Getting Hired as a Self-Taught Developer: Cristina's Inspiring Journey

[0:00] all right welcome Christina on Career
[0:03] Journey podcast I started a couple of
[0:05] years ago I've done 40 plus episode and
[0:08] this is the second season where I'm
[0:09] focusing on developers who have an
[0:12] inspiring story that other people can
[0:14] use for whoever is watching Christina I
[0:17] know each other for about one year now
[0:21] and uh she got into a tech job about 6
[0:24] months ago and we will be going deeper
[0:28] into number one how did she get that job
[0:31] and since that job what is working out
[0:36] for
[0:37] you plus getting a job is one thing but
[0:40] growing in that job is completely
[0:43] different world and
[0:44] I Journey just begin when you get your
[0:47] first job it's not the destination it's
[0:50] going to be a fun episode with lot of
[0:53] actionable advice so with that Christina
[0:58] I want to hand over mic to you and ask
[1:00] you how is everything going it's been 6
[1:03] month in this job it's actually going
[1:06] pretty nice I think I've grown so much
[1:09] lately there's so many things like on a
[1:11] daily basis when you do your job of
[1:13] course that you like don't like I
[1:16] personally and maybe like people that
[1:18] are going to be like Junior First
[1:20] physicians stuff like this are not going
[1:22] to know so of course there's a lot of
[1:24] like research that like goes into doying
[1:27] your day-to-day tasks and day-to-day job
[1:30] stuff like this and also there are a lot
[1:32] of like senior engineers and in general
[1:35] like people on your team that can
[1:36] explain things to you very easily
[1:38] instead of like always going on like
[1:40] online and looking for answers and stuff
[1:43] like this person you ask the question
[1:45] and just like the answer it and it's
[1:46] very e and it's very nice like working
[1:48] on a team with a lot of people is like
[1:50] having people that are more senior than
[1:51] you are going to be three me mentors of
[1:53] yours basically so this is really nice
[1:56] I've enjoy I've been enjoying the
[1:57] experience so the growth was more
[2:00] difficult for you getting into the tick
[2:02] or once you was in job the last 6 month
[2:07] what was more trickier and difficult of
[2:09] course it was like actually learning the
[2:13] necessary skills in order to get the job
[2:15] because at the very beginning when I
[2:17] started first of all it was like it was
[2:20] I guess a liap into the void for me
[2:24] because I wasn't necessarily like a
[2:26] technical person before that I was
[2:28] studying like Lang and stuff like this
[2:30] was completely different like totally
[2:32] unrelated to math and Engineering so it
[2:37] was type of thing I decided I guess wa
[2:40] to do this now because this is something
[2:41] I've been passionate about but never
[2:43] like got into really so I was what I'm
[2:47] going supposed to do with my life I just
[2:49] I might as well do something that I
[2:51] really I think I enjoy I think I might
[2:53] like so basically the very like this
[2:57] very first step of Designing to quit
[2:59] univers
[3:00] and redo basically my life and
[3:03] everything I knew before that was like
[3:05] the most difficult part of it and of
[3:08] course Keeping Up With The Learning
[3:10] because I did like probably one year of
[3:13] learning and specific courses stuff like
[3:15] this so one year of doing that by myself
[3:20] basically by just sharing it on Twitter
[3:22] and stuff like this was the most
[3:24] difficult part because I had not
[3:25] necessarily Mentor no people to talk to
[3:27] except like Twitter people basically
[3:30] that was the most difficult part now
[3:31] it's easy because you're in and you've
[3:34] got a lot of people around to ask
[3:36] questions and to be friends with and
[3:38] continue this thing but once you're
[3:40] alone it's like a lot
[3:42] different and C you one of the outgoing
[3:45] people who make relationship make
[3:47] network with other people so how did you
[3:50] use that for this new job how tell us
[3:53] was your first six month look like and
[3:56] if you can pick two three five different
[3:59] thing that work out for
[4:01] you I would say I'm not as outgoing as
[4:04] it might seem um I try to express myself
[4:08] more than I used to and I try to be
[4:10] myself more than I used to instead of
[4:12] like staying silent as I used to do but
[4:15] it's not necessarily that outgoing as
[4:17] I'd like to be anyway is what I tried to
[4:20] do most In This Very six months is be
[4:24] myself and try to find people that are
[4:26] like-minded of course many tech people
[4:28] are going to be like minded and are
[4:30] going to like Tech but of course we're
[4:32] very different people as well and also
[4:35] what really helped me in terms of like
[4:38] outgoingness is the fact that I was
[4:40] never ashamed to ask a lot of questions
[4:43] and I think this is something that
[4:44] helped me in the long run because
[4:46] whenever there was like a question in
[4:48] the very beginning was like I have no
[4:49] idea what we're talking about instead of
[4:51] being like Oh I meant seem stupid for
[4:53] asking this and stuff this ask it and
[4:55] what's the worst that can happen just
[4:57] you're just silly Junior you're it's
[4:59] funny you you ask to the questions I
[5:01] think this is the the most important
[5:03] thing at the very beginning this is the
[5:05] funny story I was waiting for my
[5:07] credentials and stuff like this and
[5:09] since I work like a bank environment
[5:11] they were taking quite a long time
[5:13] because there's a lot of bureaucracy and
[5:15] stuff like this a few weeks you would
[5:17] say and basically in those few weeks I
[5:20] did not necessarily know what to do and
[5:22] except for learning react and stuff like
[5:25] this and I was constantly B bobing my
[5:27] senior front end mentor and I was
[5:30] staying with him in call like 24/7 just
[5:32] like watching everything he did and
[5:35] stuff like this he also wanted me to
[5:37] stay in call with him but it's not
[5:39] staying silent and just like looking I
[5:42] was constantly trying to make
[5:44] conversation and ask about how is the
[5:47] job here how is the job like elsewhere
[5:50] and stuff like this that's the main
[5:51] thing so if I wanted to ask what's your
[5:53] typical day or week look like now I
[5:56] guess not as typical as did my
[6:00] be for such a big Corporation because I
[6:04] we don't necessarily have jira and
[6:06] things
[6:07] yeah no which is really funny to me it's
[6:11] a little bit more anarchical if I can
[6:14] say it that way basically we've got
[6:16] things to do and my manager or my senior
[6:19] engineer is going to tell me like if
[6:21] there's anything to do for that day if
[6:25] there's any specific bug I can fix or
[6:28] stuff like this at the very beginning I
[6:30] got a feature that I had to work on so I
[6:32] like developed new pages new features
[6:35] for like front end and stuff like this
[6:37] but now it's mostly like bug fixing
[6:39] stuff so whatever like we got a new
[6:42] defect a new bug and stuff this is
[6:45] mainly the job I have to do and there's
[6:48] there are not a lot of meetings there
[6:50] are some but not too many because like
[6:52] my manager person that mostly take
[6:54] carees of that and we can relax in that
[6:57] regard and only focus on the dev work
[6:59] but there's a lot of bureaucracy still
[7:01] because it's a big
[7:02] Corporation lucky you that you getting
[7:05] more opportunity to work and then the
[7:08] information is already distilled by the
[7:10] time it to you compared to some of the
[7:14] other developer and especially I
[7:15] remember when I became the senior
[7:18] developer by that time I was not getting
[7:21] enough time to do the coding work it was
[7:24] meeting it was bug fixing or support
[7:27] calls or all different type of thing and
[7:29] I said I'm can I get just FOC recing
[7:34] time yeah I totally can that because I
[7:36] always see my man like he's always in a
[7:38] meeting and stuff like this and I need
