Start of my journey to becoming Software Engineer - Week #0
Tags: beginners, java
Published: 2019-09-17 13:08:06



##Intro

Hello! My name is Dauren, 26 y.o., from Atyrau, Kazakhstan. Happily married and I have 10 month old absolutely awesome daughter! I have undergraduate degree in Petroleum Engineering from noname university in my hometown and I've been working as a Chemical Engineer for last 3 years.   

This summer I realized that I don't enjoy my current career and don't want to spend rest of my life pursuing something that I don't like at all. I do realize that Software Engineering is not always about fun and exciting projects but like other jobs also has it's share of routine and boring tasks. But still the most fun I had doing something that can also earn you money was coding! 

In high school(8-9 years ago) I was doing OK in programming contests - leetcode type, mostly math & algorithms. Even won some international competitions among high school students with my team(one of my teammates currently works for Google). But after high school I didn't really code much except couple programming courses in university. Last month I started programming again and messed with mostly front-end, also got 2 certificates from Coursera for Python intro courses. Currently I am enjoying Java and trying to learn back-end stuff. 

I was inspired by reading weekly diary of some Russian guy, who switched careers from low-paying salesman job to front-end developer with no prior programming background while working full time. From week 1 he was publishing detailed weekly reports and his plans for next week. After 4-5 months he got his first job as junior front-end developer. Seeing his simple short weekly reports and progress over time personally motivated me more than thousands of polished articles on web where people write about end result. The website that he used to document his journey was very popular but not IT related. He was rarely getting comments. I though that this website is more suitable and your comments & feedback is always welcome!:)

##Goals

**Long-term:** Legal immigration to USA/Canada as a software engineer
**Mid-term:** Get Oracle Java Programmer SE I certification - *I need to set deadline*
**Short-term:** Complete "Java Programming and Software Engineering Fundamentals" by Duke University on Coursera - 5 courses in total, *I currently received financial aid for the first 2 courses*

###To-Do 17-23 September (week #1)

**1) Daily physical exercise**
**2) Solve 1 problem each day on leetcode**
**3) Complete week 1 - course #1 Programming Foundations with JavaScript, HTML and CSS**
**4) Complete week 1 - course #2 Java Programming: Solving Problems with Software**
**5) Complete CoffeeMachine project on JetBrains Academy**
**6) Complete one more easy project on JetBrains Academy**

My current progress on JetBrains Academy:

![JetBrains Academy progress](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/w12324nusc7b4wlvpykr.png)

My current progress on leetcode.com *(registered yesterday)* :

![leetcode progress](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/6648mljciyqt761n2aac.png)


I work on a rotational basis 28 days on shift and 28 days offshift time. I am currently offshift and can study 5-6 hours per day. I wanted to study 10-12 hours day but real life stuff is not letting that happen for now. I doesn't want to start heavy and abandon it halfway, that's why first week's To-Do list is so light and short

**P.S:** Sorry for the mess above, I wanted my first post to look nice with fun pictures and smart spreadsheets but I will keep postponing it forever if I aim for that:)