Starting anew as a Techie - by @lightforge13

The road from supply chain to software

After a decade working in supply chain with demand and process planning, I have decided to make a change in my professional life and move into the technology field of working environments, more specifically: software development.

Starting from scratch is never easy, especially if you have no previous experience. When I started in supply chain I at least had my studies as a baseline of what to expect, what I can do and how not to look like a complete fool. So starting again in the great unknown is not just scary, but exceptionally difficult too, especially if you consider your salary.

Now if you’re young, this is not so bad. Career changes happen all the time. If however, you’re the sole provider for your family of 4, it gets a little more complicated. You get accustomed to a certain level of living and reducing your income has a massive effect on your life. Your salary can be subsidized by odd jobs after-hours and on weekends. So, as usual, there is another door that opens.
The time you have to put into a new job, to prove yourself, is immense. When you do something for any number of years you get into a groove and a lot of what you do becomes second nature and thinking becomes less and less important. When you’re a newbie in a company, you have to prove yourself all over again, and when you know squat, that becomes exponentially more difficult.

It felt wonderful when I sent my resignation through to my line manager and I couldn’t be more excited about starting my new career. But, as I got closer to my starting date, the dread started to set in. I knew nothing….NOTHING. So trying to mitigate this stress I started to read up and look at a bunch of tutorials. The more I read, the more I stressed because I realized even more how little I knew. Objects, classes, push, pull, JavaScript, Ruby, Tortoise and git. I was bombarded by theory and I was lost in this world. I knew I was starting from scratch, but there were expectations to perform at a certain level, and the more time passed the more I started to worry about reaching those levels.

Eventually, my first day of work arrived. I met die team, the team met me, and I was given my first assignment. And it was relatively simple. I was elated. I would have time to learn, to grow, they understood my level of knowledge. This was going to be great!

So this is my blog, where I rant about whatever happened in the day. Where I try to remember and repeat what I’ve learned for the day(s). Where I blow off some STEEM

Follow me on my journey.