[7:40] to ask him questions but I know he's in
[7:42] the meeting so like Ping him like 10
[7:45] times like answer and stuff like this so
[7:49] I guess yeah I get it so Chris as six
[7:54] month and growing what's next for you
[7:57] are you already planning for the next
[8:00] big thing or what's you
[8:02] planning oh basically now I feel like I
[8:05] got at some point comfortable with the
[8:07] code base that we've got I got
[8:09] comfortable like with the bug type of
[8:11] bug fixing we do and things like this it
[8:14] does not seem like the front end like
[8:17] things that we do it don't don't seem
[8:18] that difficult honestly I guess
[8:21] something I'd like to focus more on
[8:23] instead of like frontend Stuff Etc is
[8:27] focusing more on computer science
[8:28] related topics and basic programming
[8:32] topics what I'm doing right now is like
[8:34] a course cs50 you've most probably heard
[8:38] of
[8:39] it yeah the online Harvard course and
[8:42] this is what I'm doing right now I'm on
[8:44] week two and it's zero base so I guess
[8:47] it's week
[8:48] three yeah and basically this is mainly
[8:52] what i' like to focus on like get a
[8:54] bunch of fundamentals down which seems
[8:57] like something that I'm a little bit
[8:58] backing in it's not of course something
[9:01] necessary just I feel like I need on my
[9:03] daily job which is not the case at all I
[9:07] feel comfortable at my daily job but I
[9:09] feel like I need this to scale in the
[9:11] future so this is basically my future
[9:13] plan awesome this is perfect I will tell
[9:16] you one a story that during my initial
[9:18] days one of the thing that was helping
[9:21] me is I was super
[9:23] annoy if somebody tell me something and
[9:25] I don't understand it so I want to go
[9:27] deeper and deeper I would do the reading
[9:29] and come back with this person so I will
[9:32] give you an example of this DNS live and
[9:34] then didn't work out I had no idea at
[9:37] that time what DNS mean we had a network
[9:40] team who does all that work for us and
[9:44] they were asking question like server IP
[9:47] name servers and this and that and
[9:49] something that was not working and I
[9:53] kept asking question to fully understand
[9:55] how DNS work from the company where we
[9:59] bought by the domain name to the DNS
[10:02] manager to name server to the server
[10:06] routing and TDL and all that and
[10:09] somebody who already doing this work for
[10:12] like years and years they get annoying
[10:15] by these basic preliminary
[10:19] questions so I was that kind of annoying
[10:22] boy but uh that helped me like one like
[10:25] you said yeah uh if you ask that
[10:28] question there is a
[10:30] hesitation of looking like a dumb person
[10:34] but if you ask then you are dumb for
[10:37] five minutes yeah hour then you dumb for
[10:41] the life right that worked for me that
[10:44] every time it touch something I want to
[10:48] fully understand that so soon in 6 month
[10:52] and six years I was able to build an end
[10:56] to an understanding of everything around
[10:58] web yeah exactly and then uh from the
[11:02] software development life cycle wise as
[11:05] well from requirement Gathering to
[11:07] creating use cases to uml diagram and
[11:11] designing and all that right deployment
[11:14] so that would be my number one
[11:16] advice that wherever you can chime in
[11:20] inject yourself then that would be a
[11:23] learning opportunity for yeah yeah don't
[11:26] limit yourself for any job description
[11:28] or anything
[11:30] yeah exactly even now sometimes in in
[11:32] meetings that a lot of meetings like
[11:35] sometimes I participate and there are
[11:37] missings not only like on technical
[11:39] things but also like on like Bank
[11:42] environment related things since there
[11:45] lot of teams doing lot of things and
[11:48] every time there's a product there's
[11:49] like a 100 like if 100 is a big number
[11:53] it's like exaggerating of course like
[11:54] many teams involved and basically our
[11:56] product is a container in that this
[11:59] product inside this things and then we
[12:01] have the library and if this is not
[12:03] working then this might be this like a
[12:05] lot of stuff going on basically and of
[12:08] course I cannot know every single thing
[12:11] because I would be a manager if I knew
[12:13] all this stuff but my manager does so I
[12:16] can ask him or somebody else on other
[12:18] team is would know so I could ask them
[12:20] so it's it's really nice to ask these
[12:22] questions because otherwise I'm just
[12:24] like sitting there and not knowing ever
[12:27] if you don't get that don't catch that
[12:29] opportunity then it' be weird if in 3
[12:33] weeks you're going to ask the question
[12:35] about something that like was already
[12:37] related like weeks ago and it's like we
[12:40] had a meeting about this 100 weeks ago
[12:42] why didn't you ask this question at that
[12:44] time and you wish you ask so
[12:48] yeah and I can I can completely relate
[12:51] to your situation where you in banking
[12:53] and have hundreds of projects or
[12:55] whatever number of projects right by the
[12:57] way I typically listen more in these
[13:00] podcast episode but some reason I'm
[13:03] excited so much
[13:05] because I like to talk so much I'm
[13:09] remembering all those things that has
[13:11] similar wasting with everything that
[13:13] you're saying so I was in Dennis and I
[13:17] was working on this project where we had
[13:20] ACS it's a big company NC which is the
[13:24] hardware company that buil us system
[13:27] Point of Sales system and then Microsoft
[13:30] they were providing the
[13:32] technology and then we was doing the
[13:34] project for 7-Eleven so you would think
[13:38] 711 is just a gas station but this
[13:41] project one of the basic requirement was
[13:44] that it's
[13:46] 247 whenever you do the updates to the
[13:49] system it should not affect the current
[13:52] operation so any trans that is still
[13:55] going on you should still update the
[13:57] system without impacting that so it had
[13:59] that kind of requirements and very
[14:02] sophisticated system like futuristic
[14:04] system and with all these different
[14:07] teams like four different companies
[14:09] working on this project and we had
[14:11] hundreds of libraries and everything and
[14:13] first day was it I have no idea I I have
[14:17] not worked on a project that has these
[14:19] many files than they have a number of
[14:23] projects and number of libraries it was
[14:26] that situation yeah yeah I get it now
[14:30] even we are preparing for production now
[14:33] because we don't go in production like
[14:34] every day every week I we do the C so
[14:39] like continuous integration but we don't
[14:41] do the continuous development in
[14:43] deployment so we do like deployment
[14:45] every one months two months and stuff
[14:47] like this and now we have a new project
[14:49] like coming up which is like getting
[14:51] deployed for the first time and the
[14:53] testing is
[14:55] crazy like in the last week we had I had
[14:59] had I overheard my manager do was like
[15:01] oh and we still need to do 500 test and
[15:03] I was like it's like in know a week
[15:06] before production but I guess it's fine
[15:08] and basically also a lot of bus that
[15:10] come in some of them are not like very
[15:13] well filtered so we've got there like a
[15:15] lot of understanding where the bug is
[15:17] coming from which team the bug is coming
[15:19] from because it's all this prod that is
[15:21] so built together but so by so many
[15:24] teams so every time there's a bug like
[15:25] there's this back and forth of
[15:27] understanding where the problem is
[15:28] coming from which team this is coming
[15:30] from it's not only like front end and
[15:32] back end it's always like them shared
[15:35] libraries and the shared stuff it's a
[15:37] whole thing so yeah it's difficult will
[15:40] you be able to join those calls like
[15:42] deployment calls or last minute but
[15:45] fixing call I'm doing a lot of BU fixing
