Suddenly You’re A Software Developer
I’ve officially been a Developer for 2 weeks now — although it somehow feels much longer. In the past two weeks I’ve been thrust into learning all sorts of new technology and languages that I’ve either never touched or barely encountered before. It’s been very daunting and, especially in my first week, I’ve had many moments of “Imposter Syndrome”. I’ll try to convey some of my experiences of these past two weeks in my effort to detail my transition from teaching myself to code at home to being a full-time Ruby developer. Coming from the…
The Beginning
I recently blogged about my preparations for a presentation at NWRUG (my local Ruby meet-up) and recapped on how it all went. What I didn’t mention in those two posts was that I was offered the opportunity to apply for a junior software engineer role for a firm in Manchester. I think it was more of the nerves in me — I didn’t want to write about my excitement only to face rejection. It was definitely exciting to even be considered for the role and so I, obviously, eagerly applied. I told myself that if anything it was…
My First Talk at a Meet-up
Last time I wrote a little bit about my preparations for a talk I was going to be giving at my local Ruby meet-up. I briefly touched on what it would cover; why I wanted to code, the difficulties of finding the right resources, demystifying the developer world, things I wish I knew when I started, and what I’m doing now to continue learning. To my delight, the talk seemed to go pretty well. I was anxious to start and, for a time, I was worried that the anxiousness would turn into nervousness and…
Preparing To Talk
In less than 48 hours I will be making my way to my monthly Ruby meet-up, this time, however, I won’t be the attentive attendee I’ll be the orator. At this month’s event I’ll be chatting about my experiences as a beginner programmer. This opportunity presented itself to me nearly 2 months ago, at which time I accepted it with both eagerness and near trepidation. I’ve never led an event and I’ve never given a speech outside of school.
The expectations I’ve given myself are low — quite simply to make sure I remember what I’m supposed…
Making Headway
You’ve been working away at online tutorials and getting a good feel for the fundamentals of coding but you’re starting to run out of things to do. What’s next? It’s a position I found myself in after completing a series of courses on Treehouse. I definitely learned a lot and had a much better understanding of Ruby and Ruby on Rails but I knew I had a long way to go. A great next step that worked for me (and still does) is to pick up a book. For me those books were Agile Web Development with Rails…
What I Wish I Knew
On my journey to learn to code one of the most frustrating problems I had was never knowing how much I needed to know in order to land my first job and how far along that path I had already come. When you pick up a book or play with online tutorials and work through them you get a sense of achievement, “I’m learning something new!” and that feels great. You’ll encounter tough problems and work on them for hours perusing Stack Overflow for the answer that you just can’t seem to work out, often…
What Are My Options?
When it comes to learning web or software development, unless you’re enrolled in a computer science programme at a university or college, it can be quite confusing knowing where to begin. If you’re working full — time (like myself) and looking to pick up a new skill or change your career path, you likely don’t have tons of time during the day to learn to code.
While there are many options to choose from, it’s tough knowing which choice is the right one. A problem I had when learning to code was “What language do I…
My First Meet-up
It was at the evening of my first meet-up with NWRUG (North West Ruby User Group). I was excited. By encouraging myself to join this group I was opening myself up to a great deal of insight into what it takes to become a developer. I knew this was the start of something good for me. I walked into the building where the meet-up was being held (MadLab). On the first floor was NWRUG. I walked towards the table and as I began to set my things down I was quickly acknowledged and welcomed to the group…
Pushing Beyond Uncertainty — Part 2
It’s both exciting and nerve-wracking when you move to a new country. It takes a lot of adjustment. Finding your way around town, what places you should be avoiding and where you can go for a nice afternoon lunch. Most importantly of all is establishing yourself on a career path.
When I moved to Manchester I was intimidated about the prospect of settling on a career. In the past I’d been drawn to statistics, economics, programming, game development, and engineering. I still felt like my choice would fall into those categories in some manner…
Pushing Beyond Uncertainty — Part 1
It takes a bit more courage than I imagined to write a blog post. I don’t have much experience writing anything that merits any consideration whatsoever, other than some work I did in university (this was barely considered by my professor). It’s intimidating to say the least. It’s difficult to tame your thoughts into a coherent text, let alone one that might be remotely enjoyable to read. Nevertheless, I push on!
My purpose for endeavouring to write a blog is to convey my experiences while learning to code. Learning to write code for the…
Brandon Burton
A Gamer By Nature | A Rubyist with much to learn | Cyclist
