A 14 years journey of programming
Tags: biography, work, life, learn
Published: 2020-12-02 19:32:53

##Introduction
I grow up in [Tanta, Egypt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanta), and I'm an Electric Communications and Electronics Engineer. Didn't I tell you my name yet? Oh, silly me. It's Ahmed El-Mahallawy.  

##The Very Beginning
Studying for an engineering degree was really boring for me. I didn't care much for studying Fortran and C in college. So, when asked "when did I start programming?", I never say in college.

##First Step  
I graduated in 2004 and worked in some engineering jobs that I didn't enjoy. In 2006, I was lucky 🤞 to be selected to work in a governmental [Cairo, Egypt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo) based company in the IT department. I did very well in the interview and exam, which led me to work in the [GIS (Geographic Information System)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system) section.
I was told you need to learn programming, I was thrilled and answered "Yes, I love programming".
Then, I started learning VB6 (Visual Basic 6) from a book. Then, it was time to write my own code without following book instructions. I was thinking I'm totally ready 😏 but found that coding is much harder than I thought, and googling information back then was so limited. I had to read a lot of documentation and practice by try and error. As a result, I learned VB6, ArcObjects SDK for VBA, Microsoft Access databases. 

##Second Step  
After a while, I started gaining more confidence and exploring C#, WPF, PHP, MySql.
Learning more technologies helped me landing my second job in 2013 with the title Senior GIS Developer. It was in [Jeddah, Saudi Arabia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeddah), so I had to relocate with my family.
It was challenging, as I had to work with technologies I don't know such as Oracle database, ArcGIS Server, Silverlight, ArcGIS API for Silverlight, and I was up to the challenge.

##My First Web Programming Job
In 2015, I got my third job and it was in [Taif, Saudi Arabia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%27if) with the title Expert GIS Developer. The job was all about web programming that wasn't my expertise. So, I had to learn more about HTML and CSS and take JavaScript more seriously. I also learned ArcGIS API for JavaScript, jQuery, Dojo Toolkit, Bootstrap, Node JS, Angular 2+, MongoDB, and Firebase.

##What's Next
In 2018, I decided not to work exclusively in GIS, because of the lack of good working opportunities. I moved to a new company to lead a team to build some amazing web apps, but the company failed us 😰.

##Nowadays
Now, I got back to Egypt and I have a stable job now as an Expert Web Developer. After the Covid-19 lockdown, I discovered a great community on Twitter for developers. This community showed support to me 🥰 and made me believe that I can contribute more to other developers in the world.
I started blogging here in Dev.to, shared some of my ideas in Codepen.io, taught JavaScript to some code newbies, and lately gave a talk about Node JS, and soon starting a coding channel on Youtube.

Check my Articles here in Dev.to 📝
- [Tweeting using Node JS](https://dev.to/ahmed_mahallawy/tweeting-using-node-js-5986)
- [Like, Retweet, and Follow in Twitter using Node JS](https://dev.to/ahmed_mahallawy/like-retweet-and-follow-in-twitter-using-node-js-5gbc)

If you like my tutorials, support me here [![ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/img/githubbutton_sm.svg)](https://ko-fi.com/F2F41UH5T) and follow me on Twitter [![Twitter URL](https://img.shields.io/twitter/url/https/twitter.com/ahmed_mahallawy.svg?style=social&label=Follow%20%40ahmed_mahallawy)](https://twitter.com/ahmed_mahallawy)