[15:48] and I I'm actually preparing the project
[15:50] for deployment like in terms of like
[15:53] devops configurations but it's not
[15:55] difficult at all I just have a guide and
[15:57] stuff so it's fine so basically this is
[15:59] the effect but yeah yeah was I wanted to
[16:02] suggest that if there is a deployment
[16:03] call that go on or whenever there is a
[16:06] production support call that go on those
[16:09] are best opportunity to make
[16:11] relationship when typically what
[16:14] happened that these calls are in the
[16:16] night and they go on for an hour
[16:19] sometime 5 hours and you build the best
[16:21] relationship during that when yeah it it
[16:25] just different kind of environment equ
[16:28] different lights yeah so much humor so
[16:31] much pressures everything is there yeah
[16:34] because I again the pressure is so on
[16:36] that even now since we have to do so
[16:38] much bugfixing I guess I've been like
[16:40] pinked in various like groups and things
[16:43] with people that I've never talked to
[16:45] before and there is managers that want
[16:47] to solve problems and it's was like
[16:48] they're going to ping you I'm was like
[16:50] please can you look at this and stuff
[16:51] like this and I was like I don't know
[16:53] you but sure why
[16:56] not yeah perfect yeah and basically and
[17:00] there was like this B today that there's
[17:03] new it's not a feature it was like this
[17:05] new thing that we just discovered we had
[17:07] to do but we never did basically and we
[17:11] had to fix it today because I had to
[17:14] prepare everything for production like
[17:16] our project for Productions before that
[17:19] we had to fix this bag and it had to
[17:21] work because it did not work until today
[17:24] then we wouldn't get it to production
[17:25] and we would get it like in the next
[17:27] production line and basically
[17:29] we managed to solve it my senior managed
[17:32] to solve it and was like complimenting
[17:34] us I was like oh this is really nice you
[17:36] guys sold it ET yeah it was very simp
[17:39] was very simple it was a line of code
[17:41] but still it's like really appreciative
[17:43] that we were able to ship this kind of
[17:47] feature that otherwise would have been
[17:49] like back so that they're
[17:53] looking yeah exactly yeah I think one or
[17:56] two more questions on this and then we
[17:58] will go in in the journey side yeah how
[18:00] do you manage your day
[18:02] so you said you typically get
[18:05] requirement from your manager some of
[18:06] the people some bugs so do you Ma do you
[18:10] use some kind of task management tool or
[18:13] notebook or how do you
[18:15] handle I have my like pen and paper
[18:18] notebook that I write thing down in I
[18:21] have my all my notes and St plist I
[18:23] usually transcrip them in like digital
[18:25] form of course because I also make
[18:28] documentation stuff like that something
[18:29] things that there there's no
[18:31] documentation on for example we also
[18:33] have we use tins and stuff so we have a
[18:36] tins group Etc where I also have my
[18:39] different like whenever I get aign t i
[18:42] put it in there and get the progression
[18:44] going even though I'm the only person
[18:45] that cares about this I'll still put it
[18:47] in there so it's very kind of
[18:49] independent I work in very closely with
[18:53] my senior frontend
[18:56] teammates yeah but at same time it's
[18:59] very independent if the whole day I
[19:01] would wanted to sit by myself unless I
[19:03] have a meeting sit by myself and do the
[19:05] work I need to do I could do that like
[19:08] it's like that I think the main point
[19:10] is I don't know how that happened but
[19:13] we've got like a te of a few people
[19:15] seven people in terms of like frontend
[19:18] development and when I got in it was not
[19:21] like so many of us it was like me and
[19:24] other few people and basically it so
[19:26] happened that even though I'm very
[19:29] Junior I'm I basically became like a
[19:32] team lead
[19:33] so I don't know know huh you had a team
[19:38] lead now yeah so basically I can assign
[19:44] test and I can manage things inside the
[19:48] the team but of course this is like
[19:51] under the supervision of my teammate
[19:54] senior teammate but it's both of us that
[19:56] are doing the the main work work and the
[19:59] the core management of the whole team of
[20:02] course I'm like a subordinate but I
[20:05] could also like do my own stuff so it's
[20:07] an interesting gr I know it's like not
[20:09] it's uncanny it's unusual but I don't
[20:12] know how that happened but it happened
[20:14] somehow typically in it or in
[20:17] development teams you become the team
[20:18] leader but your current job doesn't
[20:20] change you add more responsibility even
[20:24] from team leader to you initially when
[20:26] you become manager your life does not
[20:28] change day one you're still doing coding
[20:31] you still started doing some management
[20:33] thing and most of the time you start
[20:36] doing some management responsibility
[20:38] before they promote you to a manager so
[20:41] it's all mixed like it doesn't change in
[20:44] night you you start with that I'm so
[20:48] happy that it's just six month and you
[20:51] are you're tasting some of the team
[20:54] leader
[20:56] responsibility w yeah it's a little bit
[20:59] like very interesting because I know
[21:02] that other people depend on me so it's
[21:04] not like I can just like oh my junior so
[21:07] I was like I take things slowly I cannot
[21:10] do that I have to snap uh so I have a
[21:13] lot of stuff to like I guess I adjust on
[21:16] a daily basis so I think this is what
[21:18] made me grow faster than maybe usually
[21:21] like the usually if I wouldn't be in
[21:24] this position or I have other people
[21:26] that depend on me I would be I just do
[21:29] my job blah blah blah but I do my job
[21:32] and then on top of that I have to think
[21:33] about other things so so it's a nice
[21:35] experience honestly and I really like to
[21:38] be in this position I'm not like looking
[21:40] for of course I'm six months in but I
[21:42] don't know if I would like to be in know
[21:45] more manager position because I know
[21:47] it's really old meetings and stuff but I
[21:49] think this is a good compromise don't do
[21:51] what I did when it comes to manager okay
[21:54] what you do I over overthink that this
[21:58] season for so long to decide which path
[22:02] I wanted to go do I want to deep in the
[22:04] technology path become prepare myself to
[22:07] become an architect or do you want to
[22:10] prepare myself for a management job they
[22:12] are two different steem at least that's
[22:15] what I thought
[22:17] initially but if the team is technical
[22:20] it's not that different and it doesn't
[22:22] have to be this type of overthinking
[22:25] that I
[22:27] did
[22:29] and ultimately it comes down to how much
[22:32] impact that you're making to a whether
[22:35] it is the software developed or whether
[22:37] it is the client or whether it is your
[22:39] company and it everything that you will
[22:42] do will come up with some kind of
[22:44] excitement so you today you are excited
[22:47] about the technology book fixing project
[22:50] completion and things like that but then
[22:53] whether it is management job or a
[22:55] architect job or even the stakeholder
[22:58] job it comes with that kind of
[22:59] excitement something will be
[23:02] there yeah I guess it's normal but in
[23:05] this kind of part of my journey I really
[23:07] like like the coding part so this is
[23:10] what I appreciate most right now maybe
[23:12] like in the future it be different but
[23:14] at the same time I have like previous
[23:16] management experience of course non
[23:18] technical management experience like
[23:20] regular project management experience so
[23:23] I guess this is why it becomes easy it
[23:25] becomes familiar so it's natural but
[23:28] Tech being technical is not that natural
[23:30] to me so this is something I try to
[23:32] build up on and then we will
