April 11th, 2024, posted in learning
by Adelina
Our junior developer, Diana, joined us a year ago after her graduation. We decided to sit down (virtually, of course) and talk about her time at UPDIVISION, about what she learned this past year and how this changed her.
1. Diana, it’s one year since, fresh out of college, you’ve started your career as a web developer at UPDIVISION. How has your journey been up till now at UPDIVISION? Tell us a bit about your growth from the time you joined us until today.
It’s been one year. A year that seemed very short, in which I evolved and learned a lot. Way more than I thought I would have. When I got hired, I mostly had knowledge of backend, so I wasn’t well versed in frontend. But I learned so much, not just frontend, but also QA testing and so many more things, that I never thought I could learn in such a short time.
2. What made you want to become a developer with UPDIVISION?
I believe in perfect timing. I actually have a little story about this. Right before I got the email in which UPDIVISION was inviting me to a job interview, I decided that if I don’t get any calls back from the jobs I applied to, I’d move to Cluj. But, in a few days, I got the email, and that’s just how it was meant to be. Why did I choose to apply to UPDIVISION? I don’t think I chose them, they chose me. When you’re a junior developer, I think what matters a lot is working with a team of skilled people, who can help you out, but also challenge you. And the people here are very nice, quick to jump in and help. They even put aside what they were doing to help me.
3. Tell us about some of your favorite projects you’ve worked on. What was challenging and what was fun about them?
All the projects I’ve worked on were unique in their own way. The first project I worked on was a smal social networking website, where I used Laravel. I had used this framework for my Bachelor’s thesis as well, so I had some experience with it. This is where I dealt with my first PRs (pull requests), which were rejected often, at first. But it was a good thing, because this is how I refined my skills. I learned how to write my code in such a way that it’s easy to understand for those who read it afterwards and easier to review.
Then I worked on a custom ecommerce, where I already had more experience. On my first project I worked with a colleague, but here I was put in charge of most of the backend. There were some things I came in contact with for the first time. But it went well - I had my team lead, who helped me out whenever I got stuck. Like I said, with the right people, everything works out.
4. Tell us about the most important lessons you learned while working at UPDIVISION.
- First of all, I think hard work trumps talent. This is another principle of mine. I think you need to exercise your coding muscle.
- Even though it's a good thing to rely on yourself, there are situations where you need the help of your team to find the best solutions. That's why people matter so much.
- Lastly, it’s important to know it won’t always be easy. But it’s okay to ask questions, to ask for help. No one expects you to know everything right away.
5. What advice would you give a beginner web developer? What are the most important steps they should take in their career?
It's often said good developers are lazy. They need to find the best way of doing things with the least amount of code. However, to reach that level of laziness/competency, you need to work quite hard in the beginning. You need to get your hands dirty, be self-taught and always curious.
Web development needs a lot of practice and there is a lot to learn. But you shouldn’t feel discouraged. Never lose sight of what motivated you in the first place.
6. In recent years, more and more women have been going into programming. What do you think about this and what would you tell aspiring female web developers?
I can only be happy to hear that. I think it's a trend that started some time ago and I would definitely want to see it continue. Multiple perspectives and views are always welcome. If you’re passionate and dedicated, you can pursue any field. I think anyone can become a developer, including people without a technical background.
