A Word of Thanks to Gleam.io

I wish to thank Gleam.io for the invaluable experience of working as a junior software development intern from August 2017 until January 2018.

When I started my internship, I had about seven months' self-study of Ruby and Rails, with a smattering of HTML, CSS, Github, etc.  During my time at Gleam.io, I got to learn the ins-and-outs of a large commercial codebase, and saw first hand how an excellent product is built, maintained, and supported with intelligence and empathy.

I navigated the choppy waters of dependencies and got a complex commercial application running on my local Linux machine.  (I also updated the README to make life a lot easier for the next person)

I got a bunch of pull requests approved.

I made mistakes, and learned from them, in using Github.

I kept on using Rubymine until it made sense to me.

I spent countless hours reading the code, hunting for clues; Google and Stack Overflow were my constant companions.

I wrote tests that failed, then passed, then failed again, then passed.

I went mountaineering on a learning curve of Ruby and Rails, especially Rails; now I understand essentially how it fits together and is used to build websites that serve the needs of customers. 

A fair representation of the ardour and the rigour of studying Rails.

I got to pair program a bit and work remotely a lot — I enjoy them both very much.

In short, I was given every opportunity to learn from seasoned veterans, the value of which is beyond measure, and was treated with tolerance and respect by everyone on the team.

Chief amongst the myriad things I am grateful for is the self-confidence I am imbued with.  When I started my journey into software development, self-belief was one part reason, two parts faith.  But now I can say that someone saw the potential in me, even though I didn't have the requisite skills and knowledge for the role, and gave me a chance to fail and succeed, fall down and pick myself up.  

The guys at Gleam.io didn't have to take me on, but they did; they didn't have to invest in me, but they did.  They allowed me to see how I measure up against people who have been working with software for half my lifetime, and what I saw (although daunting at times) gives me great hope for my own prospects as developer.

Now that I have been part of a commercial development environment, I know for a fact that I can become a genuinely good developer with a reasonable amount of study, regular practice, and some guidance.  I will apply for junior development positions confident that the requirements of the role are well within my zone of proximal development.

Every time I turn on my System76 laptop (currently running Ubuntu 16.04.1 with Gnome Shell, but I might switch to Arch), I am reminded of the countless kindnesses shown to me, and take heart that the Next Big Thing in my journey is just around the corner.

1,400 Pomodoros (700 hours)

700 hours into my career change, so far so good.

Not much to report, but I solved a few problems and closed a few issues.
I have to continue building the case, but as long as I'm in the game, I've got something to play for.

1,000 Pomodoros: First Gig Edition :D

Over the last seven months I have spent a thousand pomodoros (25-minute blocks), i.e. five hundred hours, in pursuit of a new career as a software developer.  The bulk of my time has been spent on the following:

• Studying coding (40% => 200 hours), 
• Writing code (40% => 200 hours)
• Writing about this journey (10% => 50 hours), 
• Networking and actively applying for jobs. (10% => 50 hours)

And now I am pleased to announce that I have been granted an internship at Gleam.io as a back-end junior software developer.

I am grateful to the team at Gleam for this opportunity to learn the ropes.  I am ever increasingly aware of how much there is for me to learn, but I will give it my best.

Wish me luck!

Exciting Developments

I don't want to say too much at this stage, but I have reason to add a few high-priority items to my to-do list.

DevOps Career Path Map, Version 0.1

DevOps Career Path, Version 0.1

This is my first attempt at charting the course towards DevOps.  From what I can tell, DevOps engineers are drawn from the ranks of experienced software developers, or failing that, Computer Science graduates who need minimal training to work competently in a DevOps role.

Unfortunately for me, I meet neither of those requirements, which means either working my way into a software development career or going to university.
I have spent enough years at university; as far as I am concerned, if I need a degree for the job, the job's not worth it.
Ergo, the path to DevOps will be via software development, which raises the question of how to become a successful software developer?

I see broadly two avenues:

1. Working as a junior developer or serving an internship.
2. Getting an auxiliary role, e.g. in technical support or on the customer helpdesk, to get into the company, from which point I can work to be promoted into the development team.

For the latter I am already eminently qualified.

For the former, my daily work can be divided into three areas:

1. Studying programming, i.e. learning to code at a professional level.  A good starting point is Code Academy and Udemy.  Once I have completed the courses through those websites, I think I'll have a much better idea of where to go from there.
2. Online self-promotion.  This includes my blog, using LinkedIn, etc.
3. Schmoozing with professional developers and DevOps engineers.  In Melbourne, there are Meetup groups for DevOps, Python, Ruby, etc.  I have already joined those and will keep an eye out for any others.  At the moment I'm quite enjoying Ruby; although I started on Python, I think Ruby might become my favourite language.  I'll see how I feel in a couple of months.

That's it for now.  Does this seem like a good plan to you?  Any suggestions?