[23:37] see all right this is I'm I'm enjoying
[23:40] all the conversation and I'm M speaking
[23:42] too much this time I don't know I should
[23:45] be listening to you more so let's go
[23:47] back to so far we cover your journey
[23:51] Beyond when you got the job and how your
[23:54] day look like how everything looked like
[23:56] what kind of work that you're doing and
[23:58] what is helping you in making progress
[24:01] let's go beyond or before you got this
[24:06] job and we will get into some flashback
[24:10] you said it took you about one year and
[24:13] there was a moment when you decided to
[24:15] get into Tech right so tell us what was
[24:20] you doing before and what was that
[24:22] moment when you decided okay I'm going
[24:24] to try in Tech so basically what I was
[24:27] doing before or was uh University I
[24:31] guess it was not necessarily a force
[24:34] decision but I took a sabatical year
[24:37] after high school and I wanted to do
[24:40] design I was I did not know if I wanted
[24:42] to do design or computer science which
[24:46] is and I ended up doing like fronted
[24:48] development which is somewhere in the
[24:50] middle of that which is really funny but
[24:53] anyways I tried to get into design and
[24:55] stuff like this but couldn't and then I
[24:58] failed into languages because I know a
[25:01] few languages and stuff like this so in
[25:04] thought it's like a natural progression
[25:06] of my the skill set I afraid to possess
[25:09] basically I did like two years of
[25:10] University but then realized that this
[25:13] is something like I guess I'm good at
[25:15] learning languages and no languages and
[25:17] stuff like this but this is you saying
[25:19] University you mean teaching at
[25:21] University or doing a no learning as a
[25:24] student of course your bachelor degree
[25:27] yes yeah like the regular
[25:30] langage the the American degree is like
[25:33] a regular three years degree I think
[25:36] America is like four years yeah America
[25:38] is four years and is also bachelor
[25:41] degree is three years unless you're
[25:42] doing an engineering degree yeah I was
[25:45] doing like a regular like Bachelor how
[25:49] Yeah so basically I was doing languages
[25:51] I realized this is something I'm good at
[25:53] but this is something that is not and
[25:55] when you saying language are you saying
[25:57] the speak
[25:59] programming language yeah no it's
[26:00] language it's regular like human
[26:03] languages speak okay B yeah when I'm
[26:07] guess I'm digressing but like to to make
[26:10] you understand it's basically when I say
[26:12] I was learning languages I was learning
[26:14] Russian and English and that was for
[26:18] future job as like translator and stuff
[26:20] like this it was more of like cultural
[26:22] linguistic studies I guess in terms of
[26:25] not only regular translations but also
[26:27] like car cultural translations and stuff
[26:30] like this like more like from this sense
[26:32] like very grammatical but also
[26:34] historical and cultural I guess that's
[26:37] basically it so it's interesting it's
[26:40] nice to know but it's not something that
[26:42] I was necessarily passionate about so I
[26:45] decid and it was a point of my life when
[26:47] I was like I stopped doing I stopped
[26:50] doing University but I never really
[26:52] taking courses and I wasn't doing exam
[26:54] but I did not really say on quitting so
[26:58] when I realized I either need to quit or
[27:03] I need to like actually like finish
[27:05] universities it's one or the other like
[27:08] I have to find something else to do if I
[27:11] to like and that's something else was
[27:12] like I remembered about the fact that I
[27:14] wanted to do Computer Engineering in
[27:16] Italian it's like Computer Engineering
[27:18] so I guess computer science and I was
[27:20] like I guess this is what I'm going to
[27:22] go for because at the at the time while
[27:25] I was doing University I was doing like
[27:27] many other things
[27:28] in the meanwhile I got into what three
[27:30] as everybody else at that time and I did
[27:34] project project management related to
[27:36] what three basically and in doing so I
[27:39] had a lot of kind of connections with
[27:43] people that were like web three
[27:45] developers uh and I got to you know see
[27:48] how web three like how developers worked
[27:50] and what was like to be a developer and
[27:53] to do stuff from like scratch and I
[27:55] really likeed that and I said yeah this
[27:58] is what I'm going to do and basically I
[28:01] guess web three got me into development
[28:03] which is weird to say but this is true
[28:06] and I think that's just true for many
[28:07] people you still have web 3 listed in
[28:11] your bio Twitter bio as well as LinkedIn
[28:14] bio I don't know if you are
[28:16] still something with web three right now
[28:19] not right now not anymore yeah so I just
[28:22] say still have all that in your yeah but
[28:26] it's fun like it was a fun time and I'm
[28:28] really grateful for that time because it
[28:30] made me realize that there is not only a
[28:32] traditional path you can also do like
[28:34] many other things so this is like the
[28:36] non- traditionality of like web three
[28:38] and stuff like this really helped me in
[28:40] this sort of way of what typ thing that
[28:42] you were doing in web 3 at that time it
[28:44] was mostly related to like nfts and
[28:47] stuff so I guess yeah so it was like
[28:50] project management in that term from
[28:51] like management okay so you was not
[28:53] creating a smart contract or anything no
[28:56] it it was non technical okay okay yeah
[29:00] but still I had a lot of contact with
[29:03] like technical people so this is where I
[29:05] was like I really need to be like them
[29:07] he was more of like admiration and then
[29:10] he got me the passion so then I decided
[29:13] I saw this like online course that we
[29:17] got in itally basically and I decided to
[29:19] take it in and I started this course
[29:21] basically not even a course they just
[29:23] give you a bunch of free resources to
[29:26] study from like online
[29:28] and then basically they give you a
[29:31] specific project to work on and they
[29:33] give you feedback on that project so
[29:35] basically it's more it is a course but
[29:37] not in terms of like type of boot camp
[29:40] where you study and stuff like this you
[29:42] just do things on your own and then they
[29:44] review the projects you do which is it
[29:46] was actually really nice and that was in
[29:49] web three right no that was like in web
[29:51] two regular it was a front end
[29:53] development course I see I see so HTML
[29:56] CSS JavaScript type thing
[29:58] yeah yeah so after I did that basically
[30:01] I hopped on web
[30:03] to that's it okay okay who that course
[30:08] by the
[30:08] way oh it's a funny story because I saw
[30:12] that this company that was doing like
[30:14] this type of courses in it's like a
[30:16] Italian version of sharks and tanks is
[30:20] that the pro yeah yeah sh times there's
[30:23] an Italian version of that and basically
[30:26] that company that does the type of like
[30:28] services like learning onine Services
[30:30] there were like on shens I think was
[30:32] like in 2019 and I remember them for
[30:35] some
[30:36] reason and then in
[30:39] 20 22 it was I still remember them and
[30:44] then I like decided to take our course
[30:46] basically in 2022 okay yeah this is
[30:50] getting confusing no it's not it's not
[30:53] you went into you was doing a university
[30:55] you came across web work you started
[30:59] doing project management for them you
[31:01] got the interest building in yourself
[31:04] and then you a course on HTML CSS
[31:07] JavaScript and you started doing that
[31:10] yes and with doing that web 3 is really
[31:13] big on Twitter and stuff so I decided
[31:17] there must be something similar to web
[31:19] too like there must be like tag people
[31:22] like on Twitter like in web course so I
[31:24] decided to look for those people and
[31:27] find a community
[31:28] and I did as you can see so it was
