An Adventure Towards a Developer’s Dream

Hi. If you don’t mind, let’s get to the early parts of my life. How did I end up in the world of code, you say? Well, I realized I wanted to be part of something that could potentially affect the lives of people — in a cool way! And have fun coding all the while!

How It started

When I was younger, around 8 or 9 years old, we had a run down desktop computer at home. I mostly would play games then do my homework with it. To be honest, it was a really slow computer. Everything about it was slow. I don’t know how many total hours I’ve wasted just by waiting for it to stop lagging. But thank God for the lags! I started looking for ways on how to reduce the technological problems I was experiencing (including the slow internet and such). I opened the control panel more often, began to explore all the settings, began to click buttons and run commands without fully understanding any of it. What was important was that something was happening. Something I did gave an output and that made me really happy. Tell you what, I’ll let you in on a little not-so-secret — I eventually broke it. I don’t know how, I just did. Let’s not get started on how I got scolded by everyone in the house because of that mistake. Looking back on it, it was a funny experience since my family comes to me for some “Technology advice” now whenever something breaks.

The Realization

Fast forward to high school. Because I was an Introverted girl with mild ADHD and depression, I indulged into binge watching Anime and fantasy movies. I realized I wanted to make films and enjoyed doing so with school projects. Film school was expensive though. So I opted for my second choice for a course — Bachelor of Science in Information Technology. Even though it was my second choice, I still loved it! I mean, I still get to edit and create stuff but instead of videos, I do it with code. Thinking of logic was nothing new to me since some of my favorite pastimes was to play with puzzles like Sudoku and enjoyed answering math problems. No lies, among my classmates, I was good at coding— I’m not the best, but I enjoyed it and that lead me to push harder.

The Vision

Being a deep thinker, I always thought that I was a mere person who was part of society. I had a sense of social responsibility. I still have this value and has had me thinking: what if I could create something that could help everybody ? So my goal is to become a better coder and eventually code something that could improve the state of humankind. I want to inspire people, to make a more livable and sustainable city, to be part of something good and revolutionary. These may be big dreams and may not be a one way road, but I’m confident enough that I’ll eventually get there. All I’ve got to do is give it my best.

The Big Step

As of today, I’m building myself up to become better at what I do. I’m currently a college student interning for Symph. I found out about Symph through my dad who actually drove me to Symph’s building and presented me to Albert Padin, the CTO of the company. To be honest, I felt so embarrassed that my dad had to do that because I knew I could do it myself without feeling like a child. I just wanted to spontaneously combust right then and there. Eventually, I got over my nerves and went back two days later for a proper interview. It wasn’t even a formal interview. Just an easy going chat with Albert and Dave (Symph’s CEO) about what I do, the company, and some other things. As the interview progressed, I felt good vibes and thought: this is something I can be part of; This feels like something big. I went home feeling excited and nervous at the same time. I got an e-mail from Albert telling me I could start right away. So here I am, interning a Symph.

Some Adjustments

On my first day, I learned that there was another intern who was starting that day. It was sort of a relief to know that I wasn’t the only one feeling a bit disoriented. We were given a list of things to learn so we sat there and did what we were told to do. I felt very shy especially that I was seated right next to an intimidating guy in a hoodie who was swiftly tapping away with the keys (not many people know I’m very intimidated by him— until now). He’s a pretty cool guy, actually. Soon enough, I found myself well adjusted with Symph’s lifestyle. Now, I feel right where I need to be whenever I’m at work. Flexi time, free breakfast, no dress code are some perks of Symph that I enjoy. I love it here and it feels more like family rather than just a place where people work.

The road trip

I’m both going to talk about both a literal and figurative road trip here. One of my fondest memories of Symph has got to be the team building. That was the day where I felt like I was really part of the pack. I got to know people better, learned all of their names, cooked dinner with a team during a stormy weather, and of course, played games with a team. The trip back home was quite a bummer because I still wanted to stay a bit longer. It was the funnest I ever had.

My time at Symph is still a short one, I would say, but I have learned and have done a lot since my first day. I learned to code in other programming languages provided by the Dev Learning Path, I started a plank challenge in the office (unfortunately, we didn’t finish the 30 days. Oh well!), I’ve been inspired to take the extra mile and not to just do what clients say but to do things that could potentially solve problems — even if it’s not in your job description, gave a talk about the difference of git merge and git rebase where in addition, I learned to improve my public speaking skills, helped develop a todo app (which I have yet to fix), and I continue to learn what I can because Symph is a space not just for coding but for continued learning.

A turning point

As you can tell, I’m very happy to be at Symph. My life as a Symph intern has become a journey. I guess what made me love it other than the things I stated is that Albert told me something about how the company views its interns. It made me feel welcome and right in place. He said [non-verbatim]:

You’re an intern at Symph not for the sake of complying the schools requirements; You’re here because we like you, we like what you do and showed us that you are willing to learn and take an extra step. We respect that you have other things to do in school and that’s ok. Make school your priority. You’re welcome to come and go because the only reasons you’re out of Symph is because you chose to leave or you got fired.

When we finished our conversation, that was the time I knew Symph was the right environment for me. It’s a company that aligns with my values as stated in its manifesto: Love, Change, and Hack.

My Journey Continues

I know I’ve still got a long way before I can be really good at developing web applications and such. And I’m even farther away to reaching my goals in life. But that’s ok, because everyday I learn and I’m contented with how things are going right now. My life isn’t perfect, but isn’t that how life should be? I still get to enjoy every minute of it no matter what.