Great questions! Here's my answers:
How I got in IT is a combination of factors. From the moment I got my first PC (around age 8) it was pretty clear I was going to end up doing something in IT. I wrote my first QBasic program when I was 14 and my first website when I was 16. I quickly realized that was where my passion lied.
I enrolled for a bachelor program in Communication & Multimedia Design, which effectively trained me to become a UX designer more than a web developer. I found that coding interested me more so I took every opportunity there to expand my knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript instead of learning how to design. When I graduated in 2010 the role of Front-end Developer was just gaining popularity (as opposed to just all-round web developer), so there were many great job opportunities even for fresh graduates.
Right now I work as a Front-end Developer at a consulting agency that rents me out on a contract basis to various companies, currently at one in the education sector (creating e-learning apps). I've worked in finance and the adult industry before this.
I think the greatest difficulty I faced (and stil do) is keeping up with the always rapidly changing world of front-end. New browser versions, javascript libraries and frameworks, testing strategies, programming paradigms and build tools are created every week and if you're not careful your knowledge can be outdated in the blink of an eye.
I try to overcome that by keeping my focusing on a small set of those, usually whatever I work with at my current assignment. On the side I try to read articles, watch videos and attend meetups/conferences about alternative technologies, just enough to roughly know what they are about. If I really like one I might dive in a little deeper and use it to create a hobby project. My employer helps me out enormously with this by giving me a rather generous training budget, and by organizing quarterly hackathons in which we get paid to just mess around with our hobby projects for a day.
This is why I am happy below the line of UI, mostly backend stuff now. That said I have never stopped learning new languages and skills.
Part of the industry. It moves so fast you blink and you are left behind.
They joy I have in my current post is I am free to push the language I work in (C#) so I can really explore the different ways of using it. Been in the same code base now 10 years, starting from C# 2 and the difference in old and new code is huge. Far more functional now.
Hi Pilcrow,
Thank you for such a detailed response.
I work as a Penetration tester and I find that I have similar problems with trying to keep current and up to date with ever changing web technologies.
Sounds like a great employer! :)