Yours Mesut Çifci We want to introduce you to. He is one of our friends who has been working with us in the software team at Patika for some time. He was one of our friends to finish the Frontend Web Development Path first and started working with us! We wanted to hear from him about his journey:)
Can you introduce yourself to us in your own words?
I am Mesut 24 years old and live in Ankara. Playing guitar, singing, listening to music occupy an important place in my life. I have two cat friends in my house that I live with. I would say I like a cat:)
When did you get acquainted with the software, what did you go through in the process?
I was introduced to software for the first time in high school. My teacher in the classroom had put a vocational high school far from my home on my list of preferences. I found out when I started high school that the part I was studying was informatics.
I saw a lot of lessons in high school from software to hardware, but unfortunately I didn't improve myself at all because I wasn't very involved with the lessons. After graduation, I chose Computer Teaching at university, although not as much as in high school, I also took programming classes here. I can not say that it is very useful to me, since I am not very interested in classes at the university either.
In my second year of college I started having a health problem that started to affect my social and educational life. I waited until my senior year, but unfortunately I had to drop out of college when it didn't. I turned to software because I decided that I wanted to teach during this time.
It was a little difficult for me to find what I wanted in the software field. I could say I jumped from branch to branch. First I decided to learn Java for mobile development then I wanted to learn Python Django. After this process, my path crossed with my professor, Muhammet Kara, an open source developer. I participated in LibreOffice development training with C++, which he gave. I tried to contribute to LibreOffice for about 8-9 months, and I managed to do it, albeit small. At the end of this process, I decided to contribute to LibreOffice in the frontend field because I was tired of learning C++, so I started developing myself in the frontend field in June 2020, but after I started frontend, my goal was to start somewhere as a Frontend Developer rather than contributing to LibreOffice.
My health problem that I had in 2021 eased a little bit more and I came to terms with it a little more. That's why I started my school from where I left off. While I was in school, I saw the introduction of Pathway in findmentor or We Code's Discord group. This was a time when I gradually started looking for a job myself, I guess I bookmarked Pathika as work-1:)
To complete the basic level in my frontend learning process, my last step was learning the basics of React. At this time, because I didn't want to bother searching for resources, came the Path that I had bookmarked beforehand and I chose this place. I started the classes on the Frontend Web Development Path from the very beginning, saying that I would repeat the other things I learned while I started the training. It was also tempting, perhaps, to have a job as an extra.
It was interesting that I became a Frontend Challenge participant. As I said before, I really just wanted to learn React and repeat my other knowledge as well. Shortly after I was on the trail Kubra from the team reached out to me via email and we had a small dating meeting. After this communication, I realized that there was a challenge open to the application and I joined.
I joined a Discord group that was created primarily for the challenge. I came across a beautiful and sociable environment here. I liked the Speed Networking events and meetings with sponsoring companies and challenge participants were also useful. Apart from these, we also had a nice interaction thanks to events where volunteer mentors would answer our questions on certain days and times of the week.
I was one of the first people to finish the Frontend Web Development Path because it was my preliminary knowledge. Then we met Gülcan Hanım, you know the rest 😃
I say this sincerely, I'm really lucky that this is my first place of work. If there are friends who have no experience reading this, I know that many have thoughts in their minds like “What if I can't do it, if I can't be enough, if they treat me badly at work for not doing the task, if I don't get along with my coworkers or my boss...” I had one too. And I haven't come across any of that. There have been things that I couldn't do, but every time I've had support from my teammates. My working hours are kind of flexible in my favor. As long as I finish the given task, I can always get the time off whenever I want. Other than that, my teammates are really great people:) We had a camping event in the first or second month of my job, I met a large part of the team there and I'm really happy to meet them.
To summarize, I'm happy:D
What advice would you give to people who want to advance in the software field?
This is actually a topic that I should pay attention to when talking about. Because I myself am a beginner with technical knowledge and experience in this software field. I have a long way to go, so I would like to see what I said in this context.
My first advice is don't listen to people who say you can't. It has come to you, and it will come out, never mind. Regardless of external factors, there is no reason why you can't do it if you work hard enough.
My second piece of advice is don't jump from branch to branch like me. Before you start a field, you can do your preliminary research to see if that field is right for you and then maybe see if you can do it for a week or two, if it will be difficult for you to spend hours in this field in the future, and if you want to make a living by working in this field. I think these are important.
My last advice is that you don't give up and work. I have never been a very intelligent, hardworking and strong-willed person, but the only thing I can boast of is perseverance. Even though I constantly start things over and fail, I start again every time. I thought I would never be able to get a job in frontend, even if I did, but I still wanted to finish what I started. For example, even now I have not been able to achieve enough work pace for my own personal development, but I try again every day and I know that I will definitely get things on track and get to the level I want.
“My advice to you is don't give up, you may be afraid, you may be lazy, you may not do it, but if you ask me, you will fail when you stop trying.”
Thank you very much. We are glad you are among us! Finally, do you want to add?
First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has read this article to the end, to all my teammates, to the management staff of Pathika who approached me more like a friend than a manager, to all my friends and teachers I know and I don't know who have supported me on my journey to learning software, and finally to my girlfriend who has always supported me, who has always supported me on my journey to learning software.
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If Mesut's story inspired you too from here you can reach our trainings and you too can start your journey on the trails of your choice!
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