My Journey as a software developer, part 1

I have been working as a software developer for almost ten years, primarily as an Android developer, and I wanted to share how it has been so far.

My context

I have been working as an Android developer since 2015, but I started taking my work more seriously in early 2017. Before that, I didn’t invest much time in self-improvement; my focus was primarily on getting things to work in projects without paying much attention to HOW I was working, neither processes nor methodologies. It is worth mentioning that I also have ADHD.

2012

I was a student of computer science, I started in 2010 and I was still at the university, but a colleague of mine, Leo Campanha was invited to do an internship and they also asked him to refer two more people, he referred me and that was my start as a software developer.

I got approved after some training, and I started programming for the company that was providing service to Walmart Brazil, I was working developing software using a proprietary framework for their logistics, it was my first contact working as a software developer. This happened because I had the privilege to study at a private university, and I had a colleague that was a friend of someone whose father had an IT company. I got lucky, and this privilege impacted my entire journey and I'm aware of that.

In late 2012, I left the internship because I need to invest more of myself to finish my studies at the university and again, this was a decision that I was able to do given my privileges.

2014

I started working as an intern for Samsung Project, it's a partnership between SIDI and CIN-UFPE, SIDI is an institute from Samsung in Brazil and CIN is the information center of UFPE, which is a university. Before that, I had some contact with Android (some hackathons) but nothing professional.

At Samsung Project, I started to work on some projects, but I wasn't caring about HOW I was doing, it was some overworking and to be honest, not being smart at all.

2015

It was the last year of my bachelor's in computer science, and Samsung Project offered me to be hired as a Software developer JR, I accepted and it was madness finishing it and working at the same time (a common reality that we have in Brazil, most of the students need to work to be able to study, but I had the privilege to work with something that was related to my studies). I finished my bachelor, but I was burned out.

2016

It was a tough year for me, with a lot of problems and a lack of self-esteem, I was burned out and I didn't seek medical support because I was unaware that it was a condition and I could ask for treatment.

I was doing the bare minimum and had no idea about industry trends, like test automation, it was only manual testing. The project was getting more complex and changes demanding tests, I still wasn't studying but this cycle was getting worse. I was working on a project with a manager that was doing a lot of micro-management and we had weak tech leadership, it was only about getting the project done no matter what happens or what cost.

People were burned out and the organization talking as if we were agile but we weren't, we were waterfall with some agile practices. People started lowering their shields, resulting in a lot of engineers moving to ThoughtWorks, I tried to join and got refused with an automated answer, and that made me feel bad. I tried to join different companies but I always got refused and this became a snowball that got a huge hit on my self-esteem.

2017

Started moving to a new team, far away from my previous manager and tech leader, I found amazing people that helped me improve and see good things in me that motivated me to study and develop myself (Thanks to Tadeu Marinho and Luiz Henrique), Luiz was my tech lead and Tadeu a project manager.

Luiz and Tadeu were very motivated and energetic to bring new stuff, Tadeu came with a strong feedback culture and coaching skills, Luiz with more profound tech skills, and most important, he knew how to develop curiosity in people to study. I created a Trello board, started trying to understand my gaps, and invested a lot into translating them to the board and prioritizing them. It was fun and also helped me to keep focusing since I have ADHD, and it also helped me to restart the ADHD treatment again.

Indirectly they taught me to care about HOW I do stuff, instead of only focusing on the result, the HOW started to be essential and added that some friends moved to ThoughtWorks, and a seed of curiosity was planted in me.

The seed led me to read the book ThoughtWorks Antologia Brasil, published by Casa do código. Before that, I had contact with Agile and extreme programming practices, but without reasoning and thinking about how to use it in my daily work or personal development. Tadeu was into agile and also management 3.0, so he was pushing this culture to our team and that kept me motivated to learn. Luiz was pushing for new stuff, to always learn and I had the luck to live close to him so he was always giving me a ride to the company, and we talked a lot about tech and I learned a lot.

Months later, Tadeu got fired for no reason, our team got angry, and again, shields went down and people left the company, but I stayed because my current team was amazing and I was learning A LOT.

We finished the project and company management decided to move me to a new project, with good management and also good tech leadership, thanks Leo and Daniel!

Late 2017, I was feeling more confident, I wanted to work with Android again and I had no perspective to do it at Samsung Project, it was already 7 months of working with other technology (C# and UWP), and the project was fun but I wanted to work with Android again, so I talked to a friend (thanks Rafael Lima), and he referred me to ThoughtWorks. Samsung Project was a great place to work and I honestly think that I got lucky to have an opportunity to start my career there, but the desire to work with Android again drove me to apply to ThoughtWorks and as a result, I got approved and started at the beginning of 2018.

Conclusion

This was my experience until 2018, I know that I had a lot of privileges during my life that helped me arrive where I'm today, I also got lucky to have people supporting me during bad moments in my career and personal, and that made a positive impact on my development.