Growing up, I was just a regular boy. I could have improved at mathematics and science, to begin with. I loved technology, but I never thought of being a programmer. So how does a regular guy like me who wasn’t interested in programming become a web developer? 

Programming is hard:

Programming is a challenge. It’s hard, it’s complicated, it’s exhausting, it's exasperating, but you feel you have control over everything, you will feel powerful and build things that you never thought possible, and you understand the tech world from a better perspective, you try new tools and technology making your life easier than it was before, you will understand the working of every system. It’s beneficial, pleasing, and powerful.

There is no shortcut or an easy way to become a programmer, only the hard way.

During my bachelor’s degree in Computing at Islington College, I wasn’t interested in the subjects that involved programming. It took a while to train myself into a programming mindset and finally get the basics and learn to code. It didn’t just happen magically after watching a couple of tutorials or completing a course.

“I just copy a bunch of codes and paste them to a file and put it all together.”

“But as I built numerous websites, I slowly started to get the hang of it.” 

The real journey was difficult and frustrating. To help you track how I got so far, here is a quick highlight of my learning over the years:

Bachelor’s Degree in Computing:

I took my bachelor’s in Computing from Islington College in 2019. I loved technology, but programming was not my cup of tea. My favorite module was always the module which doesn’t include programming. Although I never paid attention to programming during my 1st year, I used to secure good marks. I passed my 1st year successfully with good grades.

During the 2nd year of my bachelor’s degree, we had a module named WRL (Work Related Learning) where we had to learn through the experience of work by working at a company for four months. We were given the same advice: pick a company, find a suitable role, and complete your internship program. I was not going through college learning and not gathering skills to face the real world. I realized I was not competent enough to face the Programming world. I applied for SQL Database Developer just to try my hands at the database. But I wasn’t lucky enough to get an internship in the desired position. So, I had to get out of my comfort zone and learn as much as possible to pass the module.

Then I got the idea of getting an internship. During the summer class at my college, PHP, a scripting language, was taught, which was suited for web development. I planned to customize the project from the summer class and make it my own. After working for a few days, I modified the project by adding additional features. My modified PHP project was good enough to earn me an interview for a Web Developer Trainee at a company. My friend and I were selected for the Web Developer Trainee position.

Internship days:

The first job day is always tough, and everyone can get nervous. I would be a part of the Web Developer Team, so I was aware of the tools and programming language. During my first day at the internship, I installed the necessary tools and programming language. We were instructed to work on Laravel, an open-source PHP framework for web developers.

Next week, we were asked to build a Lost and Found web application for storing lost and found things. Building the application was quite tough than I anticipated. My supervisor said that I need to practice more and more. Finally, I made it to the end of the week and completed my first project.

Everything was going well until Senior Developers visited us. They started to demotivate us, asked us to leave the internship, and stopped learning Laravel, saying we couldn’t be like them. They used to demotivate us every day after lunch. Their behaviors were disrespectful. We couldn’t do anything. We were silent! Silent is the key to success!

Luckily, I do not get demotivated and depressed very easily from the talks of others. I was able to guide and motivate myself, which helped me to overcome such days.

Most Valuable Lessons I learned:

I was unable to handle the senior developers who constantly demotivated me. It was hard for me to get motivated constantly; I was helpless. But I found a solution to motivate myself.

A.    Turn their negativity into fuel

I promised to prove them wrong. My ego was hurt when they challenged me as well as dominated me. I used that ego as energy to fuel me to make progress on my projects. It pushed me even further. Whenever I needed motivation, I used to imagine their words, build up my ego, and work even harder without hating them.

B.    Believing in yourself:

The ability to believe in yourself can change your life.

The internship helped me grow both professionally and personally.

While doing projects, I used to believe in myself. I used to manipulate my ego and think that I was being challenged again, which led me to start with very little self-confidence, but as a result of continuous hard work and dedication, I could complete complex projects. From that day, I believed that we could achieve anything others achieve if we do the same things and build self-confidence.

FYP (Final Year Project) days:

I spent a long time completing projects understanding each step, and trying it repeatedly until I got it completely. I used to copy and paste the code from various sources to get the flow and implement it on my projects.

I used  HTML and Laravel to change various elements and designs. My hard work paid off when I completed my FYP (Final Year Project) on a travel and tour website. I made a complete Travel Website that allowed users to book hotels, hire vehicles, and buy tour packages. My final year project was the first huge project that I ever accomplished.

After the completion of my project, I made up my mind to pursue a career in web development. I started to learn to build web applications using various programming languages like Django, React, Vue.js, etc. I was always pushing myself to do better. While doing projects, I always tried to be a better version of myself, better than a month ago, better than a week ago, and better than yesterday.

I always try to find bugs on the competitor’s website and break their system to find their faults and weak points. Learning from their mistakes, I try to improve my website.

My continuous push and manipulation of my ego made me a better Web Developer.

Current State:

I completed my Master’s Degree Science in Information Technology and Applied Security from Islington College. I am a Freelancer with over 4+ years of experience in Full Stack Web Development and CTO (Chief Technology Officer) at Nepal Reports, a leading media organization run by young media enthusiasts covering news worldwide.

The future is unpredictable, isn’t it? Who would have thought I would become a web developer someday and build systems and create a solution to real-world problems using some weird language which looked like Chinese Text?

I would be glad if my story helped you with anything: everyone learns differently. If you are the one who feels demotivated or is a victim of demotivation, you can do this thing, try a shot. If you are passionate and a good developer, you will learn something eventually, no matter how long it will take.