I directly chose to study programming after high school!

Interest in development

My love and skills for mathematics and logic in high school made me choose a science cursus. My parents also supported me to take this path because of the big demand in developers in France (and worldwide, developers are wanted like rockstars!).

My studies

I did a two year degree in Network and Telecommunication, then a Bachelor, and finally a Master in Architecture, Software & Web Engineering.

My first developer role

Thanks to an internship during my Master, I met colleagues who were working for different software companies (the beginning of my career network). That's how I had a referral by a colleague, to the company I joined.

My recommendations

Please, follow the EGOLESS programming principles: Always stay humble and don't blame other devs. Don't be ashamed about asking questions (especially when you're a beginner). Thank and quote your colleagues if they have been part of the work. Don't rest on your laurels. Be curious, try new technologies, don't be trapped in a technology for too long.

My background

Computer science student. Initially I wanted to study architecture in college but the admission program required a portfolio that year for the first time in the history of the program. I didn't have one, so I became a CS major instead. I grew up building skate ramps which require money for lumber. So the idea of building something digital without having to buy materials was exciting to me.

Interest in development

My family got AOL in like 1998 and a friend of mine was making dumb little webpages about Austin Powers on Angelfire. It was amusing so I asked him how he made it and he said: Do you know HTML? And I thought he meant Hotmail, which I think is incorrect. It was really just a way for me to publish some dumb ideas I had as a kid.

My studies

I used search engines to find resources on how to build stuff I didn't know how to do. Lotsa copying and pasting and then tweaking. This is back in the days when the <table> tag was used for layouts so the bar was very low. Styling was also done via html tag attributes and all markup was in caps. If Javascript was in the picture, it was to do something annoying like making snowflakes fall down the screen or for a button to avoid the cursor when you got near it, haha. Sad. I learned database architecture and advanced scripting in college.

My first developer role

My uncle was getting press for his work with cardiology students that he instructed to use iPods to repeatedly listen to heart murmurs in order to memorize them; something called cardiac auscultation in the medical field. The technique even had a write up in Time Magazine. Being my uncle and all, he's been supportive of me for a long time, so he hired me one summer in college to build a Windows desktop application to quiz the med students by playing a heart murmur, asking them to identify it, and then grading them. I got paid with a new iPod. I wrote it in VB.NET while sitting at my parent's kitchen counter in Summer 2006. After college, I got my first job through a recruiter, in a junior database administrator role.

My recommendations

There are so many good resources around now that I wish I had when I was learning. Like YouTube. Dan Shiffman (The Coding Train) is amazing for creative coding tutorials. Talks tend to be way more digestible for me than reading, and they can turn you onto new topics. Most conferences publish the talks afterwards so this is the cheap and flexible way to do it. Build something on your own that's not a part of your work duties. There are a ton of tasks that you will never do in the course of day to day work but are crucial to understanding what you're working with. Like building a complex application from scratch. Lastly, have a healthy amount of skepticism. Don't assume your colleagues necessarily know the best way. It will seem like that starting out but no one knows it all, so double check stuff, and you'll learn a lot this way too. If you're having a hard time, it's okay to identify and dwell on what you don't like about something. In turn, it's helped me identify what I actually do like. Oh, and get into automated testing as early as possible, lol.

My background

As many students, I wasn't sure about the path to take, so I followed the studies I was interested in, and discover what the work place has to offer later on :) My studies were mainly focused on Management and Economics. I have a two year vocational degree in International Trade, a Bachelor in Economics and a Master in Management & Entrepreneurship. Then I started as a Tech Recruiter and gained three years of experience in this domain.

Interest in development

As a Tech Recruiter, there were a lot of things I did not know. I started to gather information about programming languages and frameworks, in order to be more comfortable during interviews, and know the basics while talking to devs. Later on I got curious about more and more tech concepts. Each time I was digging in one topic, it would open several drawers at the same time. It was a never ending source of learning! It was fascinating :) I slowly became the tech savvy of the recruiter team and even created a 6-hour online course for the company, providing a broad software development introduction to non tech people. This interest led me to try out different coding workshop for beginners and one day, I got this great opportunity to switch to development and go through a coding bootcamp, with the support of my employer!

My studies

I went through a Coding Bootcamp at LeWagon, and learned Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, HTML5/CSS3, Bootstrap, SQL, but also the basics for Heroku deployment, Git Commands, Github & Figma. After this bootcamp, I also started to learn Ember.js which is used in our team.