[31:32] really nice so 2022 you did that course
[31:36] you finished that course yeah I finished
[31:39] it on the week that I got job actually
[31:42] as I as I was finishing it I was already
[31:44] talking to recruiters because like I was
[31:48] playing and I it was long course
[31:51] then it just took me a long time because
[31:54] it's it was very flexible basically you
[31:57] have the h part and then you had
[31:59] resources to study from and there was
[32:01] like no time no time limit like that
[32:04] that you couldn't learn basically that
[32:06] from the resources and the thing was you
[32:08] just had to do the oh my God the project
[32:11] for the basically so there was not
[32:14] really a time limit to do the resources
[32:16] and stuff so this is why like we took
[32:18] things slowly Al also because it was
[32:21] like very difficult at the beginning I
[32:23] remember it was very funny now that I
[32:25] remember it it's really funny was
[32:28] watching my first HTML video and I was
[32:30] taking notes and was like oh yeah the P
[32:32] element the H1 element know that I
[32:35] remember I think I still have like
[32:37] somewhere
[32:39] HTML
[32:41] notes and it's really funny thinking
[32:44] back on that
[32:46] really yeah I was like oh what's the
[32:48] difference between a div and a span blah
[32:51] blah blah blah and it's like taking like
[32:52] pen and paper notes on that but yeah it
[32:55] was a fun time you what many people are
[33:00] either thinking it's too complicated and
[33:03] they don't do the basic stuff you do it
[33:06] one time and you remember it forever
[33:09] yeah keep avoiding it
[33:12] then you just keep avoiding it another
[33:15] thing that I'm seeing is you found a
[33:17] course you stick with it versus I see
[33:20] many people who would short list 50
[33:23] courses and then try to find one and
[33:25] then they keep switching between the
[33:27] courses rather than just finishing one
[33:30] of them yeah this is true and also I
[33:33] know this might be a little
[33:34] controversial but when you pay for a
[33:37] course you actually want to finish it
[33:39] because free resources are really nice
[33:42] but most of the time you're going to
[33:44] take them for granted and stuff like
[33:45] this and you're going to just forget
[33:47] about them but if there's like a very
[33:49] good that you know like from a trusted
[33:51] person or from trusted organizations I
[33:54] guess that it's like a p not very not so
[33:57] much not like in terms of like thousands
[34:01] of course in terms of hundreds maybe or
[34:03] a few hundreds like you're going to be
[34:05] much more motivated to finish it because
[34:07] like you actually paid for it so I paid
[34:09] for the course and it's like I I have to
[34:11] finish it because I paid money for it
[34:14] but he was like if it would be like I
[34:16] don't know a YouTube course a 14 hour
[34:19] YouTube course like nobody's keeping me
[34:22] there I can switch off and forget about
[34:24] it so I guess this is it I would say say
[34:27] this over the last three years I I have
[34:30] paid a lot of money for a lot of courses
[34:33] for writing okay I never paid this much
[34:36] for learning programming but how paid
[34:40] for and many of courses I never finish I
[34:42] think there is something there is some
[34:44] emotions that is required for you to
[34:46] follow through end to end yeah it's I
[34:50] think it's beyond money or Beyond just
[34:53] big a
[34:54] desire for me it was but I think it's
[34:58] I don't know what it is I think it's I
[35:00] don't want to say desperation because
[35:02] this is a negative like it has a
[35:03] negative connotation of course but it's
[35:05] like something good of I I get this
[35:10] chance this is my chance there is not
[35:12] second like there are second chances of
[35:14] course but if you keep living your life
[35:17] thinking there are Second
[35:19] Chances you're never going to actually
[35:21] like complete things and you're not
[35:24] going to like do stuff because so
[35:27] there's another where I can do this but
[35:29] why don't you do it now so it's I think
[35:31] it's different I think like having
[35:34] because I was coming from a very like
[35:36] long period of time as I said I was
[35:38] doing University I was doing something
[35:39] else I was a little bit lost so I
[35:42] thought this is my thing like I'm going
[35:45] to make it so that like technical stuff
[35:49] and like frontend development or like
[35:50] General software development is going to
[35:52] be my thing this is going to be like my
[35:54] time to shine there's nothing else for
[35:57] me going on and there will never be
[35:59] anything else for me going on so I
[36:00] either do
[36:01] this or fall into the void so basically
[36:06] this is very I don't know how to say it
[36:09] nistic but this helps because like you
[36:12] when you don't have any chances when you
[36:14] don't have any other option you are
[36:16] going to do it because but if you have
[36:18] so many options that you don't really
[36:20] know what to do as you said like I got
[36:23] options to do so many courses I don't
[36:26] really know which one I should be
[36:27] completing but if you only have one
[36:29] option this is the road is
[36:31] straightforward there's no need to look
[36:33] across you just have to look forward so
[36:36] yeah I guess I think this was the moment
[36:40] in this interview um that would be the
[36:42] most helpful for
[36:44] anyone watching that you was in this
[36:47] situation and then at some point you
[36:50] decided and this was these are the
[36:53] thought process that was going on in
[36:55] your mind so what happened next so you
[36:58] had this moment you decided to do this
[37:01] 2.0 you had the course and then from
[37:04] that point it took about a year for you
[37:08] to work on it right so what happened
[37:11] what I'm trying to understand that how
[37:13] did you plan how did you follow through
[37:15] how did you study how did you have that
[37:19] continuity for a
[37:22] year I guess it was the fact that I kept
[37:26] that spark ey like that first thing I
[37:30] kept repeating it into my hand I only
[37:33] like because sometimes we we get like a
[37:36] specific feeling at the very beginning
[37:38] oh it'd be nice to do this then we
[37:40] forget about it yeah but the thing is
[37:43] don't forget about it so don't forget
[37:45] about the feeling that you at the very
[37:46] beginning had that really got you
[37:48] interested and really sparked something
[37:51] in you basically and try to keep it
[37:54] alive like at every cost because it
[37:56] could see down at that point that
[37:59] there's no going back then there's no
[38:01] going back but you have to keep it alive
[38:03] somehow and
[38:05] basic don't
[38:07] know Bic were you repeating every day in
[38:11] the morning in front of you I was like I
[38:15] guess every there are many different
[38:17] situation where I was like I don't know
[38:19] if I can do it maybe I'm not smart
[38:21] enough maybe I'm not that enough maybe
[38:24] it's not really for me I'm not a
[38:25] technical person I'm not logical I'm not
[38:28] mathematical etc etc but then I was
[38:31] thinking about this like why am I not
[38:34] who said am I not I just said it nobody
[38:37] else just said it and that's it and oh I
[38:40] guess it was this technical Journey that
[38:43] I did was also very
[38:45] psychological because I was coming from
[38:48] a period when I was like lost and I was
[38:50] trying to find something that was for me
[38:54] and I said that it was for me basically
[38:57] I don't know how to explain it's very
[38:59] difficult to explain I'll find the words
[39:00] I'll find the right words because I'm
[39:02] try to get the concept across basically
[39:06] if you have something that you have to
[39:08] do you have no option but to do it and
[39:11] that's it I think too many options are
[39:13] going to confuse people but basically if
[39:17] you think that you like your purpose and
[39:22] you what you want to do is like getting
[39:24] into tag and you start like drifting
