From teaching to programming (#1)
Curiosity got me here, and I wonder what's waiting for me.
When I first told my dad that I was going to be a software developer, his reply was “See! I told you to pursue a degree in computer science. Now you wasted years learning English instead of how to program”. And I was mad at him for a few months. It’s not that he disregarded my college years, but that he expects to follow all of his advice without questioning. So here I am, writing this all out to tell you that yes, do whatever you want, as long as it gives you happiness and the freedom to do more things you love.
There is a part of me that longs to put this out, to show the world that: “Yes, this happened.” And here it is: I went from being a teacher to become a programmer. This is the punch line, thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Some of you still reading this might be unfazed, and many of you would wonder what the fuss is here, and for that I agree: Nothing shiny to brag about, and hell that might be the lamest thing you have ever heard. Well here I am, telling you that this is my blog, and I can write whatever I want. If you are still reading, I appreciate that a lot.
I first learned how to program back in 2021 when taking part in the Code In Place course. To say that was an eye-opening experience would be exaggerating, since I don’t recall learning much from it other than a few lines of Python code that take an input and produce an output. But I do remember the thrill when the code works: I got so excited seeing the little program I struggle with hours ago finally printed out the exact value, and I was over the moon when my YouTube video downloader script saved the video into my hard disk. That was pure joy that I think I would never get to experience again. It was all about learning, experimenting, and creating without any concerns about money.
After that I wrote like 0 line of code. It was just like that, poof, there was nothing about programming that excites me anymore. I went on with my college life to become an English teacher. Things were going great, some struggling here and there, and I was getting on quite well studying while working as a part-time English instructor.
At least that was before 2023. I happened to see an ad on Facebook about becoming a software engineer in 3 months (I know, that sounds insane even till now). My first reaction was like “Wow the engineer title sounds like a joke now”. Some people spend years to master their crafts, and that ad out there says that yes, you can become an engineer too? If it were about becoming a teacher in 3 months, I would have been so pissed. And my second reaction was “Huh, I did some silly programming before, might give this a shot”. I also have to admit I don’t have much trust in myself at that time, and I also don’t think my degree in education and my silly Python scripts can give me a software development job.
Stil, I signed up to that 3-month course to become a software engineer in test (In here we call them Automation Testers-people who write scripts that automate the testing process). There were some entrance tests and that was the very first time I read JavaScript, C# and SQL. With some kind of dumb luck, I got accepted to the program!
During that time I was bouncing between learning how to code by day and tutoring by night, and every day is exhausting. But every day is a new and joyful day, for I had opportunities after opportunities to satisfy my 15 years old self tinkering with things. That was pure freedom to explore. And that 3 months of learning came to an end, with me being accepted as a full-time tech employee. That is still my most remarkable leap of faith.
Sometimes I wondered if I made the right choice, weighing in my mind the career prospect of a software developer and a teacher: I love teaching, but deep down inside I really want to make a living out of programming - because I was having hours of fun with it. And one thing that bugged me about teaching (and it is still bugging me) is that I learn little as a teacher.
I understand the boos and thumb-downs from every teacher reading this, hence a disclaimer: That’s just my own experience working as a teacher. I did learn things here and there, but they did not really quench my curiosity. Years ago, I was hacking with Linux by booting and rebooting my 2015 laptop (Damn it was really good), writing code like a script kiddie and I swear I spent hours doing such things. But I did not regret such hours at all, and I want to do more, learn more, hack more.
It took me a while to realize that I miss programming more than I thought, and not until writing the very first line of code after 2 years did I realize that I want to go big with this. I was learning a lot, and there was like no speed limit at all — my knowledge was continuously colliding with the real world. I felt like being in a candy store, and instead of candies I got to tinker with fancy technologies, all from the brilliant minds I might never have a chance to meet.
(I think this is the end of the 1st part. I swear I want to write more, but for whoever reading this: I thank you, and I do not want to exhaust you. If you like what you are reading, please stay tuned!)