My journey so far
Ive wanted to become a developer for a long time now, after spending time in retail realising it wasn't for me. I started a diploma in E-Commerce with plans of being a web developer. This was before short courses were call bootcamps but similar concept. I learnt computing basics, tech support, PHP programming and majored in Linux. Despite my plan i had to take a help desk job which was a big mistake. My advise to anyone wanting to work in tech is unless you want to be network or server admin do not go to a help desk. even if you want to be an admin think twice.
This may sound jaded but putting service desk / help desk on your resume is a bad idea. employers think your damaged goods. No aspirations or couldn't do anything better. Once your in it's hard to get out again, so be warned. This made me determined to get out and I started an Online degree, it was supposed to be the equivalent of on campus and from a real university (RMIT in Melbourne).
I started out well I enjoyed the study and was challenging, my only complaint was the impact on my personal time. after a while the course quality varied and started to tire of it a bit but there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Once i have the degree I can get a dev job because that's what they all ask for.
Eventually I got out but not how i planned, i was made redundant and my job like most my colleagues. Our jobs were sent offshore where it was done at a quarter of the price but lower quality. So i decided to take the chance and enrol in a on campus course and live off my savings.
I enrolled in a Computer Science Degree, it was intimidating but i was determined. very different from my online IT Degree with more maths, tougher exams and very time consuming assignments.
I got to the end of 2nd year and my money was running out. I was starting to question if i could really finish and started to miss the flexibility of online. I decided to drop out of on campus and go back online while working.
My next job was as a online content co-ordinator it wasnt coding but i got to work with online systems so it was ok. After a few weeks i started to enjoy online retailing and the challenges even if uploading images and text isnt that much fun. Eventually i was on the project team to build out the new e-commerce site, got to do some coding, testing and image manipulation it was alot of fun.
As with all good things they must end and so did my contract.
My next job was junior front end developer for a little tech company that makes iPhones and iPads. Well not work for them directly but i work at a digital agency who won the control to manage content for the Asia Pacific region. It was exciting scary and exhausting. The work load was heavy and extremely high standards that a newbie like me could only attempt to achieve. Overall I enjoyed it but wasnt sure if front end was for me. After the iPhone 5 release my contract ended and one again looking for work.
This time i had to change my expectations, despite what the recruiter said working for that tech company didn't help my career that much I was still lacking experience especially with the ever changing new tools. I finally had to settle for a service desk job. This time it was for a little managed services firm that specialised in Oracle databases. That made it sound better than it really was with promises of promotions and become a database admin. It was all a mirage, I was working on a project for a new government portal. The portal allow a Single Sign on with just one set of credentials to access applications and it is as boring as it sounds.
Just after the successful launch we were bought out by Deloitte Consulting, we would fill the gap in Oracle knowledge they had. plus they want the government as customers. They promised careers and progression and life - work balance but its a lie, they keep promising things if you keep working hard and doing unpaid over time. I will talk about consulting careers in another post.
They said they would help me become a Java developer, while not the coolest job it seemed good. I started studying for Oracle Certified Associate Java 8. I had side project and built a Slack integrating that was never deployed. I also helped to maintain our ticket logging tool. Eventually the side projects dried up after a change in management, The study got boring, having to memorise Java basics that i could just look up on Stack overflow. I didnt help that research i did showed that no one respects Java certifications. I was boring and dissappointed.
This leads me to where i am today, I will go into detail of my next step in an upcoming blog.
This may sound jaded but putting service desk / help desk on your resume is a bad idea. employers think your damaged goods. No aspirations or couldn't do anything better. Once your in it's hard to get out again, so be warned. This made me determined to get out and I started an Online degree, it was supposed to be the equivalent of on campus and from a real university (RMIT in Melbourne).
I started out well I enjoyed the study and was challenging, my only complaint was the impact on my personal time. after a while the course quality varied and started to tire of it a bit but there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Once i have the degree I can get a dev job because that's what they all ask for.
Eventually I got out but not how i planned, i was made redundant and my job like most my colleagues. Our jobs were sent offshore where it was done at a quarter of the price but lower quality. So i decided to take the chance and enrol in a on campus course and live off my savings.
I enrolled in a Computer Science Degree, it was intimidating but i was determined. very different from my online IT Degree with more maths, tougher exams and very time consuming assignments.
I got to the end of 2nd year and my money was running out. I was starting to question if i could really finish and started to miss the flexibility of online. I decided to drop out of on campus and go back online while working.
My next job was as a online content co-ordinator it wasnt coding but i got to work with online systems so it was ok. After a few weeks i started to enjoy online retailing and the challenges even if uploading images and text isnt that much fun. Eventually i was on the project team to build out the new e-commerce site, got to do some coding, testing and image manipulation it was alot of fun.
As with all good things they must end and so did my contract.
My next job was junior front end developer for a little tech company that makes iPhones and iPads. Well not work for them directly but i work at a digital agency who won the control to manage content for the Asia Pacific region. It was exciting scary and exhausting. The work load was heavy and extremely high standards that a newbie like me could only attempt to achieve. Overall I enjoyed it but wasnt sure if front end was for me. After the iPhone 5 release my contract ended and one again looking for work.
This time i had to change my expectations, despite what the recruiter said working for that tech company didn't help my career that much I was still lacking experience especially with the ever changing new tools. I finally had to settle for a service desk job. This time it was for a little managed services firm that specialised in Oracle databases. That made it sound better than it really was with promises of promotions and become a database admin. It was all a mirage, I was working on a project for a new government portal. The portal allow a Single Sign on with just one set of credentials to access applications and it is as boring as it sounds.
Just after the successful launch we were bought out by Deloitte Consulting, we would fill the gap in Oracle knowledge they had. plus they want the government as customers. They promised careers and progression and life - work balance but its a lie, they keep promising things if you keep working hard and doing unpaid over time. I will talk about consulting careers in another post.
They said they would help me become a Java developer, while not the coolest job it seemed good. I started studying for Oracle Certified Associate Java 8. I had side project and built a Slack integrating that was never deployed. I also helped to maintain our ticket logging tool. Eventually the side projects dried up after a change in management, The study got boring, having to memorise Java basics that i could just look up on Stack overflow. I didnt help that research i did showed that no one respects Java certifications. I was boring and dissappointed.
This leads me to where i am today, I will go into detail of my next step in an upcoming blog.
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