[39:26] away into so maybe I could do this
[39:28] something else and maybe if I could do
[39:30] this something else I don't think you
[39:33] have to refocus and I understand is that
[39:36] your path if the answer is yes right
[39:39] away then you have to go on that path
[39:42] and that's it I guess it's mostly
[39:46] psychological I don't know it is it is
[39:49] yeah it is all right so you was for year
[39:53] one year the
[39:55] journey also maybe this could be a more
[39:58] practical advice of course you cannot do
[40:02] things that you keep it's difficult to
[40:04] keep doing something that you keep
[40:05] failing at having some sort of reward
[40:08] every time you like at some point it's
[40:11] really nice so basically maybe you
[40:13] finish I don't know the HTML and CSS
[40:16] guide or some HTML and
[40:18] CSS YouTube video and stuff like this
[40:20] and you do you have to do a small
[40:23] project with it and then realize that
[40:26] you accomplished something so that sense
[40:27] of accomplishment this is what keeps you
[40:29] going forward because it's like I
[40:31] decided to go in tag and I'm actually
[40:34] doing things that people in Tech do so I
[40:37] guess this is my place so you keep doing
[40:39] that like for HTML and CSS if you want
[40:40] to be a front end developer you keep
[40:42] doing that like for basic JavaScript you
[40:44] keep you doing that sort of advanced
[40:45] JavaScript and at some point you like by
[40:49] building small projects every time you
[40:51] learn something new you're going to give
[40:52] you like the type of thing openion I can
[40:55] do it so you just keep doing it
[40:58] yeah I don't know no this is perfect and
[41:03] how many hours you were spending in
[41:04] learning every day not enough I think it
[41:08] was like probably four three hours a day
[41:11] so yeah it was not so much actually I I
[41:14] was like oh how are people working for
[41:16] eight hours a day I should learn for
[41:17] eight hours a day but it was very
[41:19] difficult it's impossible it's you're
[41:21] not I'm not getting paid for this I'm
[41:22] paying for this I'm doing it 4 hours
[41:25] were you doing something else at that
[41:27] time
[41:27] like a job or some other studies I was
[41:31] completely focused on that I was
[41:33] completely I know it's a huge privilege
[41:35] to be able to stop your life
[41:38] and have a a goal that is so different
[41:42] from everything else youve had before
[41:44] and keep going with it but I guess if
[41:47] you have that privilege it'd be nice to
[41:49] take take advantage of it as much as
[41:52] possible when you was applying for a job
[41:54] at that time what all you had learn you
[41:58] hear HTML CSS JavaScript is there
[42:00] anything else that you had in your back
[42:03] pocket at that point yeah I had I was
[42:06] learn angular because I guess in Italy
[42:10] we've got like angular and rag I guess
[42:14] at the same like kind of popularity
[42:16] level like integration level where a lot
[42:19] of companies are doing react and many a
[42:22] little bit more companies are doing
[42:23] angular even so basically I decided to
[42:27] go with angler because like everyone is
[42:28] doing react I'm just like do this other
[42:31] thing so basically this is what I did
[42:35] and and then I started applying actually
[42:38] I tried to go through different
[42:41] interview questions technical interview
[42:42] questions as well and then it just
[42:45] applied of course I curate I it took me
[42:48] three weeks to curate my CV and stuff
[42:51] like this vide I was obsessed I was
[42:53] watching every YouTube video out there
[42:54] like how to do amazing CD great TV etc
[42:58] etc in the template the other thing so
[43:01] basically I watched a bunch of this type
[43:02] of videos to create my social media and
[43:04] my CV and like cover letters and stuff
[43:07] like that so also always writing and
[43:09] rewriting and I was like I'm done with
[43:11] writing my CV send it out like to the 10
[43:13] companies and that's it also this is
[43:17] something we could cut in into the
[43:19] previous question because this
[43:22] is I I just thought about something what
[43:25] kept me going was as I said it was very
[43:28] psychological as a type of Journey but
[43:31] also the fact that I was on Twitter and
[43:33] like sharing things I was doing it had a
[43:35] lot of impact because there were a lot
[43:37] of people like encouraging me but also I
[43:40] was looking up to a lot of people that I
[43:43] wanted to be like so I guess being in
[43:48] the Tech Community really helped me
[43:51] because it's really nice to be with
[43:53] people that do the same things as you or
[43:56] do the things that you would like to do
[43:57] as well and you can emulate them and
[44:00] they give it B and it's really nice so I
[44:03] think Twitter helped a lot yeah I saw
[44:06] your
[44:07] consistency every single day you was
[44:10] coming back and see yeah I did oh this
[44:13] is something that really helped a lot
[44:15] was also 100 days of scod it was a
[44:19] really nice experience I did not finish
[44:22] it of
[44:23] course but it was really nice a well
[44:26] plased
[44:27] I really enjoyed sharing what I was
[44:29] doing and I really enjoyed getting the
[44:31] feedback and advice and everything it
[44:33] was really cool so if somebody's
[44:35] struggling with consistency I think
[44:37] sharing on
[44:38] Twitter and doing some type of challenge
[44:42] I think is is really nice
[44:45] because I think as I said before we need
[44:48] to have a specific sort of way to tell
[44:50] ourselves that we are doing a great job
[44:52] and by doing by completing tasks and
[44:56] even small tasks and completing things
[44:58] such as challenges I think it's a great
[45:00] way to you know feeling accomplished and
[45:02] being like Oh I'm finally doing
[45:04] something stop like this
[45:06] sure yeah this is It's 202 so how much
[45:10] time do we have you have we can go on
[45:12] from another like 15 minutes if I don't
[45:15] know if you have other questions as well
[45:18] yeah few more we did a lot of resume
[45:21] forces and everything I think you
[45:23] probably want to to create your own
[45:25] guide or a video just for this one no I
[45:28] was thinking about it yeah today I
[45:33] was I should make a GU about that so
[45:36] what would be your top three five tips
[45:39] on resume oh my God I have no idea
[45:42] anyways I don't remember anymore that's
[45:44] watch YouTube I don't remember I'm just
[45:47] saying that the first day watch YouTube
[45:49] ESP yeah watch like do the thing is I
[45:52] think what some people or even many I
[45:56] think the majority people like don't
[45:57] realize is that making research and
[46:00] looking things up on the Internet really
[46:03] helps like we can do things on our own
[46:05] but write a resume write a cover letter
[46:08] and think oh this is I did a good job on
[46:10] that but you don't know what is your how
[46:13] do you call it what are you comparing it
[46:16] to you have no measure of comparison to
[46:19] like what you just did and what's the
[46:21] standard and you might think you did a
[46:23] great job but the standard is here and
[46:25] the job you did is here and it would
[46:27] never know if you don't go online and
[46:29] actually see examples and you don't see
[46:31] people like actually giving advice on
[46:33] that so it's good to be self-confident
[46:36] but also it's good to take an advice and
[46:39] try to learn from people that do it as a
[46:41] job because there are a lot of people
[46:43] that their job basically on YouTube is
[46:45] teach you how to find a job so learn
[46:48] from the best and that's it so yeah I
[46:51] think my main point is understand format
[46:55] of your CP because it was really funny I
[46:58] was looking at American videos to to R
[47:02] the resume and the format was different
[47:05] the format is like no profile picture
[47:07] it's like all blank black and white like
[47:09] regular text format in Europe you have
[47:12] this column format where you have to
