My journey towards becoming a {webdev}

2020 - The year of great changes for many of us. I call it the year of the Phoenix (I just came up with that 😂) but it is so freaking accurate. I won't get into philosophical ramblings because that's not why you're here.

Let's go down memory lane, shall we...

In 2019, I decided I wanted to move countries because I had enough of the lack of opportunities in Cyprus (I used to live there for 10 years, crazy!) and I missed mainland Europe.

(see how small it is? 😄)

So, in September 2019 we visited Berlin (🇩🇪) while on holiday and I instantly fell in love with the city. Bear in mind, I lived on an island for a decade, probably any city in Europe would have made me feel the same 😄 but that was the deciding and pivoting moment when I said, we're moving this year no matter what. We will make it work (by we, I mean my partner and me). We franticly started looking for jobs in Berlin. Long story short, my partner (he's German) was offered a position in December with the starting date being February 2020 (stay with me, we're getting close to implosion).

We sold all our belongings, packed our lives, and moved to Berlin in February 2020. Rona was running wild around the World but we were clueless and busy getting settled. We had no idea what was going to come and how our lives would change in a matter of weeks. BOOM! Lockdowns left and right, dramatic news, people working out like bunnies, TikToks everywhere (I got the bug as well I made TikToks because I was bored 😅 click this link to watch it, I think it's funny), and no toilet paper. That was my reality for a few months in 2020. I'm not going to lie, it was an extremely tough period.

After months of being in a daze and constant fear of what the future might bring, I decided to learn a new skill. I thought it would be the best way to get out of my depression, my survival mode was on.

(me having a meltdown in 2020 😄)

I went on Coursera and looked around for something cool to learn. While browsing, I saw quite a few courses on programming and 💡 💡 💡 ding! Hey, that's something I was curious about, it was something I wanted to do but never actually got the courage to look into because I thought I needed to have the brain of a genius + go to CS Uni.

That's how it all started. I took the Programming Foundations with JavaScript, HTML & CSS course. When I managed to make a button (it was hard, ok😅), I was hooked!!! 🤩

I needed more and so did the German government and employers. You see, in Germany, they don't care if you're self-taught and you're the Guru of all web developers in this Galaxy, they need proof. What I mean by that is certification or degree, an official piece of paper that shows you're qualified for the job. Anyway, because of that fun fact, I decided to look into bootcamps. WOW! The price tags were insane and let's not forget, I've just moved, had no job, and not really much left in savings. Desperation set in, I thought to myself, here we go again, I have to let go of this dream, AGAIN and go work for Amazon as a slave.

One day, while on Facebook, I saw an ad for a one-year intensive web development course in Berlin (remote classes). Yes, the price tag was also very high in this case BUT there was the option of having it financed through an ISA. If you don't know what that is you can read about it here.

I decided to give it a go and apply for a spot. The timeline is a bit fuzzy but this was happening sometime around June-July 2020. I had an initial interview with someone from the school who explained everything including the procedure of applying for financing with the organization offering it. Well, as I'm a very lucky person (sarcastic grin, I'm not) he told me that I would be the first person going through that procedure and couldn't tell me much about it 🙄 Oh boy! I said, ok, I'll do it, what do I have to lose after all. So, I set up an interview with the said organization immediately.

It was a nerve-wracking experience, the stakes were high and I was sweating bullets. The interview went...well, not well. I felt like I had forgotten who I was and talked little about myself and my accomplishments. I was disappointed, to say the least. But a few days later I received a confirmation that my ISA was approved 🤑 I couldn't believe it!!! I DID IT, I was going to make my dreams come true at last...

I joined the next available cohort in September 2020 and one year later, in September 2021 I graduated with two internship offers.

(happy face on my final project presentation day 😄)

PS - 2020, you will never be forgotten -

I hope soon enough, I can write another article about 'How I got my first job in tech'

TO BE CONTINUED...

If you made it this far, WOW, you're weird and I like you 🤣 💜

Thank you very much for reading my story & hope it inspired you to not let life happen to you, go out there and get it by the balls!

You can find me on Twitter if you want to say Hey! 👋