In May, I started a new job, in the same company I'd been with just shy of 2 years at the time.

I started my new job, as a software engineer, with out a degree and only one formal class under my belt which was and introduction into java and basic programming. Outside of this I had only dabbled in vanilla javascript, some action script, google script, and HTML and CSS. I think got the job because I had the guts to apply for it, had been with the company already, and had gotten a promotion as well within the last year. These things paired with the willingness to learn.

I had an aptitude test instead of having a whiteboard interview. I was given and incomplete project with bugs and missing features, and a list of tasks to complete. I took almost a month to complete the test, then had an interview which was only about 20% technical that portion was asking me what I would change about code presented to me. I thought I botched the whole thing, I had no idea what answers to give, but then out of the blue a month after that, I had an offer!

The first 4 months I can honestly say I had no idea what I was doing, I had no experience with C# and .Net. I had no experience outside of making static websites other than a desktop Java application I made for myself that helped manage and use canned responses and act as storage for new strings of text I was copying. (this project can be found here https://github/dsantratlock/ClippyInC)

After about 6 months I was still struggling, but then I was working in a single project, in a single style for a solid 3 months, and now at 9 months as a dev I feel like I can actually contribute to my team's projects!

Though I'm still learning a lot, failing tickets more than I wish I would be, I'm making progress faster and faster. Lessons I remember from my first month are helping me complete tasks much quicker than I had been.

Sometimes I wish I had continued school, however then I realize I'm learning much more, much faster, by working. Now I finally read O'Reilly books without feeling they are too dry, and sometimes I can even wrap my head around Microsoft's documentation, both things I never thought I would say when I first tried to start learning to code.

Do you remember your first year of being a dev or working in tech? What was your entrance to the field like?