[47:14] have your picture you have to have a
[47:16] specific column of your languages if
[47:18] your skills and stuff like this and
[47:19] another column with like your with your
[47:21] experience and the first time around I I
[47:24] wrote my CD following like the American
[47:26] structure and I showed it to like the
[47:28] people around me like the Italian Like
[47:30] My Italian Friend what this present like
[47:33] was it was it it what a picture
[47:37] like this is the best like this is the
[47:39] best on the internet what do you mean
[47:43] so then I went on LinkedIn like Italian
[47:46] LinkedIn and I also found like other
[47:48] different guides on how to write res and
[47:50] stuff like this specifically for tech
[47:52] people and I saw that like the template
[47:55] was different so I followed that
[47:56] template but like the contents was still
[47:59] great so I guess that's it also try to
[48:02] understand try to watch around of course
[48:05] like American things but also try to
[48:08] cater to your local community so this is
[48:11] something that it was definitely
[48:13] something interesting to
[48:15] learn so far you got your foundation
[48:18] done you got your resum and many people
[48:22] able to reach to this
[48:25] point from here here to apply and
[48:29] getting responses from recruiters or
[48:32] hiring managers getting interview call
[48:36] and then actually get selected is the
[48:39] super hard part yeah yeah I that uh how
[48:44] did that work out for you how many
[48:47] application you did how many interview
[48:49] you did and how was you strategizing
[48:54] everything oh basically before I started
[48:58] even applying I got contacted by a
[49:01] recruiter onink then which is actually
[49:05] the person that I'm always talking to
[49:07] because he works at my company because I
[49:10] work at that company okay so you was
[49:13] publishing at LinkedIn as well then how
[49:15] did no I was not my LinkedIn is I I the
[49:20] point is I think the point is um as I
[49:24] said I try to maximize my social media
[49:27] but not in terms of posting necessarily
[49:29] but in terms of having a good Banner
[49:31] like very understandable Banner like
[49:33] very searchable description searchable
[49:37] bio like in every thing in every text I
[49:40] would write front end developer web
[49:42] developer react angle like all the
[49:45] keywords and like everywhere I could I
[49:47] would like put them in phrases like
[49:49] snaky and stuff like this basically and
[49:52] I had a good profile picture as well
[49:54] because it's it's not necess high
[49:57] quality picture of course but it has a
[49:59] good background it's not 320 of course
[50:01] so it's different I guess my profile is
[50:04] very searchable in that terms because
[50:06] also this is something I looked up on
[50:08] YouTube as well how to maximize your
[50:10] LinkedIn profile so you should put that
[50:12] on a link just watch some videos
[50:15] anyway basically and this is what
[50:18] happened and I got contacted by that
[50:20] this recruiter and we had a half an hour
[50:23] talk basically there was like they asked
[50:25] me are you up for a phone and stuff like
[50:27] this and we talked for half an hour and
[50:29] you know what let's do the technical
[50:30] interview like right after that talk
[50:33] basically I I talked with him how I talk
[50:36] with you basically I did not do anything
[50:39] differently it's regular funny joke
[50:42] silly me and then they told me they
[50:45] wanted to do the technical interview
[50:47] with me and it went well and basically
[50:51] they gave me an
[50:53] offer so that's it but also in the mean
[50:56] while that was happening I I sent in
[50:59] some rumes as well so my resume actually
[51:02] helped me in some way here my CV it was
[51:05] not
[51:06] useless so basically my resume use was
[51:09] useful because I send in my CV to 10
[51:12] companies and I got contacted the point
[51:15] is how I was sending those resumes I was
[51:19] sending them not to
[51:20] Junior developing roles but to
[51:23] intermediate developer roles and know
[51:27] what's the reasoning behind this I just
[51:29] decided to do so because I wanted to
[51:32] avoid internships and stuff like this so
[51:35] I said maybe if I send it like for
[51:37] junior positions they're going to be
[51:38] offer me interships and stuff like this
[51:40] but I need a job so I was sending it to
[51:43] intermediate positions and I got
[51:45] contacted by one company from what 10 10
[51:48] of those that did the interview that I
[51:51] send applications for and again I did
[51:54] the the first round of tributs basically
[51:57] with it was I think it was with three
[51:59] people it was not a phone call it was
[52:02] like a zoom call and stuff like this so
[52:04] there was like asking me personal
[52:05] questions and asking about me my
[52:07] experience what I did like previously
[52:09] and I had to talk about the project I
[52:11] did and stuff and this is like something
[52:14] I like with both interviews I had I
[52:18] always talked about like the projects I
[52:19] did and emphasizing that I learned a lot
[52:23] and also I always told them that I left
[52:25] University to
[52:27] tag and stuff this to let them know I'm
[52:28] really passionate anyways basically so I
[52:32] think the way then the thing that struck
[52:36] me most is like both interviews like
[52:39] first in presented they were both
[52:41] successful so I think the reason that
[52:43] was because I thanks to Twitter and
[52:46] thanks to Twitter spaces and stuff like
[52:47] this I got a little bit more confident
[52:50] in my abilities and in my the way I
[52:53] talked and this is the way I presented
[52:55] myself and also I got more confident
[52:56] into talking about my past experiences
[52:59] and not being ashamed of necessarily
[53:01] like quitting University and stuff like
[53:02] this but saying it as a per even which
[53:05] would might come across as like
[53:07] something not necessarily A recuit might
[53:10] want to hear but if they hear it like in
[53:12] a certain way song it's all about how
[53:15] you say things necessarily not what you
[53:18] say because if I said oh if they ask me
[53:21] did you do any universe and say no and
[53:23] I'd be ashamed of it they would see like
[53:26] that I'm not necessarily comfortable
[53:28] talking about but if I bring it up I say
[53:31] I was doing University I did not like it
[53:33] here I am it's different so I think it
[53:36] was
[53:38] mostly the fact that I was able to come
[53:40] across as a confident person but also
[53:42] come across as something someone that is
[53:45] passionate and someone that is technical
[53:47] enough for them so I guess that was it
[53:51] so both interviews were successful in
[53:54] the first round and also in the
[53:55] technical interviews as well as well so
[53:57] I got what do you call offers for both
[54:00] like they're very similar offers and I
[54:02] end up choosing the friend company
[54:04] because the guys were nice nicer so
[54:07] that's
[54:08] it it's very
[54:10] simple there are no really work arounds
[54:14] the things I did was were pretty normal
[54:17] you're definitely very personally well
[54:20] when you're speaking you speak your mind
[54:22] I can can feel that and then I think
[54:25] it's very engaging kind of disc where I
[54:28] have conversation with you definitely
[54:31] work out in your favor for sure yeah I
[54:34] guess it did the thing I always like
[54:36] when I feel like oh I deserve this job
[54:40] am I good enough this type of stop that
[54:42] come always comes around like around the
[54:44] corner like every one or two weeks it
[54:48] always comes up somewhere I think I feel
[54:51] like oh did I talk my way to this job
[54:54] because I feel like yeah because I feel
[54:57] like it's very strange that like after
[54:59] 30 minutes I'm like oh basically we'd
[55:02] like to hire you but we need a technical
[55:04] interview that was the vibe yeah it's
[55:07] really interesting honestly I wonder if
[55:10] you ever go back to the university and
