Just another origin story
At the age of 7, I was asked for the first time what I wanted to be when I grow up. Without having any other thought I said, “I want to be a computer guy”. I didn’t even get my first computer until I was 14. I didn’t really do much with computers from then to my college years.
My first exposure to coding was a “c++ Intro to Programming” course at CCNY. I do not know whether it was me or the way the course was taught, but I did not enjoy the course at all. I was coding without understanding what any of it meant. It didn’t make sense to me one bit. I was in the verge or dropping the class and changing my major.
One day, I was on my way to the admissions office to sign the paper to change my major when I had an epiphany. I told myself since I had already decided to drop out of this class there is really no harm in just seeing what the class is about. Instead of worrying about the projects and quizzes, I just spent my time reading up on concepts and watching tutorials on Youtube. When I changed my focus from solving a whole project to solving a little piece of a problem, I actually found out the power of coding. I ended up with an A in that class.
Until my junior year I was not coding much outside of my class work. I never went to hackathons, never did side projects. I was somehow convinced I had to be a hacker to go to a hackathon. I was hoping to learn it all from my school work. But to any new programmer out there, do not make my mistake! There are many hackathons that are for absolute beginners and you would do yourself a huge disservice by not attending one as early as possible. Finally, I gathered enough courage to go to the first cohort of the CUNY Hackathon. I learned a lot of new things about coding and myself, and after two days of work I created… NOTHING. We could not finish the product we started out to build. Did not make a presentation. Did not have a business idea. Absolutely nothing. But somehow instead of being sad I was pumped.
That same month I went to three other hackathons getting progressively better each time and finally winning the NSBE Hackathon at Lehman College, my 4th hackathon.
Around the same time I started working on side projects. Mobile apps really spoke to me as a medium to express myself. I would spend hours watching tutorials and reading books about app design. It was a whole new way to practice coding while having something I could show my friends and family. I also played around with Unity game engine. These side projects were mostly small, one-day projects but they did teach me a very important thing about programming. I could make anything I wanted and there were resources to learn it.
In my senior year I joined CUNYCodes, where groups of students get to work on a project of their choice following strict agile practice and team work. I wish I had joined the program earlier to be honest. Because senior year workload with job search and interview preparation left little time for me to truly participate properly in the program. I had to quit half way through. Not one of my proudest moments, but I think I got a lot out of that experience. Skills like managing time and learning to prioritize.
This was the first year of my senior year and I was prepping for interviews. Hackerrank and Leetcode became my daily routine. I found just how much fun solving a problem could be. Then the goal became to solve the problem more efficiently. I started to read other peoples thoughts on problems. I would spend hours solving problems. I still work on problems sometimes to clear my brain after a stressful day.
I did not really apply to IBM knowing I was ready. I knew I liked coding and being able to work for some place like IBM will open up so many possibilities for me to learn and get better at the thing I love. From applying to IBM to going to my finish line event took about 1 and a half month. I had an online coding interview, guru interview and a guide interview. The whole process was fair and timely.
I have now been with IBM for about 5 months and it has been amazing. I get to work with amazing people on problems that impact people everyday.
This has been my story, chapter 1.
About Me
I am currently working as an System and Software developer for Watson Health Cloud, IBM. My day to day involves creating robust and scalable client facing solutions. In my free time I like to spend time with mobile technologies. I recently started teaching myself react-native and go.
I enjoy traveling and Photography.
