This week, new Ukranian Mayden Academy student Vasile tells us about his journey to coding…
I’ve liked computers since I was a child, and got my first one in fifth grade. It was a Duron 750Mhz and had 128 MB of RAM, 32mb of graphic card and 20gb HDD. It was so powerful that it even ran 3D games. (Like I said – really powerful.)
It ran on Windows 98, which was a little annoying. I hated the grey design of Windows 98. So in 2001, when Windows XP was released, I was excited to install it on my PC. Sadly though, it was really slow.
That’s when I took my first steps in programming. I tried to apply the design of Windows XP to Windows 98. And, after I few weeks, it finally worked! I had a system that was as fast as Windows 98 and as beautiful as Windows XP.
During school, I managed to break my PC about a hundred times, and my 20GB of HDD became closer to 12GB. The other 8 were bad clusters. Still, I became the guy my friends and neighbours would go to when they needed their computer fixed.
A few years later, I went to university to get my law degree. And I really liked it. It helped me really improve my analytical skills. I spent time looking for loopholes, or ‘bugs’ in law acts – I found that way more interesting than just learning the acts and how to use them.
In my third year at university, I had a business idea to install laundry systems in student
halls. (In Ukraine, before I started my business, we didn’t have washing machines in students halls.) So I found a few programmers and PCB engineers to build laundry machines. I now have the largest network of
self-service laundries in Ukraine.
In Ukraine, the water quality in the city grid is terrible, and if you wanted cheap and good water, you would have to buy it from the trucks which come at the exact time each day and beep their horns on the streets. Initially I got the trucks to deliver clean water to our machines. Eventually we built and installed self service water machines, which became very popular.
Later, we looked at self service car washes, made a lot of improvements to them and produced our own car wash system. I built the website for my company and really enjoyed the process. It reminded me of how satisfying I’d found it to redesign my copy of Windows 98.
Running your own business is all about problem solving. I’ve started to learn more front end technologies and JS algorithms, and I find it really exciting. Programming is all about solving lots of tiny problems, and you can get results fast which I find really motivating.
Next, I applied to Shool42, passed their online assessment and was accepted to study C language there. I wrote code 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, and I liked working at that pace. It was super cool.
Now, in Bath, England, I am studying full stack development (mostly JS, NodeJS and PHP) at Mayden Academy. I’m really enjoying the course and spending so much time programming. In a few more months, I’ll be a software engineer.
My main message here is that you shouldn’t have to compromise on doing something you enjoy for a living. Believe in yourself and don’t be afraid to try new things. Be curious and hungry, and adventure will find you.
