While I’ve been helping out on small pieces here and there on top of my normal day job, two months ago I “officially” became a software developer full time.
It is something that always in the back of my mind since I was in high school, but I never pursued it seriously as I felt I wasn’t smart enough. Even the past few years where I have mostly written web apps and tools for fun, I’d always figured I was too late - that since I hadn’t started learning in my early twenties or teens that there was no point in trying.
Out of the blue I was suddenly offered the role, doing mostly stuff I had already been doing on the side with Next.js, Typescript and Express but in an official capacity. I’m hugely thankful for the opportunity, and in particular the help and support from my colleagues who have pushed me to pursue this and back myself.
I am not really sure if I should shout them out in person here, don’t really know what the proper etiquette is. But in any case, it is thanks to them that I decided to start taking this seriously and pursue it as a career. I’ll be forever grateful to them for believing in me.
I still feel like an imposter now, but I suspect I always will which is okay as the uncertainty has always helped to motivate me to learn and get better (or at least to a point where I can say I’m “good enough”). I thought for the longest time in my teens and twenties that I would be an artist since that is all I knew and thought I was good at, but it turns out it is never too late to try something new.