My first developer role

I have the amazing chance to have my first dev role at my current employer, so I started (again!) as a Junior Developer, with a focus on Frontend. I was really interested in visuals and design, and had a lot of fun creating my portfolio but also this project! I am the developer behind 'Becoming a developer' :P I also started to learn Ember, which the current frontend framework we use there, and work on different things to get comfortable with the codebase: bug ticket, sprint tickets, switching teams and focus on other parts of the product. I got to work with a lot of different developers and became more comfortable with the workflow and the codebase.

My recommendations

The first thing I realized when I started as a dev, is that you can get excited to learn ALL THE THING. Don't do that, please! Take the time to prioritize the topics you want to dig in, but don't overload your brain with too many things. Learning takes time, so do yourself a favor and do it one step at a time :) Another thing that might be quite frustrating is that you will get stuck often when you work, and that's totally normal! You can't always get everything right from the first try (even as a senior dev!). Give yourself time to understand from your errors and make sure to have a mentor/manager by your side to help you! Finally, pair programming is something that helps me a lot! It's great to have the opportunity to practice without the frustration of being stuck and on your own. Plus the benefit of having an experienced developer leading you on the right path while you code.

My background

I was coding at a very young age but due to cultural reasons I stopped and started preparing for passing high school to study Electrical Engineering. At least that's my family wanted. But as soon as I finished the first year in college I had the highest GPA in my classes and everything looks fine but I was not seeing myself there, so decided to go back to programming learning from the scratch and that was in 2017. I had multiple freelance contracts in 2018, had my first full-time job in 2019 as a Frontend (React) developer while having college at the same time, does that look crazy? It is what I have been doing for a year and a half till now.

Interest in development

I started loving the game of code at a very young age when I saw my uncle who was a developer. What really interests me about software is that when you learn you see results in a matter of months and you just keep building your interest with it.

My studies

Books & documentations. I highly recommend uncle pop collection of Books: Clean code, Clean coder & Clean architecture as well as Dan Abramov blogs. It teaches from the first principles of frontend development, and most importantly by embracing the mentality of learn by doing.

My first developer role

There was a Study Room in a Business Park in Amman, Jordan, where I always go to code and make connections. I ended up knowing the entire park and those connections taught me everything about interviews and Job applications. I was only 19 years old then when the opportunity came. I met a software developer who told his boss about me and we ended up in the same team.

My recommendations

When you learn, focus on one thing at a time. If you don't change directions you will end up where you're heading.

My background

That was a really long journey. I was interested in informatics in school but never thought it could be my profession. I have a degree in civil law and after that in andragogy. My job positions were law consultant and a teacher in the system of further education. Then, back in 2017, I’ve decided that I needed a change.

Interest in development

There were always two reasons – the first one: during my previous job, I was also responsible for creating and maintaining our website. I thought that it would be cool to have deeper knowledge in web development and in programming in general. The second one: IT sphere is one of a few more or less stable spheres in my home country. You can work and not be afraid that you won’t be able to find a new job if something went wrong with your current company. Prosaic but we live in reality and not in a romantic idea of it.

My studies

There were different video courses in the beginning. Then – different books, for me it was Troelsen C# and CLR via C# by Richter (I read it and took detailed notes for every chapter), Code Complete. Books are good, guys, read it! :)

My first developer role

I have found .NET training course in EPAM. I can’t tell that their teaching system is perfect but it helped me to systematize my knowledge and get my first experience with a real project. After the course, I became a Trainee and soon after I found a new job as a junior developer.

My recommendations

1. Don’t be arrogant 2. Ask questions 3. Use Google 4. Practice more 5. Learn systematically and on a daily basis

My background

I used to be a television news reporter for 13 years in total. My last position on TV was the Chief of European Bureau in Brussels and Paris.

Interest in development

I've been interested in computers and the Internet since the mid-90s, my first paying job was a tech writer at a Russian 'unicorn' startup post-dotcom boom, in the year 2000. The company became known as Yandex and grew to be the largest tech firm in Russia, I was stupid enough to get myself fired when I was 18.

