On Writing

I began learning how to write code because some guy I worked with said it would look good on my resume, and he was right, but that was a horrible mindset to get into development with. I started taking a few classes at a local community college and thought that this is awesome, but could never see how what I was doing there would lead to actual development. After that I decided to go all in and go to a full-time bootcamp. The bootcamp was a great experience, but that is where I learned I had barley ever gotten my feet wet in software development and was about to try to jump in deeper. This was an amazing experience and after the bootcamp I was more than ready for more. The only problem was it took awhile for me to find a job to help me practice the craft I had chosen.

After the bootcamp it took three months to find a job, which looking back seems like no time, but every day you do not have a job when you are looking for one seems like forever. While waiting for a job I did not give up because I had finally found something I really enjoyed and wanted to improve at, so every day I would wake up and write some form of code, or practice data structures and algorithms, or study the craft in some way, shape, or form. When I was practicing I would find out something new or out of no where that would add to the process I had been building up, but I tried to be really apply myself to the practice. During the practice I had several interesting interviews, one where they had the wrong GitHub account that had written 4 lines of code in one year, and another that wanted to offer equity instead of pay. All of these were interesting, but not exactly for me, but at first you take what you can get, so I recently left the one with the wrong GitHub account. Looking back I enjoyed these opportunities and learned a lot, but during it they were torture. 

I learned a lot from these experiences, but the most important thing I got out of this part of my career is that development is a craft and practice is the most important part. Many different forms of writers believe the most important way to improve writing is to write and devour writing giving your all to the craft and I believe this is the same for people who write software. You can get advice to take more breaks, rest, get a mentor, go to meet ups, or any of another various cliched advice, but ultimately the most important thing is to sit down and develop something. There are as many ways to accomplish this as their are people practicing, but you just have to find what works for you then get to work.