👋 Greetings, dear readers! Some of you may already know me, but you may not be aware of my journey in the tech industry. In today's blog, I'll be sharing my story and experiences. I'll cover topics such as who I am, how and why I started in tech, the challenges I've faced along the way, and my future aspirations. So, let's dive right in!

My Introduction

My name is Akash Dev, and I am currently a second-year student at SOA University in Bhubaneshwar. Although my journey with coding began unexpectedly a year ago, it has become a passion that ignites my drive to create and innovate. I initially enrolled in computer science due to limited options, as well as my parent's wishes. However, as I have immersed myself in the world of technology, my interests have evolved, and I now aspire to make significant contributions to this ever-evolving field.

I have a curious mind that seeks to gain new knowledge every day. Unlike some individuals who may have a particular interest in AI, ML, or web development, I enjoy exploring different fields of study. My philosophy is to gain a comprehensive understanding of one topic while also having a broad understanding of many others. I believe it's healthy to change our interests as we learn and grow 🌱. Currently, I'm focusing on learning Data Structures and Algorithms, as well as Android development using Kotlin. Another passion of mine is blogging, and I hope you enjoy reading my posts as much as I do writing them.

Early experience

When I began my journey, I faced a lot of difficulties. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't start with a specific purpose in mind. I had no other option available to me and had to enroll in computer science. During my first semester, the curriculum focused on Java, but I struggled to understand the concepts. Despite my best efforts, everything seemed to go over my head.

Then, after three months into my college journey, the COVID-19 pandemic struck. As a result, I suddenly found myself with more time to learn things properly on my own and in peace, which had not been possible in my college.

I still struggled a lot, but now, I started to enjoy the process. I read the book from my college curriculum and searched for courses and documentation online to understand Java better. This was when I stumbled upon a famous course on YouTube - the Java course by Code with Harry. Most of my friends were also taking the same course. I gave myself a month and watched all of his videos. His videos helped me to get started but to be honest, it wasn't enough. I then realized that there is so much to coding that just knowing a language or completing a course won't help you. You need to put in a lot of hard work 💪 to learn more.

Now, my college resumed the offline semester after the first semester was conducted online. As I hadn't studied anything taught in the first semester, I knew I needed to work extra hard. I felt happy and somewhat confident that I could understand and write code, but it didn't last long. Most of my classmates had worked hard during the COVID break and were far ahead of me. This made me realize that no matter how much effort you put in, it may never be enough. While it's important to go at your own pace, we also need to keep in mind that we live in a competitive environment and should consider all scenarios before making any decision or jumping to any conclusion.

🤔 During my second semester, the focus shifted to data structures and Java was no longer the primary language being taught. Even though Java was still used to implement the data structures, coding (which was my strength) took a backseat and I had to learn the intricacies of data structures. Once again, I found myself struggling.

DSA courses that helped me

The professor at our college was great at explaining things, but I felt like the college curriculum wasn't sufficient. So I searched for courses on YouTube and found two great ones. One was a playlist on learning data structures and algorithms in Java by For My Scholars, and the other was a DSA Java playlist by Kunal Kushwaha.

Both of these courses were very helpful in understanding the concepts and getting practice. I cannot recommend one over the other, as both were useful to me. I would suggest that you do your research and find what works best for you. There is a wealth of free resources available online, making it difficult to select the best one. The only way to determine what works best for you is to try different things on your own.

How I got interested...

Following those two courses really helped me a lot. The content was so engaging and useful that I was really enjoying learning from them.

But then someone asked me, "You have been coding for about 4 months. You must have learned a sufficient amount of stuff. What have you learned, and in which language?"🤔

I replied with "Java," and then their next question was, "What have you built with Java? Built with Java? Seriously? I was just implementing DSA. Do we really build stuff?"

