Why I am leaving a 14-year career in medicine to become a Web Developer.
Quick introduction to my story.
I started my coding journey just shy of 4 weeks ago. It was the need to make a responsive email for my private practice that drove me into the bare bones of coding. But let’s backtrack slightly.
4 years ago I made my very first website using a prepaid theme on Wordpress. I decided back then that I wanted the flexibility of adding and changing things myself, on the fly.
That first website took about a month to build and I worked an average of 8–12 hours per day. I learned everything from scratch using just Google and YouTube.
Soon after, I moved country and I needed a brand new website. This time my primary goal was to rank number one in Google and beat the already well-established clinics. So my attention turned to SEO (search engine optimization).
It took approximately 4 months, but my website reached number one in Google in my field. I acquired a lot of patients because of this and for me, it was a massive achievement.
I also embarked on the design aspect as well, creating my own logo, business cards, flyers, and brochures. I was totally addicted to this ability to create.
I am now on my third website, which you can view here. It is currently live.
This brings me on to why the change? Why give up a respectable career and one that I find myself nicely at the peek of?
As the old adage goes “live to work not work to live”. Meaning, do the work that you really enjoy.
But is this even possible — to do a job you really love? A job that you get excited about every morning. Or is this just some idealistic notion that is total crap? Something warm and cuddly we tell ourselves to justify when we feel bored with our jobs.
The answer to this question compels me. Is it possible to really find a job that you actually love?
But why change now?
In the end, it all boiled down to a tiny observation.
How often did I pick up my medical textbooks to study a certain condition or treatment? As opposed to how often I engaged in a different subject altogether. When I was on my iPhone and I had a few minutes what did I read?
In conclusion, I noticed, I always gravitated towards design and creation within digital media. Whenever I read or watched something, I naturally started thinking about the layout of everything. Why things were positioned the way they were. What colors were used and why? My heart and mind naturally entered into the world of design.
I just couldn’t shake the undeniable truth of how alive I felt when I built my websites.
It has left me with one clear conclusion. I need to quit my medical career and start on the path to becoming a front-end developer and later a full stack developer.
This is where you find me now. A total newbie who is one month into freecodecamp. So far I can’t quench the excitement I feel. My aim is to get a job in coding within the next 2–4 months. That is my goal and I want to share this journey with you, from the very beginning.
I currently have no job, two kids, and a believing wife. How long will it take me to get that first job and enter a new world?
This is just a quick introduction. I love to help others and you can find me in the ‘help’ forum on freecodecamp every day. I plan to release my posts on Sundays. Next time I am going to share some common mistakes I have observed other newbies make and how to prevent them.
Fellow newbies of coding — I am with you.
Here is my portfolio page.
