A conversation with myself a few days ago was what prompted me to write this article, I was reminiscing on where I started from, how I started, where I am today and how much I've accomplished(even though I know I haven't achieved much, I celebrate every one of my winnings no matter how small).
A Recap of How I Started
A flashback to the year 2019 around July to be specific, I called an uncle of mine who’s a cyber security expert, I told him I wanted to go into tech and he told me to start learning web development which was the same advice I got from my two friends Teddy and Busko, but there were a few challenges and I’ll be highlighting them in details below.
Lack of a Good Mobile device or PC
If you’re from my country (Nigeria) you’ll understand how difficult it is to get a gadget such as a smartphone or PC well except if you’re from a well-to-do family.
So yes, then I was having just my 1gb RAM techno smartphone and I’m sure you know the patience it takes to operate a phone with a 1gb of RAM, so what I’m saying, in essence, is that I’ve found out that this has been one of the challenges most people face not only in my country but in every other country also, people are willing and eager to go into the tech industry but because of the lack of a good gadget some lost interest and looked for other things to do and because of that most people’s dream and ideas are buried and never to see the light of day again, but here’s what I did which changed my life completely.
I got tutorial videos and watched them on my smartphone while practising the codes as I was watching on a sheet of paper and later on I tried to write the codes back on the code editor on my phone so I can know how each part of the code looks like, I was going through this process because I couldn't switch between apps on my phone. After all, it’ll only make my phone slower, this went on for about three months and after mastering HTML and CSS for those periods, I decided to start building projects and showcasing them and specifically tagging each post I showcased *as “built only with a mobile phone”* and well nothing happened until the day one of my dad’s friend saw it and asked why I was using my mobile phone and not using a PC and I stated I didn’t have one and that’s how I got my first PC.
Now what I want you to take from this boring story of mine are
- Make do with what you have
- Learn, Learn and Learn
- Build something you can show people - don’t just tell people what you do, show them
- NEVER GIVE UP
Imposter Syndrome
Oh yeah, this right here is something every developer has passed through at one point in time in their career. Now there’s a little bit of misconception about this thing called imposter syndrome so many perspectives about it, but here’s what imposter syndrome really means.
Imposter Syndrome: is the persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one's efforts or skills.
Let me break it down for you a little bit (too much grammar there) - Imposter Syndrome - is the inability to believe that the result you/I had achieved is a result of your/my skills or effort for example when you don’t believe that the website you just built was as a result of your own skill and effort but you think it’s just luck or because you copied some code from stack overflow and you start having self-doubt and personal incompetence that persists despite your education, experience and accomplishment.
That is what Imposter syndrome is, and this applies to every other field, it’s not just limited to the tech industry and there are a few categories of individuals who suffer from imposter syndrome the most they are:
- The Perfectionist
- The Natural Genius
- The Soloist
- The Expert
- The Superhero
If you want a more in-depth explanation of who these individuals are and which category to fall into, you can read that here.
Tutorial Hell
Well well well 😁 I was a very good victim of this, I never knew I was in it until I got out of it. Let me explain what it is and how dangerous it can be if you remain in it.
Tutorial Hell: is referred to as a time in your journey as a rookie in the tech industry where you’re watching tutorials, you’re able to follow along and replicate what the instructor is doing and it works(most times it doesn't 😅), now you feel like you know it right? Well, how about you give that same project a try without watching the video are you able to replicate the same thing? NO? well you’re in tutorial hell already. As I earlier said I was a victim of this so let me give my own testimony.
One faithful day, after watching Traversy Media’s “Build 5 projects With HTML, CSS and Javascript” Tutorial on youtube I said to myself “Now you’re a guru in HTML, CSS and JS you can build whatever project you want” well little did I know that I wouldn't be able to declare the <!DOCTYPE> syntax in HTML correctly, I was shocked and angry, I tried everything but VSCode was still showing the red lines, that was when I discovered I was in a tutorial hell.
So friends whenever you notice you can’t replicate a concept after watching a video stop watching the video and try to do it yourself no matter how long it takes.
Well, that’s the end of my short article, feel free to tell me what challenges you passed through in the comment section and how you overcame it.
I’m hoping to start a new series on frontend development this week so get ready for great content.