Well, I have to say that this is not only the first time I write about my job: this is the very first time I write a post, so I think this is the best way to get along with the situation that I’ve got here.

I’m an Argentinian 21 years old beginner developer, and this is directed to those young developers who don’t know if they are capable of start working on what they like to do.

I started an internship as a JavaScript developer last December. My previous work had no relation with the IT world and I was trying to get out of it and find a place where I could upgrade my skills or at least do something cool.

First of all, I have to tell you that my very first time with a code line was at school, where I had my introduction to backend development and I had to construct a few desktop applications.

So, am I a beginner or not? The truth is, after I finished high school, I’ve started college and began to work in a lot of different places, but none of them were related to IT, so everything is more like a new beginning for someone that is not used to programming anymore.

Joining a team

It’s been just one month working at Cloud(x); and the most important thing that I have to say is that there is no way that someone can just imagine the difference between developing at home or in a school project and doing it for work.

I’m not saying that this is a nightmare or something similar. Far away from that, you will be happy to join a team formed by experienced people who have passed through your current situation and who can show you all those mistakes that would have taken you hours of headaches and sleepless nights.

Obviously, nobody is ever going to bring you the definitive solution that will fix all your bugs and tell you what to do line by line. But it’s always better to have someone to ask for help when those YouTube solutions are not working.

First steps, getting stuck and… what’s next?

As I told you before, my academic previous experience had no relation with almost anything that I’m doing right now. Linux, React Native, Redux and even Git were such unknown stuff to me, and it wasn’t easy to catch up with all these new tech, neither with the app that my actual team has developed up to now.

But you know what? That is the best thing that could have happened to me right now. I’m learning a lot of new things every single day, and it’s not that bad to get stuck all the time while this is useful to keep my brain working hard.

Step by step, everything is getting easier as I get able to develop higher solutions to bigger problems.

From now on...

If I have to give advice to those people who are trying to get an IT job, I think this would be that you shouldn’t be afraid of getting stuck or not knowing what to do. That’s the funny thing in here and the one that makes the difference between this and any other job: the point is that you can learn a new thing every time you solve a problem.

So get along with the idea of you passing through hard times sometimes but with a high comfort once you understand what is going on with your code and what you will need to do next time.

Make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to do -I mean, in which area would you like to begin working at- and, if you don’t know it yet, good news! Software development needs more people everywhere.

One last thing! If this isn’t your first language, I recommend you to start practicing your English with a mirror because you’ll need to communicate with people from all over the world and guess what, you won’t be able to use smoke signals or something.

As I’m just starting in this, I would like to read about your experiences as beginner developers too!