Road to Employment: A Junior Dev's Job Search Adventure (Ep. II)
Tags: webdev, beginners, culture, programming
Published: 2023-03-09 09:35:02

## From the past to the future

Lets go back in time and understand why I made the career choice. What was I doing before?

I worked in a company called "[Majorel](https://www.majorel.com/)" where it worked as an outsource to a different company, I was in the chat service / customer support, where I had to speak to all type of customers, some were nice, others weren't at all (anybody from CS can relate to this).

This was back in 2019, and, contrary to what you may believe, I liked it, it was fun typing, creating _relationships_ with customers and **helping** them with their issues. I've always been one that is keen in helping others, so I always shared my knowledge with others and every time I figured out a new tip to help deal with customers (specially difficult ones) I would share it. 

![Working hard](https://media.giphy.com/media/l1J9ytna4PFwdIPFm/giphy.gif)

This didn't go unnoticed, although I didn't do it to be noticed, an opportunity arouse for me to become a Quality Analyst, which is a fancy way of saying Solutions Coach - basically I worked with the Quality Team (I actually miss them) and helped other Customer/Order Support specialists in achieving the best they can in their role, by providing coaching, making audits and providing feedback. 

Those who know me know I always do my best to bring my best self in every situation, even when everything seems like it's on fire (this is a story for another series I believe!). 

![You can do it]
(https://media.giphy.com/media/IwAZ6dvvvaTtdI8SD5/giphy.gif)

This opportunity came after a year (2020) working in the chat service, bear in mind that this wasn't "given", I had to pass tests to be able to have that role, it was one of my favourite jobs! So why did I decide to change career?

## The Decision

I am a man of many passions. Besides helping, I also loved programming and everything tech related, I had a friend tell me about a bootcamp opportunity for a Full Stack Web Developer, which meant I would be learning the languages and skills I've always attempted to learn on my own (never successful due to motivation and feeling like I had no one to talk to, although I did Computer Science back in my school days) - so I joined the [Ironhack's Full Stack Web Development Bootcamp](https://www.ironhack.com/pt/en/web-development/remote) part-time and remotely. I joined a cohort of around 20 people and got the ball rolling.

## Tough times ahead

At the same time I was working full time as a Solutions Coach, and three times a week I was doing the bootcamp, two of those times were straight after work until mid evening, then the third was on Saturday. It was a hustle, had to work hard.

I won't go into details regarding the bootcamp and what I did there _(unless you want me to? Like a review?)_ but I was able to commit (~~to github~~) to the coding and learnt a lot in the process. The course took 24 weeks and once I finished I made the decision of making this my new career path - spoke to my boss previously and she completely understood why I chose this and half expected.

![You can do it]
(https://media.giphy.com/media/yCY0QS4BhonQ6KPPGn/giphy.gif)

## After Majorel & before the Startup

Once I left Majorel in June 2022, I worked on my CV, spoke to my career coach, worked on my [LinkedIn (are we connected yet?)](https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel23/) and spent the next few weeks in a different country where I was practicing what I learnt and processing this new life I was working towards.

## Where did you go?

Scotland and England, but that's not relevant is it?

## What now?

This was for you to get to know my actual path from Majorel to the Startup in the previous post. But now I am sharing with you what happens next, had an interview last Tuesday, care to read about it?

![You can do it]
(https://media.giphy.com/media/W9wHF6yVazlrW/giphy.gif)