How I got where I am now

My journey into the world of coding began with a spontaneous trip to Europe. Now, as a software engineer with four years of experience, I’m here to tell you how it all began…

How my journey began

I didn't start coding in school. I studied landscape architecture at university, but during my third year, I questioned whether this was how I wanted to spend most of my weekdays if I got a job in this industry. Although I enjoyed sketching and creating blueprints on CAD, I felt it was unfair to enter the job market without being fully confident in my career choice. As a recent high school graduate, I wanted to explore beyond the confines of my initial path. So, I decided to take a gap year to discover the bigger world and broaden my horizons.

Exploring

The day I decided to explore the bigger world, I booked a flight to Europe. I didn't know it at the time, but this marked my last day at university as this decision changed many aspects of my life, including my career path. It was a three-month-long trip and once I arrived in Prague, I could imagine myself living there. I instantly fell in love with the city and started seeking a job to extend my stay. Luckily, it didn't take long to find a job at a local travel agency. I know it sounds random—why a travel agency? I was in the middle of my journey, trying and experiencing new things, and it seemed perfect for someone who loves to travel. However, I soon realized that loving travel and working in a travel agency are as different as day and night.

Dreaming of creator

The more I worked in the travel industry, the more quickly I realized that all the tasks I was doing could easily be replaced by someone else at any time. Despite living in my dream city, I didn't find much joy in my work. I wanted to do something that would make me less dependent on a company—something that would continue to accumulate value even after I quit the job. So, I started dreaming about creating something lasting.

Hello world!

There was a software engineer who worked at the company, and I shared my idea of creating something that people could actually experience. He told me that if I wanted to make an online product, I should either learn to code or hire someone who could. How easy to choose! I immediately started learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript every day after work. By the time I learned about the "for loop" in JavaScript, I realized I wanted to focus on learning rather than spending most of my time on something I wasn't interested in, namely, making itineraries for tour teams. However, I couldn't stay in a foreign country without a job, so it was time to say goodbye to my beloved city, Prague.

Back to Home

It took me a little over a year to land my very first job as a software engineer—more specifically, a front-end engineer. I got the chance to learn and work as a markup engineer intern as soon as I returned to my home country, Korea. By the end of the six-month internship, I was able to create (almost) everything I wanted using HTML and CSS. This naturally led me to learn how to make them "alive" with functionality. I spent more time learning JavaScript, enrolled in a few online courses, and created simple web applications from end to end (design, markup, integrating JavaScript functions, and APIs). Finally, after countless interviews and numerous all-nighters, in 2020, when COVID struck, I started my first job.

I SEOUL U

This is a phrase you can see when you go to Seoul. I still don’t know what it exactly means, but for me, Seoul is the city where I finally got on track. I lived on my own, started studying the Bible again, and learned to stand on my own feet. I worked for the fintech company Banksalad, focusing on an in-house platform and various web-app pages related to money transactions. The experience I gained there was more than just work. It taught me how to work as a team, share knowledge, do code reviews, and much else. I'd like to share all of my experiences with you all (yes, I'm talking to you!) through my blog content in the future. After working there for over two years, COVID seemed to be coming to an end, and the company allowed me to work remotely abroad.

Move to the Southern Hemisphere Country

Where is that? Australia! Why did I choose this country? First of all, it had to be an English-speaking country. From my time living in Prague, I learned that to live long-term in any country, you need to speak the local language not only for government affairs but also for your well-being. English was my only option since there are only two lands that speak Korean, and I can't go to the other side. Secondly, I needed to be in a similar time zone to Korea to communicate with my teammates.

After two months of relocation, the company wanted me to return to Korea due to a policy change that no longer allowed remote working. Since moving to Sydney had not been a spontaneous decision, I decided to leave the company. Thankfully, I found a new job at an American fintech company called BILL, which has a branch office in Sydney. I joined the invoice team, handling the sending and receiving of invoices. Maintaining and building products for a worldwide service taught me how to write test codes with over 90% coverage and develop features with universal functions. And a while later... this happened.

Me now

What happened to me after that? I was quite frustrated at first, but as I mentioned earlier, I am now grateful for the experiences I had and excited for the new chapter of my journey. I would love to share my journey with you all, along with weekly published articles covering my past experiences and learnings as well. I can’t wait to see what the future holds!