Why it Took Me 3 Years (Instead of 6 Months) to Land My First Development Role

Eduardo - May 13 '23 - - Dev Community

Five years ago, I graduated from law school.

I immediately knew that it wasn't for me.

Instead, I wanted to become a Software Developer.

With determination, I embarked on a 6-month self-taught programming journey, aiming to secure a remote software development role.

It took me 3 years.

Because I went with a self-taught approach, I made plenty of mistakes.

Some of these mistakes were:

  1. Building too many small projects.
  2. Spending too much time on tutorials.
  3. Not collaborating enough.
  4. Giving up too soon.

I spent over 2 years in an IT Helpdesk role, before I could land a role as an Integration Engineer, and then (finally!) get promoted to Software Developer.

As an Integration Engineer, I spent most of my time developing APIs and other types of integrations using Python, MySQL, and AWS.

Even if I didn't have the title, I was already developing software!

Also, my passion for Computer Science (CS) has turned out to be so great that I'm in my second semester of a CS degree.

I'm no genius or specially talented, I'm just a regular guy who just kept pushing through.

So if you are looking to land your first role, you don't have to make it in 6 months. The important part is simply to make it.


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