I needed some peace and quiet –The story of our student, Balázs Gergely Soós
CodeBerry Programming School — Student Stories
Balázs Gergely Soós, BeeGee is a graduate computer science engineer with a PhD from the PPKE Multidisciplinary Doctoral School of Sciences and Technology, also an alumni member of the BME Schönherz College. He formerly worked for SZTAKI as a research assistant, was a research engineer at Searchlab, senior developer and founder of Streamnovation and leader programmer at Zinemath.
In this episode of Student Stories, let us take you on a follow-up journey with a former CodeBerry Programming School student.
Intro
I live here: Budapest, Hungary
I work here: MorganStanley
Time spent studying with CodeBerry: 3 months
I work with:HP ENVY, Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, Chrome, Notepad++, gitk
When you’re asked about your profession, how do you answer?
I’m a software developer.
What was your job before you started coding? Did you have any former experience in this field?
When I was a child I used to look for swapped O’s and zeros in BASIC programs. I gave up an aircraft modelling workshop to draw with a Commodore+4 and I was often fiddling with GV-Basic (C64) too. I used Tubo Pascal in high school and C++ at university among other interesting languages. C++ stuck with me for quite a long time… and then machine vision, robotics and GPU programming came along.
Why did you decide to start learning web development?
In my opinion desktop applications are done for. Instead, I was interested in mobile development and cloud services. I wanted to learn WebGL after coming across it for the first time. I thought the first step should be recalling my web knowledge, as I had previously dealt with some PHP and MySQL, but the frontend was always done by someone else. Many of my projects focused on calculation, not the interface. However, I became curious about the tricks done by GUI wizards.
Please tell us more about what you do now, what tasks you have? What happens on a typical day?
I work in a bank, so that’s a secret. :) But my job includes some daily frontend tasks.
How long were you looking for a job? How did you land your current position?
My previous one was like a dream job: a real dreamer mastermind, fantastic engineers, international exhibitions and a rock-solid investor. But one day I felt like it was all too much. I needed some peace and quiet to be able to hear some new voices and finally have time for my family and myself.
This impulse hit me in the summer. My wife had 4 weeks off, so we moved to Venice for the time. Relaxing by the lakeside made me realise how much I’m missing some intellectual activity, so I started studying…
Two months later I had a couple of interviews. When the news of me not working got around, one of my dorm fellows called me and said if I still love those special program languages and I’m interested in biiig databases, then he has an empty desk for me by his side…
How did you learn programming? What kind of courses, books etc. did you use?
I don’t remember anymore, it just happened. I possessed a few issues of Computerbooks. The next thing was university: György Pongor and Zoltán László. After that, I kept to online materials.
What did CodeBerry offer you? What was it like to study at our school?
I read about Node.js and Angular and could feel the power of their combination. During my doctorate years, I fell in love with independent research, the joy of discovering something new. On the other hand, I do respect teachers who gave me a good kickstart before the journey. Learning out of blogs is really like being in a big city without a map: there are dozens of buses, many tramlines and a few undergrounds. Sometimes you need help with the directions if you actually want to get somewhere.
Andris and I meet each other every month. He told me about CodeBerry when it was just a twinkle in his eye. Later Bini said he likes the idea. I thought: why not? I was probably one of the first twenty applicants. :)
Before it wasn’t my job to make something pretty. In the beginning of the lessons, the focus was on the frontend. I didn’t regret that though. It was very useful to be able to try everything I just learned and test my knowledge with quizzes. By the time I completed a Wordpress site, CSS and I became great friends.
Do you have any experience, tips or tricks to share with those who are just starting their studies?
You just have to sit down and do it… I got the final push from a friend of mine: he asked me to create a responsive website for him. He took advantage of me not working at the time. :)
What is the next step for you? What direction are you taking?
As soon as I’ll have a few spare weekends, I’ll steer back to my original goal, WebGL. Maybe Spiced up with some VR.
In our “CodeBerry Student Stories” series we chat with our students who succeeded at finding a job as a developer.
Would you like to learn how to code? Come and try our first lessons for free at the CodeBerry Programming School.
