Hello world! My brief intro for SoC Cohort #4
Tags: blog, diary, schoolofcode
Published: 2020-09-05 00:24:43

# 👋 Hello!
Hey fellow bootcampers / cohorters / developers / learners - it's lovely to meet you all!

I'm Stefan - here's my (abridged) life story so far, and how I ended up in Cohort 4 of School of Code.

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# 🌎 Where I'm from
I was born and raised in Burgas, Bulgaria. It's a picturesque seaside town full of people who don't take like too seriously. 

![Photo of Port of Burgas at Sunset](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/qui3443g49dn739syqnq.jpg)

I came to the UK to chase after higher education, being more independent, and... [🐻🏳‍🌈 bears?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_(gay_culture))

![Photo of me boarding an airplane with a one-way ticket to Birmingham](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/o0cr3ii70bfg4u7y6tax.jpg)

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# 📕 The story so far
I moved to Birmingham in 2015 to start my Media and Communication studies at BCU.

![Photo of me in front of BCU City Centre Campus - Curzon Building](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/w96btlhmsf1186tjjl6n.jpg)

Some three years later, I graduated with a first class degree and went on to work in Marketing, while doing some [freelance Tech Support and UI/UX work on the side](https://www.stefankudev.com/my-work/).

Originally, I always wanted to be a graphic designer, or a creative exec at any mid-sized creative agency. As time moved on, however, I became quite disillusioned with that idea and decided to do some soul-searching to find a better purpose in life.

_\*insert generic "thought-provoking" stock photo here\*_

I heard about School of Code from a few of the graduates - namely Ben and Robyn - whom I had the pleasure working with at my two previous jobs! Their success stories seemed amazing and I've kept an eye of the School of Code ever since. I also completed [a decent chunk](https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn/javascript-algorithms-and-data-structures/basic-javascript/profile-lookup) of freeCodeCamp's JavaScript training.

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# 💻 Why I chose School of Code
### 🤝 Like uni, but better
Although I was reasonably satisfied with my experience at university, the broadness of my course also made it hard to find larger groups of people that share the same interests. Group projects never really managed to get everyone on the same page and working towards a common vision.

Since School of Code is quite an intense bootcamp, I highly doubt I'd experience the same lack of common vision in my group projects here. Moreover, since the bootcamp is remote, it eliminates a lot of money-constraints compared to more traditional forms of training and education (mostly in these uncertain times!).

### 🧩 The satisfaction of problem solving
I _really_ enjoy the feeling of solving problems. Seeing something come together piece by piece is something that makes me really happy, and that I want to experience every day.

In my previous job, I did a fair bit of hacking around with Sheets, Data Studio, Zapier, and other similar tools. I built some [bodged](https://www.google.com/search?q=define+bodge) internal solutions, which, mind you, still worked and served their purpose.

Although I enjoy bodging together solutions to problems, I want to start doing things _properly_. And it's not so easy when you don't have a solid grasp on the fundamentals - this is one of the things I'm hoping to remedy with the School of Code.

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# 📅 Why _now_?
### 💼 Job Challenges
Like many others in the Travel and Leisure industry, the COVID-19 pandemic left me with little security over my position.

After some recent negotiations with my employer, I decided it is best that we part ways for now, and that I would be happy to work for them again on a contractual basis, if our paths cross again in future.

### 🎈 Career aspirations
While I still enjoy some aspects of more creative design-led work, I've started to yearn for designs with a _purpose_. Not just aesthetics and beauty, but functionality, logic, and reason.

I had a good taste of this in some of my UI/UX designs, but I'd also love to be part of the process of actually _building_ these solutions. A proper step up from simply drawing boxes and arrows on a canvas.

### 🤷‍♂️ Might as well, right?
Like many of you, I didn't actually expect to get a position on the course, purely due to the huge volume of applications. At this point in my life I can choose to:

* Rush ahead with dozens of applications and recruiters to cram myself into any new job that vaguely fits my skills, just because
or 
* Take a dive and spend 4 months on learning a new skillset, which can beautifully compliment my existing skills and open a ton of new doors

You guessed it - I'll take the latter.
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# 👨‍💻 My (current) thoughts on tech
Let's get the bad out of the way before we move on to the good.

Purely as an observer, I do feel that tech has some shortcomings, and can have highly opinionated, slightly snobby, elitist devs. **BUT!** you can say the exact same thing about graphic designers and creatives.

I'm _really, really_ hoping that School of Code will help me eliminate that stereotype from my mind, and allow me to join a community of people-oriented devs, who focus on realistic solutions and leave egos at the door (or outside their home office?). In future, this is exactly the kind of developer I'd like to be. The realistic, down-to earth dev, who might not deploy the most cutting-edge and oversimplified code, but that tries to keep things tidy and readable for everyone else.

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# 🎉 Hobbies

If you've read this far... wow! I can't believe my musings haven't bored you yet. My hobbies and interests evolve over time, but my most recent obsessions are:
* 💪 Fitness / Gym
   * Usually 🏋️‍♀️ free weights, 🏃‍♂️ cardio, and 📅 classes - hoping to also get back into 🧗‍♂️ indoor climbing at some point
* 🎮 Casual gaming
   * Most recent title - Ring Fit Adventure on Switch
* 📸 Photography
   * mainly landscapes and long exposure shots
* 🎨 Design
   * digital, usually
* 🏡 Saving for my first mortgage (or at least trying)
* 📈 Investing in stocks and shares 

I'm also very easily fascinated by other people's at-the-moment obsessions - why not drop me a message on Slack and tell me about yours?

> @stefan_kudev

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# 🤸‍♂️ Getting ready for the bootcamp...

There's roughly **2 weeks!!** until the start of the bootcamp!

My current feelings are an _interesting_ mix of:
* _slight_ anxiety
* excitement
* anticipation
* [fsjal](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/fsjal)
* a grossly unjustified overestimation of the reliability of my broadband (jk)

I should have probably spent all my keyboard time today getting familiar with more CS concepts (instead of writing this lengthy post), but hey - tomorrow is another day!

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