A Developer's Journey
Tags: beginners, developers, podcast
Published: 2022-04-01 11:26:26

As I sit to write this, I need to recollect my last 4 years. Initially, I never wanted to be a developer, my passion was to become a writer. But here I am today, being a developer, a coder and understanding that every piece of code is a story. 

On my first day of engineering college I was skeptical whether I would be able to cope-up with the syllabus because I was always unsure of my mathematical aptitude. But here is a story of overcoming fears. Initially, I didn't think that I would bring in decent grades, but I did. Not once, at all but eventually.

My journey of development started only in the beginning of 2019. Till then my knowledge of programming was limited to the curriculum. It was a conflict between my teammates in a project which we were preparing for placement,and a few cuss words that shattered my confidence. Though I couldn't say anything at first, I knew that this needed a reply. So I came out of that project and looking back today that was one of the best and basic step I took in last 3 years for my own growth. This didn't happen in a day. Professor Chatterjee at that time, clearly told me,"Bidisha, either you depend on her, and listen to her bullshit or come out of it and do something on your own." I am thankful that I listened to it. I am thankful to him for this reason and so many others. 

But I didn't know where to start. I guess the timing was appropriate when my professor from CSE department gave me and a batchmate a task to do, a library management project. This batchmate of mine, named Meghanto was always bright and intelligent. It is still a wonder to me why he agreed to work with me, held so much patience for me. But in the whole process, we became friends. There was a point in time, whenever there was a hackathon, nobody wanted to participate with me. However, he was the first person who showed me the willingness. Not just that, there were days, I didn't understand *documentation*, I struggled with basic things, how to make an API call, what is a stateful and what is a stateless request. However, he stood by me. He would tell me, "Bidisha, read the **goddamn documentation**, or I will break your head. His famous dialog of **Tinker with Code** still helps me think, to this date." The amount of effort he put in me for bringing up my standard of thought process and imagination is something I will forever be grateful for. He introduced me to Vue.js. So I still call him my Evan You. 

Then came my first hackathon. Throughout this whole time, behind every small,little progress we made, DC Sir (who gave us the project) always pushed us to do better. I remember asking him few days before the hackathon, "I won't be able to do it. I don't have that brain. What's the use of humiliating myself?" And he said, "Give it a try, give it. If you're not selected also, you knew you tried. The worse thing that can happen is a rejection."

Honestly, in HackwithInfy, I sat in the first round knowing I wouldn't be able to crack it. But I wanted to do it for DC Sir. Because I didn't want to let him down. I practiced hard for it with no hope to clear it. **Hackerrank** and **Hackerearth** was my place of practice. I wanted to come out of the hall and tell him, "Sir, I tried. But I won't be able to clear it. But I really really tried." I wanted to do it for the person, the only person, who had shown faith in me. 

To my surprise, after solving 1.7/3 questions, I qualified my first round. My close friend Dipan, when he told me that I cleared it, I couldn't believe my ears. In this phase, my friends Reshmina, Dipan, Shreya, they did support me to a great extent, We all need our emotional support and somewhere these are the people I would always know had my back, then. All the more was I prepared to sit in my second round. And I did.

This time I practiced and practiced. It didn't matter. I felt joyous when I was able to solve something, and didn't want to give up. In the second round, I solved 2.2/3 problems and got an interview call. Eventually, with the Library Management Project I and Meghanto made using **Vue.js**, **Spring Boot** - we both cracked the HackwithInfy interview.  

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My second phase started during the lockdown. When I couldn't clear the Associate examination for CTS, it broke my confidence again and this time I knew projects are not enough anymore. In order to close the interview process, I needed to pass algorithms and my problem solving ability needed to be increased. 

I was introduced to **CodeChef**. Anirban and Meganto - my close pals, had pushed me a lot, and there were days in that **10 days CodeChef Long Challenge** where I was unable to solve and problem and my stars used to go down. In this phase, these people motivated me. My frontend development skills was sharpened by Debjoy - a guy who hands down has better knowledge and skills than I will ever have.

Had it not been them, I would have given up long back. There are names that I would love to mention here but am witholding - who celebrated with my success and cheered me up in my downfall.

Next, I sat for Hackathons on Hackerearth. I got calls from **BNY Mellon, American Express, AutoRABIT** and finally cleared AutoRABIT. They provided me with a more than average package, a good work culture and most of all a chance. **I would always be thankful to AutoRABIT for hiring me. I am sure they had options but still they chose me, took a chance with me, for this I will always be grateful.**

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Coming to my work life, I had learnt a lot. When I initially joined, my first training project, was in Spring Boot and OlingoData. My tech lead Naresh Ananthapalli was one of the most calm, cool-headed and clear-minded developers I had seen. As a fresher, me and my teammate, Shaurya - we used to make hell lot of mistake and he always used to be patient and guide us through. At that time, a lot of times I got stuck a particular colleague had helped me in debugging. From this person I have learnt to keep good spirit when you solution does not work and have admired his coding skills. 

When I was put into frontend development, I was happy because I was more inclined to that,but skeptical too. I was initially put into the modernisation team. I learnt a lot here. From my senior developer, staying in US, I have learnt the value of how to handle a team, and giving estimates -I remember giving too low estimate for a small task when he corrected me.Most of all, I have learnt how to make people feel homely and comfortable providing assurance from this person. There was another transformation I went through. I had learnt a lot from him and he had helped me improve my skills with a steep slope. 

From one of my senior developer from Bulgaria,  - I learnt that knowing a framework is not good enough unless you know the basics of it. It was a grilling process but I was able to cope up with it. I rememeber crying the night I was asked to develop Progress Button because I failed and made mistake so many times. I thought I am not good enough but I did. 

I would like to mention my manager here. He has influenced my coding style to a great extent. I am going to put it point blank, my manager has been one of my biggest support in terms of guidance,and contribution in my career. He always motivated me, showed confidence in me when I was unable to trust myself. He put in faith in me when I was unable to focus. He never shouted at me, had been patient and understanding. I do not think I would ever come across a better human being and a manager, than him. 

Out of having the curiosity to understand market standard and getting inspired by a colleague who switched - I started browsing opportunities. Only recently did I get an offer from a named product based startup. But about that, in some other post!
For now, this is it. 
I still have a lot to learn and I hope all goes well. I will keep hustling and one day I will be there.
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