A Developer’s Path
Before deciding to become a web developer, I bounced around jobs, never really finding anything both enriching and fulfilling. Web development was a hobby that started with customized Livejournals and Harry Potter fanpages in high school, but “web developer” wasn’t really a thing in those days, so when college time came I went off to study graphic design.
Now, while I’m a decent visual artist, it doesn’t translate as well as you’d expect to the science that is design. I’m ok, I could get better with practice, but traditional graphic design did not give me the exhilaration that those early all-nighters customizing Myspace pages brought. I felt like my artwork was not communicating the message that I wanted it to, and I was frustrated that I wasn’t creating anything useful or helpful. After college I left visual arts completely, and went through job after job, feeling increasingly trapped by boredom and stagnation in every field. I wasn’t happy, so I looked back to my old studies and hobbies for ideas and came up with web development. I started out developing this skill set as a way to create art again using a digital medium, but discovered a new path with potential for infinite creativity as I learned.
Having made this discovery, I’ve become an aspiring full-stack developer, and I am hoping to find a place working in the tech industry. I want to be directly involved with the creation of software that addresses real issues and improves lives. I have worked in multiple industries and seen how effective software can automate the most menial of tasks and free humans to innovate a more beautiful world, and I want to be a part of making it happen. Open source software is already changing the world, and it’s available for free. People develop it in their free time and make it available to make your life easier for free. I can’t get over the level of passion involved in sharing your work not for expectation of (much) personal reward, but to improve the community as a whole. I’m sold, these are my people!
As a highly connected culture, many of us spend a lot of time every day maintaining various communications and keeping commitments organized. Automating those tasks, and making data available, accessible, and easily understood are all things that can be done with full stack web development. A naturally curious person with a love of making lists could happily spend the rest of their lives organizing, comparing, and dynamically displaying the vast amounts of data generated by the human race. The constantly changing nature of development, plus the ability to create almost anything, yourself gives every opportunity to avoid stagnation and boredom, all while making all the brilliance of humankind accessible to the masses.
I often feel I’ve chosen an insurmountably challenging path. A lot of what I’m learning has been hard to understand, and some of it takes me a long time to fully grasp. Finding the right learning path was a challenge, but the ever-changing nature of technology means that everyone is perpetually a newbie in need of education. The advent of online microcertifications has been an amazing opportunity for me, because as a person with bills to pay and family to support, going back to college full time to change careers is not really a viable option. The self-directed nature also means it’s definitely not something I could have done if I hadn’t found the work fulfilling, which has made the whole experience infinitely more rewarding.
