Forging juniors at Elements Part V
At Elements we are eager to get the best talent, so a few years ago we launched our own junior training program — a.k.a. the Elements Academy. A few weeks ago Zlatan completed the front-end program he started in August 2017. Under the guidance of a senior developer he was drilled into a junior developer. In this blog post he wrote down his personal experiences. Previous graduates of the Elements junior training program were Aart and Eltjona (2015), Maria and Yahia (2016), Kaira and Aaron (2017) and Serena and Ralph (2018).
Ever since I was a kid I was interested in technology. My interests varied from playing with operating systems, to hacking, and of course playing games. Somehow I was always convinced that I was not capable of becoming a programmer, regardless of my interest and fascination for it. When I became 30 years old I realized that I wasn’t fulfilled in my professional life. I decided to start digging into programming. The more I dug into it the more captivated I got by it, and eventually I decided to become a developer.
When I read about the traineeship Elements offered I had to apply for it. Luckily Elements gave me a chance in the traineeship program where I got the opportunity to learn React with the help of a mentor (Ricardo). The traineeship started out with the theoretic part of internet, about HTTP, DNS, web hosting, WebSockets, and even what is a browser.
At first I didn’t understand why I had to learn the most basic elements (pun?) of web development, but in the end it turned out the depths of these subjects are essential for a web developer. When I finished all the books, I had to pass a quiz, which I did. Then I jumped to the real deal: Programming.
It started out with HTML and CSS. After being skilled enough with it I jumped into JavaScript. The more I learned about programming the more I started loving it. My mentor had an overabundance of learning tools so I could create a learning program that suited me best.
When I felt comfortable enough with JavaScript I had to build my first little app. I learned that knowing how to code is not the same as building an app. Next was React.js. The cool part of React is that when you are skilled enough with it, you can easily learn React Native, which is meant for building mobile apps. I hope, when the time is ripe, to also work on mobile apps, in addition to web development.
Elements offers the freedom to explore yourself and try new things which really speaks to me since I love to explore new things and technology. After my traineeship I got a little project in React Native to build a mobile app that needed to include animations. I liked that project so much that I even worked on it after work and in the weekends.
As an extrovert and outgoing guy Elements fits perfectly for me. I hate to sound cliché but the company seems like a big family. The mentality is that we’re all equal and the bosses (the forbidden word) are behaving in the same way. We are from all over the world and are working together like close friends!
Originally published at www.elements.nl on April 6, 2018.
