Someone once told me, thirty is the age you finally work out what it is that you want to do with your life. You have that moment of clarity, an epiphany if you will, that illuminates a straight path betwixt those winding roads shrouded in darkness that you have blindly navigated like a moustachioed man-child.
While this may be true for some, I am yet to have that all-defining moment, or at least one that sticks. But as sure as Alan Rickman crushed it (with Grabthars Hammer) in Galaxy Quest, I am putting it to the test by learning new skills and hopefully making some drastic moves in my career.
Having worn many hats both professionally and personally, the notion of moving into a field predominantly comprised of what I can now legitimately call “whippersnappers” is indeed daunting. With no real prior knowledge or experience in the field and only a passing understanding of basic technologies, I do sometimes feel like a one-armed fighter in the ring with Bruce Lee. But that is what life is, I suppose. A series of challenges that we can either run from or embrace with all that we are and make the most of the opportunities presented.
A TRULY UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
No doubt you are wondering how I got here and quite frankly, so am I. As a child, I think I was fortunate to grow up without that much technology around me. We didn’t have a computer for most of my adolescence and the only mobile device was the brick of a phone my grandparents kept in the glove compartment of their car for emergencies.
This was the life of a rural child and a life that I do look back on fondly. Of course, it meant that when I reached the age of making some legitimate life choices i.e. study and work, tech did not even factor in as a possibility to me. Flash forward 17 working years I am now in my fourth completely separate and random field. Excluding part-time work or the odd job here and there, I first made my career as a Police Officer, then a funeral attendant, a Brewer, and now as a Specialist within the insurance industry.
This has left me with a wide variety of skills that I do hope will serve me well in my transition to an all-new field of study. Although yet, I am not certain how well they will serve me but this is to be expected as a complete outsider.
NEW KID IN CLASS
My journey in coding began, in earnest with a good friend of mine and senior developer, who after years of persistent badgering, finally convinced me to join a coding night with another friend (App development specialist). Not wanting to seem like a complete dunce I of course did my due diligence by brushing up on the basics.
Boolean Expressions – An expression that when tested provides a Boolean Value. True or false.
Variables – Placeholders for changeable pieces of information
Binary – Basically 2 numbers
If statements – Now my favourite thing to use in general conversation. “If you see me, then I am not John Cena”.
Of course, all of this turned out to be almost useless as that night we would work solely in Flutter which if you haven’t played with I do highly recommend as even I, the master of nothing significant, managed to build the start of an application that night. While my friends, who are much smarter than I put their patience to the test.
To say that I was hooked would be an exaggeration, I was certainly interested but at this time I was still at university studying business with grand designs of climbing the ladder at my current company and finally getting that coveted parking spot near the door. Covid had a massive impact on this, as it did in many industries, I was saved from redundancies but nonetheless was subject to changes. These were mostly changes of heart. Corporate life may be the life for some and indeed I wish them well but for me, this is not yet my calling.
Slow as I was to even consider coding, slow have I been to start. Not that I am in a rush mind you as I am in full-time work and have just finished another course at university. Although the mind is willing the body is soft and lethargic making motivation difficult to come by these days. Hence the blog which serves two purposes, to hopefully share my struggles and insights with people in a similar position but also to keep me honest and on track with my learning.
To date, I have been working my way through Freecode Camp and Kahn Academy, two fantastic free resources where I have been covering the basics in HTML and CSS by building basic functional webpages using CodePen. Although nothing to write home about I was proud to make them and more importantly, understand how to make them.
My next step is jumping across to FrontEnd Masters and joining the beginners learning track, this is a paid monthly subscription that I find when I have skin the game, keeps me motivated to maintain a repertoire of study. I have considered partaking in a coding boot camp for a much more intensive learning experience but financially for me at this time it was too hard to make work, I am not ruling it out in the future as there are so many terrific options out there for complete beginners that allow you to exit with a completed portfolio and industry connections. For those of you in a similar position to me, this may be a viable option and all I would suggest is to research your options against your own commitments.
THE CODING ENDGAME
At this stage, I don’t have a particular direction in mind for my coding story but it is exciting to once again be directionless, it leaves all the possibilities open wide before us. Whether it be front or backend, full-stack, web or app, UI, or project management. None of it sounds bad so I am truly excited to discover more and share that with anyone that may hopefully get something out of the journey.
I hope my confused and more than likely unstructured rambling gives some solace to anyone else in a similar position, starting their journey with complete uncertainty as to what the future holds. If anyone at all takes something away from this blog, other than myself then I will have exceeded my own expectations and can claim my place in the Halls of Valhalla like the true keyboard warrior I intend to be. I will do my best to make this a regular occurrence and ask you to join with me in my learning, to keep me honest as one who is easily distracted by shiny things and the colour orange, and to keep me motivated.
Wish me luck friends and cohorts as this is just one step into the wild beyond.