My studies

First, on my own, with the help of books and MOOCs. I definitely recommend Zed Shaw's books ('Learning Python the Hard Way' and others), and CS50 from Harvard to all beginners! Once I grasped the basics, I started looking for the ways to apply my fragile skills. I wanted to become an iOS developer so I read up on Objective-C and Swift and worked on my first note-taking app (while still working as a broadcast journalist). This is where I realized that I lack the big picture of application development. My friend, who has just recently switched from being a copywriter at an ad firm to a developer after graduating from Le Wagon recommended my to apply to LW. I did, and everything finally clicked in my head after 9 weeks of intense web-dev course with Ruby on Rails.

My first developer role

I went TAing, teaching, and doing technical writing right after the bootcamp. Then I slowly used my Le Wagon connections to get commissions for Rails applications — these were my first paid gigs as a developer!

My recommendations

Never give up, stay curious, and manage complexity. Writing code is much more like literature than like math. If you know how to reason and express your thoughts in a condensed and elegant manner — you already have everything that it takes to become a programmer. You just need to hone those skills and constantly expand your erudition.

My background

I spent my previous life in Hotel and Travel management. For 7 years, I did Front Office Management (Reception, Valet, Bell Service, Reservations). Then moved into the Travel Agency world and did Inbound Sales Management for 3 years. During that same time, I owned and operated my own Travel Agency.

Interest in development

I've always wanted to build a website and played around with various WYSIWYG editors. When I started my travel agency, I signed up for a Website Template service (like WIX or SquareSpace but specifically to build Travel Agency Sites) and was frustrated as how limiting that was. However, since I didn't know any better, I went with it. That's when I really started digging deeper into how to program websites.

My studies

The first real 'learning to code' I did was getting the Head First - HTML CSS book to understand what it did. It felt really daunting to read since I thought that every single website ever was hand coded directly in HTML and CSS. But, that did spark the interest to learn more since logically, that could never be the case. Fast-forward almost a decade, I had a great opportunity to do a coding Bootcamp with Le Wagon. I had been looking into Bootcamps for years, but the cost was always too much (in the US) and I didn't have the time to dedicate to it - all bootcamps were full time, 10 hour days. Last year, I not only had the time, but the price was well within my budget to join Le Wagon so I took the chance and ran with it.

My first developer role

Right after the bootcamp, I started with Le Wagon as a Teaching Assistant helping others learn while I was looking for a brand new start in this field. I spent a lot of time working and re-working my resume over and over, using each rejection email to ask for feedback about my resume. Many didn't respond, but those that did I used their input for the next iteration. I guess in a way, it's a real life version of Test Driven Development? After a while I finally found a company that was a good fit for my knowledge level and had immense potential for learning and growth.

My recommendations

First thing - always ask for feedback and act upon it. There's no other real way to find out what you need to do in order to increase your chances of being hired if you don't. Sure, many won't respond to your polite request, but the ones that do - generally - will give you some good insight into where to focus your energies next. Second - Always keep learning and updating. Go back to old projects, add a new feature, update the ReadMe file, find a new way to refactor, learn a new framework or language all together. I found that if I didn't write any code for more than one week, I'd have to look up the basics all over again. Hopefully your memory is a lot better than mine, but keep the knowledge fresh and updated.

My background

I started probably about ten years ago, making my app for android, and it was just a simple theme app. Before I started with any kind of Web Development, I had worked in a warehouse as a Receiving Coordinator. It was only a '9-5' and as much hard work as I had done for the company, they did not seem to care or reward any kind of hard work. And they had no interest in listening. I could not see myself doing this year after year!

Interest in development

My brother had started his website with Ember.js and mentioned it to me, and because he had known, I dabbled a little with Android development he thought maybe I would be interested. I haven't looked back since!

My studies

I started by taking freeCodeCamp courses and got my Responsive Web Design Certificate! And by the end of the month will have my JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures Certificate! I worked on my Portfolio for quite a bit and still work on it now, that has helped me learn by actually doing some coding.

My first developer role

I haven't gotten any type of developer role yet, but, I have been working on my portfolio and contribute to the Ember Times and writing issues for them when I can. I also have done some contributing with The Ember Learning Team, which dramatically helps my skills in working with a team and GitHub.

My recommendations

Do not give up! It will get hard, and it will be frustrating at times, but do not give up! Also, if you are stuck on something for a bit and cannot seem to figure it out, walk away for a bit. I also think contributing to an open-source project helps, especially with learning GitHub.