Coding My Way to a New Career

Since entering university, I felt like I was constantly losing my way.

Although university life introduced me to interesting people and allowed me to enjoy various experiences and travel extensively, after securing a spot at the university I wanted, I suddenly found myself without any clear goals or desires.

2015, university

As a child, I was always drawn to the idea of becoming a police officer or a prosecutor. The appeal was in piecing together bits of evidence to draw logical conclusions.

However, in my pursuit of getting into my desired university, I ended up enrolling in an economics and finance program. So I dreamed of going to law school and even considered switching my major during my sophomore year to take law classes, but I quickly realized that memorizing vast amounts of text rather than applying formulas to solve problems was not for me, and I decided against pursuing a career in law.

 

 

4th day in Germany, in my dorm room

What then, did I really want to do?

I wasn't sure about my career path, but I knew I wanted to experience living abroad during my youth. I felt suffocated by Korean society at that time and thought it might be easier to find the kind of flexible job I wanted overseas. Studying abroad seemed like the easiest way to get out, and I ended up in Germany for graduate school because it was affordable.

However, the outbreak of the coronavirus drastically changed my plans. I only attended school in person for one semester. As the pandemic persisted and I continued my studies remotely, I increasingly questioned whether a career in economics or finance was really for me. Each interview with related companies only seemed to expose my lack of genuine interest, leaving me with a profound sense of inadequacy.

 

 

First day at the office

After some time, I managed to get a working student position at SAP, where I enjoyed the laid-back German corporate culture and the stable income. However, I couldn't really feel that the work I was doing was meaningful.

Later, when I officially started working at Samsung, the strict hierarchical corporate culture of this major Korean company was incredibly uncomfortable, and the work felt mind-numbingly repetitive. I was just watching the clock, waiting for the day to end, which felt like a colossal waste of time and brainpower.

 

 

Learning HTML and CSS

Fortunately, I really mean fortunately, that phase of my life came to an end, and surprisingly, I found it quite easy to decide to switch my career to IT development.

Starting in August 2022, I began studying the basics of Python on YouTube and learned fundamental HTML, CSS, and JavaScript through freeCodeCamp. I also picked up Git and committed to making daily contributions on my GitHub. As I started learning basic React, I realized the need for team projects, which led me to look into bootcamps.

Luckily, I found that I would be able to attend a bootcamp for free in Korea, thanks to national support programs. Additionally, I believed that getting work experience quickly was the most important since I did not study Computer Science, and getting a developer job in Korea might be easier for me than in Germany. Having graduated from a prestigious university, I could demonstrate my ability to learn, hard-working and consistency. Moreover, being fluent in English—a skill highly valued in Korea—offered me an edge.

So I decided to move back to Korea in November 2022.

 

 

Workplace at home home. Mom would bring some snack.

After coming back from Germany, I jumped into a frontend development bootcamp in mid-December 2022. It was a packed 6 months that ended with a big team project. Once I wrapped up the course in June 2023, I spent another month beefing up my skills, diving into stuff like TypeScript, Next.js, and React Native. Then came the job hunt, and lucky me, I landed a frontend developer job at a blockchain startup, starting on the 1st of September.

I was their very first hire, and I’m super thankful they took a chance on me. These past 8 months have been wild—I’ve picked up so many new things and had experiences I just wouldn’t get at a big company.

 

Now, in the next post, I’m taking a moment to look back at everything that’s happened since then.