How I Became a Software Developer

Imagine growing up in a thriving metropolis surrounded by all life’s comforts. Amazing food, an endless stream of entertainment, great friends and family.

Now, Imagine suddenly leaving this comfortable urban life and waking up in another country, forced to eat vegan food and not understanding the languages your new peers were speaking.

That’s basically what happened to me when I lived in the comfort of my life in Bangkok, Thailand, and was sent to school in Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand state in India.

Hi, my name is Anan Piyapanee, and my friends call me Oak or Oakley. I am a fresh graduate with a Bachelor of Economics, from Thammasat university in Business and Finance as a major and minor, and currently working as a software developer at Trienpont International.

I ended up in my current role, I endured quite a long and complicated journey. Not every career path is a straight line, and I feel lucky that I have had the opportunity to try my hand in a few different industries before settling into my passion as a software developer.

So how did I go from an Econ grad to a software developer?

My first taste of the software engineering world came when I was sent to high school in Dehra Dun. Some of you may be wondering how a boy from Bangkok ended up there, well that is another story in itself. Let’s just say it was an adventure that helped shape me into who I am today.

Anyway, whilst studying in India there was an optional subject called “Computer Programming” which was part of my studies for my Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE). This course introduced me to the principles of software development and the programming language Java, and later Python and JavaScript.

After my return to Thailand, I started my course at Thammasat University. It was at Thammasat that I interned as a Business Analyst, a route to a career in Management Consulting in line with my parents’ wishes. During the internship, I realised that this kind of work was not fulfilling my passion, so I started looking at alternative careers that aligned with my interests.

When finish the internship, I felt lost and was looking for something I enjoyed pursuing as a career. The thought of having to work every day in a field that I didn’t enjoy was plaguing my mind. Suddenly, I thought about my computer programming course from my ICSE. It lifted me from my laziness. I finally felt energised to solve the career choice problem that I had been struggling with.

I signed up to try Freecodecamp and w3school.com to revise basic JavaScript again. I thought that if I could combine my programming skills with my economics knowledge that would be good enough. I tried more intense courses on Coursera and then Datacamp.com. Through these studies, I discovered that work related to data is not quite for me… I jumped back to JavaScript, thinking that it would be similar to Java. It was not…

Before starting anything, I discussed my new career plans with my parents, BUT they didn’t agree that I could shift to the software development field. Thankfully, with some well-planned reasons and many discussions, my parents saw my point of view and agreed to let me study another course according to my new plan.

After several courses, eg. HTML, Python, Java, and JavaScript, I gradually developed the preference to work as a frontend developer (my preference was React.js) and started to look for more intense courses that would be able to send me to the developer career. Then, I found a JavaScript full-stack course that successfully made numerous people shift their careers to become software developers. I took the course and spent my additional free timestudying coding clips on Youtube.

Finally, I am a software developer.

There are a lot of friends who are wondering why I ended up on this path, and why I didn’t take computer engineering or computer science as a Bachelor’s degree. This is because when I came back from India there were fewer opportunities for me to find out what I would like to be, and I didn’t like physics and chemistry. Therefore, that degree was not in my mind ever.

Now I would like to grow as a full-stack developer if possible. Moreover, it would be great if the knowledge that I had during the past 4 years of my bachelor’s degree would benefit my work. What I am looking for in myself for the next 5 years would be a man who gradually developed his skills in several stacks other than MERN (MongoDB, Express, React.js, and Node.js), and also could help others as others had helped me.

Working at Trienpont International is fun and suits me well. A friendly environment, and nice colleagues who are ready to help when a newcomer like me struggles. There are opportunities to develop second language communication skills and opportunities for growth. The company always supports us when we need to learn something new or something more. I get to learn better English while working as my team members come from all over the world, not just Thailand. In my opinion, this is a supportive place to grow into your career as a software developer.

I know many people struggle with choosing a career, and can face disagreement or lack of support from their family like I did. But I want to share my story to encourage others to fight to follow their passions. My advice is to never stop learning and trying new things, and don’t be afraid of failure.

Failure is better than the regret you will feel for never following through with your dreams. And also, failing at something is never a waste of time, it gives us experience and opportunities to learn, and can help us find the direction we need in life.

One more thing about software development. . . Likely, you’re not the first to face whatever problem you encounter when coding. If you reach out to your fellow developers you’ll probably find someone else has had the same problem before, and if they don’t know, then Google will always be your best friend.

In all the journeys that I have been through, there are lots of things that I learned but a word of advice does not stop yourself from trying something new because you are afraid of failing. BUT failing is probably better than regret for not leaving your chance away. During the path of failing, you will shape yourselves to be the better version of who you are. In addition to career path shifters to the Software development field, you are not the first one to face this problem, Google will help you if others cannot.