Introduction -Kenneth.
Born and raised in Kampala, I will not say that I have always wanted to be a software developer. Growing up I was into other things, like any other young boy in my neighbourhood, I wanted to be a footballer or a doctor. This all changed when I had my first computer class in 2008. I was so fascinated by how this machine worked that I thought I could build one for myself one day. After a few months we started learning HTML, this gave us a basic overview on how websites are built and how one can change the world through writing code just like how Mark Zuckerberg had done with Facebook. He has been my main inspiration, I tell myself if he diid it, so can I . From that day, I didn’t look back and in 2014, I bought my very first laptop. I started by learning C and C++ then followed by Java. I spent a lot of time on java focusing on swing , jsps and servlets.The institute I had enrolled in for my diploma did not teach much so I had to self learn using YouTube videos and reading documentations. My love for java ended prematurely because there weren’t many free videos and content I could use in that time . I was introduced to python and to this day I have been identifying myself as a python developer primarily.
In 2018 I applied at Andela, I failed on my first try because I had merge conflicts which I couldn’t resolve and thus I couldn’t demo my code. I was invited for the next bootcamp, got in and spent 14 month there before being laid off in 2019. This was a devastating moment in life because just like that, my dream had been crashed and I knew I had to do something about it.
Without Andela I wouldn’t be where I am today, I learnt a lot and was exposed to better ways of forming solutions.. To this day I have worked with python and javascript mainly.
As a growing developer I have faced multiple challenged with the major being no clear path to follow since we all owned our own while in Andela. I am currently an apprentice with one world coders and one the first day I can see a path I should follow and what I am supposed to know at my level. I know I am going to learn a lot so I am willing to put in all that is needed. I am still on the journey to be a world class developer and with my new mentors, I know I am going to get there so that in a few month, I will be in a position to mentor other aspiring world class developers.