A little about myself

Oluwatobi here; good day. I have almost a year of experience as a front-end developer.

The #DevRetro2022 campaign allowed me the chance to reflect on my career as a developer over the previous months and share my experiences and significant accomplishments with others, so I was extremely happy when it was announced.

I've found that reflecting on my path and the development I've made as a developer while writing this blog has been quite helpful.

In sharing my experiences with you, I wish to encourage others to keep learning and developing as developers.

My Development Journey: How Did I Begin?

My tech journey began in 2017, a few months after graduating from secondary school, but without a phone or laptop to learn on. I can still clearly remember going to a cyber cafe with a friend who worked there to watch what he was doing, but I went because I was interested in programming. It all started with Windows XP using Notepad to write only HTML, and I would write the HTML boilerplate down every day just for practice. And that was the only thing I learned or did in 2017: boilerplate HTML.😂😂.

So, due to school, I stopped coding from 2017 to 2019. However, in 2020, during the Lockdown, I went back to my friend who was already an accomplished software developer, and I started learning Python, albeit I wasn't consistent. My tech journey officially began in 2021, School and little coding were the experiences in 2021, but fast forward to 2022.

Creating Projects

It was time to build some applications because I had some basic knowledge of HTML, CSS (CSS frameworks like bootstrap and tailwind CSS), and javascript. I produced some code under the supervision of my industrial training supervisor as a student who is enthusiastic about becoming a web developer to gain a fundamental understanding of how this works. The hardest part for me is putting what I've learned into practice, but if there aren't any bugs, what fun is that? After a few attempts, I was also getting my hands dirty with CSS, and I was still figuring out Javascript. Due to the great demand and variety of frameworks and libraries, W3 School helped me once more, and I'm now regularly studying JavaScript, which makes it possible to build dynamic applications with better components in JavaScript.

Internship

I participated in a variety of internships this year that helped me significantly advance my knowledge as a developer in teamwork, problem-solving, and communication skills. I went to the Tidelab Prefellowship, Zuri Inc., SideHustle Internship, and HNGi9, which was later deactivated. All of these internships were free and were conducted virtually; the only one I actually attended in person was at Landmark University.

Tech Bootcamp Organizer.

Even though there isn't much information about technology in my neighborhood, I had the honor of being a part of the organizing team for a Tech Bootcamp for other young people. This was a valuable opportunity for them to launch their careers in technology.

The first tech Bootcamp in my town was finally done by me and my team, and we hope to continue it under the name Omu-Aran Tech School, which has once again validated our name. I had the opportunity to broaden my network and strengthen my relationships at the Bootcamp. Along with teaching and attending meetings with the kids, I greatly enhanced my communication abilities. Here's a peek.

These are some of the projects the students worked on using their mobile phones.

Tech Events and Meetups

This year, I was fortunate to participate in a lot of physical and virtual meetups in Nigeria. The majority of these events took place in November and December.

I was able to attend Flutterbyte Conf, Devfest, KwaraBuild Tech Conf and LinkedinLocalIlorin

Conclusion

In hindsight, 2022 was an amazing ride. I never imagined I'd be able to accomplish and encounter so many things at once. I couldn't help but wonder, "Wow, has this really happened?," but it did, and for that, I'm incredibly grateful. Naturally, I am aware that next year will be even more incredible and better than this year. All I have to do is continue establishing and achieving my minor goals and be consistent. I simply wish that a year from now I would be able to reflect on all of those little achievements, see the magnificent large picture, and ask, "Wow, has this actually happened?"