Pursuing a Career in Tech: my Journey so far

One of our May 2020 _nologists, Aqeel, offers an insight into why he decided to pursue a career in coding and shares his experiences of the first few weeks of the _nology course. Thanks Aqeel!

Written by Nology Team - 17.06.20

Growing up, it was always difficult to ask myself “what is it that I want to do for the rest of my life?”. Even though I had many hobbies and interests, it was difficult to see how any of these could manifest into a career. I didn’t know where to look to find my passion but somehow, I seem to have found it in the unlikeliest place.

Seeing small snippets of code for the first time whilst at university really amazed me and changed my perception of tech. Whether I was using an app on my phone, browsing different websites or using the systems at my part-time job, I started to think about the logic and skill which had been applied in taking small ideas and scaling them up into something so many of us rely on in our everyday lives. 

With absolutely no knowledge of computers or programming, I decided I wanted to learn more and so, less than a year a later, I now find myself at the end of my fourth week at _nology!

The past four weeks have passed in what feels like the blink of an eye and it’s astonishing how much I have learnt in such little time. Admittedly, I did have many doubts about whether something like this would be right for me. Starting off as a beginner, I wondered whether I could handle something so immersive and intense but _nology really stood out to me and I just had to trust the good instincts I had and make the jump.

Although intense, this has been perhaps the best decision I have ever made. Working with others from a range of different backgrounds and being on the same journey together along with the incredible amount of support given by the coaches has really helped to offset the fear and anxiety that comes with starting something new. 

Each day has been challenging yet also enjoyable and the complexity of code has increased week by week, particularly with JavaScript where the concepts can be trickier to grasp. With this, I’m noticing myself develop in other ways <aside> from coding. Prior to _nology, it would never take much for me to get discouraged and give up when trying new things which is why it feels strange to now be so persistent and resilient in learning to code. For me, this is truly how I now I made the right choice as I really feel the fulfilment in having your code work after putting in the effort to understand a concept. 

Although it can be difficult working remotely, there is always something on the course to keep our minds engaged. Working on challenges and building our own portfolios really just demonstrates how far we’ve all come in such a short space of time and it makes me excited for what is still yet to come. 

As we continue to learn more and I see my skills improve, I can see a huge shift in my focus, work ethic and mindset which really helps me to understand that _nology is more than just code. Particularly as we head into a week focussed around professional skills, I see that growth is focussed around helping us to become developers that can thrive in a modern workforce rather than just coders.

Personally, I see each concept we cover as the piece to a puzzle and with each day on the course, I’m starting to see each piece clearer and understand how everything just fits to form the bigger picture. These are small wins but for me as a beginner, it really gives me the confidence I need to carry on and just keep pushing myself to do and learn more.

If Aqeel’s story has inspired you to launch your own future-proof career in tech, get in touch with Admissions Manager, Jenna, on jenna@nology.io to learn more about the _nology Software Developer Course.

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