[55:12] finish you education some employer
[55:14] actually pay for it
[55:16] honestly no like not likees i' like to
[55:20] do computer science of course but at the
[55:23] same time I feel like it's going to be
[55:26] quite difficult to do that with having
[55:28] the full-time job but I'd like to try at
[55:31] some point I'm doing cspc which is
[55:34] against some very into drug
[55:38] in yeah exactly exactly yeah anyway
[55:41] here's here's why I asked that question
[55:43] Christina your career is 30 40 years
[55:48] long yeah and you don't need bachelor
[55:52] degree right now and you need it ever
[55:55] but
[55:57] there may be a voice at some point that
[56:00] you start hearing that what if I have
[56:02] done
[56:03] it right
[56:05] there okay so here you go right what if
[56:09] right that voice can become like mental
[56:14] roadblock for you yeah you said before
[56:17] it's all mentals right to address that
[56:21] voice do it I did my MBA just to address
[56:25] that voice
[56:28] of to job with two
[56:35] kids I did it
[56:37] but you can do MBA in one and a half
[56:40] year or two years I did it in four years
[56:42] we did one subject at a time that's what
[56:45] I'm thinking maybe I could do like one
[56:47] of those online universities I guess but
[56:51] they like act University but they only
[56:53] do like online stuff
[56:55] which
[56:58] yeah yeah and look for if company can
[57:01] pay for all that and then you do one
[57:03] subject at a time or few subject at a
[57:06] time yeah it's doable but then you will
[57:09] be able to address that nagging voice
[57:12] yeah and again it's a 30 40 years long
[57:17] career and there could be different
[57:20] situation some these the situation you
[57:24] you don't control different type of
[57:25] situations some
[57:27] sometime companies just say weird thing
[57:30] if you have XYZ degree then you could be
[57:34] promoted yeah even though you have no
[57:37] use of that degree in your education
[57:40] but why to block you yeah exactly I feel
[57:44] the same honestly I feel like in terms
[57:46] of even in terms of doing my day-to-day
[57:48] job I don't feel like I'm lacking
[57:50] anything honestly because I'm fine I'm
[57:52] doing a good job I guess I I could off
[57:56] course improv as everybody else and I
[57:58] could do so much more as I'm doing now
[58:00] but still as a junior developer I feel
[58:02] okay I don't feel like I'm like oh I'm
[58:04] doing such a bad job I'm doing fine
[58:07] which is nice but at the same time I
[58:09] feel
[58:10] like there is something missing if I
[58:13] really wanted to go like in depth on
[58:15] topics and on stop there be something
[58:17] missing so I need to address that
[58:19] somehow and I will at some
[58:22] point yeah no rush I actually gave
[58:25] myself a timeline when I get into my
[58:28] first programming job I gave myself a
[58:30] timeline that after exactly 1 year I
[58:33] will go to another big city and then do
[58:36] my interviews for a new job it's a
[58:38] random timeline and I actually did it
[58:40] right after the 14 months Mark I went to
[58:43] one of the bigger city in India for
[58:46] interview for one week and I got a job
[58:49] and I
[58:51] switched that's S I was thinking maybe
[58:54] after one year I couldn't start
[58:56] University but we're going to see how
[58:58] that's going to unfold I guess I really
[59:00] like my company though they're really
[59:02] nice they're doing the best for me right
[59:04] last two three questions was is first of
[59:08] all I thly enjoy this uh conversation
[59:11] you have so much that other people can
[59:14] learn from you had some really practical
[59:18] advice so I wanted to ask is there any
[59:20] question that I have not asked you but
[59:23] you want to answer I guess it's not
[59:25] necessar like question like an advice i'
[59:27] like the like general advice I'd like to
[59:29] give is to not just follow a specific
[59:32] Trend like that when you get into tank
[59:35] maybe there's like an AI Trend there's
[59:37] front development Trend or something
[59:39] like this but to actually try to
[59:41] understand which field of tech you're
[59:42] most passionate about and going into
[59:44] that because doing stuff just for the
[59:47] sake of it is different versus doing
[59:49] things that you actually know you have a
[59:52] passion for so I guess this is it of
[59:55] course going into stck for the money is
[59:57] absolutely valid but it's going to be
[59:59] different depending on the journey that
[1:00:01] you are going to have especially if it's
[1:00:03] a self Journey it's going to be quite
[1:00:06] different to get to the end of it
[1:00:07] actually if you don't have if you don't
[1:00:09] initially have some type of fashion or
[1:00:11] or you don't like Foster some type of
[1:00:14] fashion with time so I guess this is
[1:00:16] like something I'd like to generally say
[1:00:19] as a general advice like that spark that
[1:00:22] I was saying at the very beginning if
[1:00:24] you've got preserve it if you don't have
[1:00:26] it try to find a way to get it so yeah
[1:00:30] that's my that us my last question
[1:00:33] you're advice to the audience so you
[1:00:35] have answered that is there any question
[1:00:37] for me I want to ask you is there any
[1:00:39] advice you'd like to give me if you saw
[1:00:42] me talk you saw me like say my things
[1:00:46] etc etc is there something that so oh
[1:00:48] maybe this is I do this differently or
[1:00:51] maybe I don't know be careful to do this
[1:00:53] thing something like this yeah a as I
[1:00:57] have probably a lot of advice for your
[1:01:00] career and the biggest advice would be
[1:01:03] that the first three years of your
[1:01:05] career is where you make your career you
[1:01:08] build your foundation which you're
[1:01:10] already doing and then as I said my
[1:01:13] loyalty always
[1:01:16] been with my professional group yes my
[1:01:20] company was important my project was
[1:01:23] important my my was important but when
[1:01:28] it comes to the career growth I was
[1:01:30] loyal to me and my grow and I everything
[1:01:34] that is around that whether I had to do
[1:01:37] a course or education or whatever it
[1:01:41] mean and then that there are two type of
[1:01:44] things that I suggest that you go deeper
[1:01:47] and deeper into the technical aspect of
[1:01:49] it now as you are building yourself for
[1:01:53] the front end I suggest touch the back
[1:01:55] end stuff touch the all we related
[1:01:58] concept from DNS to
[1:02:01] networking or server um configuration
[1:02:04] anything that is needed for this website
[1:02:08] to work website is not just a website
[1:02:12] it's a business right it helping
[1:02:14] somebody run the business and those
[1:02:16] emotions once we start understanding
[1:02:18] those emotions it it become way more
[1:02:20] bigger than just the technology so that
[1:02:23] would be one thing to go deeper and then
[1:02:26] the second thing is touch different
[1:02:28] aspects of it like requirement analysis
[1:02:31] designing coding testing deployment tou
[1:02:34] all different aspects of Technology
[1:02:37] especially understanding the client
[1:02:39] emotions around when they are asking for
[1:02:42] a new feature or when they are not so
[1:02:46] happy about a certain implementation of
[1:02:48] feature where they're coming from what
[1:02:51] what are their steps the business
[1:02:54] workflow steps that are affected because
[1:02:57] of that so those will be my advice yeah
[1:03:00] thank you I started reading pratic
[1:03:04] programmer this morning actually yeah so
[1:03:07] I think it's going to be nice for
[1:03:10] me well thank you so much this interview
[1:03:14] will be great and I once again thank you
[1:03:18] so much for coming on this podast thank
[1:03:21] you for having me it was a really nice
[1:03:23] experience yeah I really likeed really
[1:03:26] enjoyed so the podcast I really enjoyed
[1:03:30] connecting with you again because it's
[1:03:31] been a while so it's really nice and you
[1:03:34] also always have ni advice and stuff so
[1:03:36] it's really
[1:03:49] nice