I know this might sound silly, but it's true. I was like this only. It was at this time that I asked my professor the same question. I asked him, "How do we build stuff using programming languages, and what can I build if I know Java?" He said, "For building anything, you need to learn more than just a programming language. Only knowing Java and implementing data structures is not enough. You need to know something more." He suggested that I learn web development. Yes, I know usually people start with HTML and CSS, but this was not the case with me. I then researched places to learn web development. There are a huge number of courses available on the internet, and many of them are free, but I found out about this one paid course on Udemy that was taught by Angela Yu. I had never bought any paid course online, and since this course costs very little, I thought of giving it a try.😎

My whole semester, I did only these things, followed the course, and learned DSA. When I finally built my first project while learning web development, I got really interested, as now I was finally able to apply my learning into the real world and see how things work. Most of my time went into these things, and the time left by me I used for my college studies and gym. Although I was not able to complete the course since my exams started, and I got busy, this was the time when I actually got interested in this field and started to never quit it.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I struggle with communication. To improve my communication skills, I took part in extempore and debate events held at my college. This was to enhance my English proficiency and communication abilities. Previously, I studied in a school where people usually spoke Hindi. Even the English teachers spoke in Hindi, so I needed to work on these skills.

Building online presence

After my second semester, we had our semester break. This is when I decided to finally make my online presence. Till now, the only social media platform I used was Instagram. However, I wanted to have a more professional online presence, and we all know that LinkedIn is the best social media platform for this purpose. Therefore, I created accounts on LinkedIn and Twitter. Additionally, I made accounts on some online coding platforms like HackerRank, LeetCode, and GeeksforGeeks (GFG). I used these websites to practice coding questions and to read about various programming topics. I really love GFG; anything I searched for on Google, the first result I got was from GFG. I used LeetCode to solve coding problems. Since I had a lot of free time during my break, I also learned about Google Cloud from a course on Coursera. Although I have almost forgotten most of the things I learned in that course, I am still satisfied because I got a t-shirt and certificates that I can showcase on my LinkedIn profile.

How I Started Linkedin

Out of all the social media that I used, LinkedIn became my favorite. Here, we can post anything relevant and people genuinely engage. We could find mostly professionals, unlike Instagram. I have seen that LinkedIn promotes your profile if you are uploading good content, even if you have fewer followers. When I made my LinkedIn account, I didn't have anything to post. So, I searched on Google and made a list of many interview questions from Core Java. I did some research and wrote all the questions I found in a notebook, clicked the picture, made a PDF, and then shared that PDF on my LinkedIn profile. Guess what? LinkedIn shared it, and it made me feel so happy. Some people gave a good response, and some gave a bad one, but that didn't matter much to me because all the stuff I was doing was for me only. And the negative comments were not bad; they were like constructive criticism. I wanted to share what I was learning, so I wrote stuff, but because of my handwriting, most people were not able to understand it.

I was figuring out how to overcome this issue. Now, I can't change my handwriting in one night, so I got some options: either I can make a YouTube channel, or I can start blogging, and I chose the second option🚀.

My Blogging story📝

Now I wanted to write a blog, and doing anything for the first time is a very big task for anyone. I started searching for a good website where I can write a blog. I had the thought of creating my own blog but didn't know how to do so. While I was following Kunal Kushwaha, I heard Hashnode's name from him, and I created an account here. To my surprise, this platform is so good, I can't say. Anything required to write your blog, you say, it's here, from Grammarly to the interface, everything is here. And the best thing about this platform is the monthly challenges by We Make Devs. When I started blogging, I was not much aware of its features, but till now, I've known many of its features and still learning more.

Now, every month I participate in these events, and it's a lot of fun. Not because I win prizes, to be honest, I haven't won anything yet, but because to write a simple blog, you need to do so much research. And with every blog I write, I feel that my typing skills and English are improving. Also, since I have to read a lot to write, my focus is also improving. It's only been five months since I started blogging, so I can't say much, but I have seen significant progress in my skills so far.

My shift from web development to Android development

I was explaining my application to DR. Omkar Rai Executive Chairman of Startup Odisha. And getting his valuable feedback on the same.

As I have already mentioned, I was learning web development during my second semester, but I have not yet completed it. During my third semester, I joined a startup project with a few other people. The project was focused on developing a product that required an Android application.📱

At that time, I had no idea about how Android apps were made or what the prerequisites were. I searched the internet and asked friends for advice. Most people suggested that I learn Flutter since it is easy to learn and can be used to create cross-platform applications for both Android and iOS by writing the code only once. This sounded cool, but I still had some doubts in my mind.🤔 After all, nothing in this world is perfect, right? So, I searched on Google and found a video that explained why you should NOT use Flutter for mobile app development.

Now, I wanted to learn Kotlin. Learning Kotlin was comparatively easier for me since I already knew Java, and Kotlin is just a simplified version of Java. My approach to learning anything until now had been to search for a course that explains that tech. I searched on YouTube for courses and found many courses. But the main problem was that most of these courses were outdated. The methods and functions they were using in the videos were not relevant now. However, I found this one course that I loved so much. The instructor seemed very professional, and she was explaining everything in much detail. When I was doing the course, it had just begun, so very few people were doing it, and it also had a good community on Telegram, which I found very helpful. I felt as if she was uploading these videos just for me. After completing the Java course, this was the second course that I had completed, and it helped me a lot. I shared my learnings with its community, and people on LinkedIn reshared and appreciated them. Hence, I got interested in Android development.

I would love to give you one tip if you're also planning to get into Android development: before starting, check your system requirements. Android Studio is a very heavy software, and I would recommend having at least 16GB of RAM and an i7 or equivalent processor for a smoother experience. I had initially used it on an 8GB RAM laptop, and it was quite slow and laggy.

The best event of my life

Since I was active on social media, I got a chance to attend my first tech event, DevFest Bhubaneswar. Although I was not invited as a speaker, attending it was a great experience for me. I won't share the details here as it would make this blog too long. However, I have already shared my experience and learnings on my LinkedIn profile, which you can see by clicking on this link.👀

Education and career path

Currently, I am in my fourth semester of engineering college, and many things have been happening in my life. However, this time I have decided to focus more on my college studies and health. My future goal is to secure a good on-campus placement of at least 10 LPA. I do not know if I am doing the correct things or if I can achieve my goal, but I am still working hard every day.

No matter what I do or where I am, I will always strive to make a positive impact in the field of technology and help others. Life is not just about education and finding a job, it's about making a difference and living for others. Although I plan to build my career in tech, my passion for understanding new technologies goes beyond professional goals.👍

Key moments

Although I am still a beginner and haven't achieved much yet, there have been some key moments that made me feel special, and I want to share them with you all.

• When I was finally able to solve my first DSA question on leetcode. I know it's not a big deal but for me who just started and for a person who never used a computer before it was a big deal.

• I felt really happy when I finally made my first web development project, which happened to be my portfolio website. You can click here to view it.

• Getting something after working hard to achieve it feels great, especially when I had been practicing DSA in Java for a few months and finally got certified by HackerRank. I know it may be easy for many people, but for me, it was a big deal.

• Now this one was pure luck. When Kunal Kushwaha commented on my LinkedIn post and shared it on his LinkedIn, it felt great that a person I've been following for so long was supporting me.🤝

• Getting selected into Samsung Prism. This is a program where students and Professors will form teams. Each team will be assigned a work let and a mentor from SRI-B. The team will be required to deliver the project in a specified timeframe and earn exciting benefits.🏆

These are some of my key moments. I know they are very small, but our ancestors have said that we should find happiness in the small things in life.

My learning so far

Although I am not someone who can give you the perfect advice, here are the key takeaways and learnings I have gained from my journey so far.

• Don't compare yourself to others. You never know the backstory of someone else, and you don't know where you can go yourself.

• Don't be too busy. It's not about being busy it's about getting things done.

• Take care of your health. Your health should be your foremost priority in life. Your body is the vessel with which you experience the world, and taking care of it is crucial to prolonging your life and well-being.🧘‍♀️

• Don't be in a hurry. Let things take their time, especially when it comes to learning to code, as it is a time-consuming process.⏳

• Share everything. Share whatever you are learning and try to help others. Even if you have been in the tech field for just a month, you can still be a mentor for someone who is just getting started.

• Last but not least, focus on your work and leave the rest to God. Keep your goals long-term and don't get discouraged if you don't see immediate results. Keep setting your benchmarks high and measure your progress from where you were yesterday to where you are today.🤝

Always remember There's no such thing like being behind in life. There's only where you are on the path you are creating. To be behind means to be walking behind someone on the same path as you. No one is walking on the same path as you.🚶‍♀️

With this said I would love to conclude my article and Now that you've read about my journey in tech, I encourage you to reflect on your own journey and take action towards achieving your goals. Whether it's learning a new programming language, building a personal project, or networking with professionals in the industry, take a step forward today and see where it takes you. Remember, the possibilities are endless in tech and it's up to you to make the most of them.

Good luck!❤

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