For me, programming came in late. I wanted to be a lawyer, I had graduated high-school with all hopes of studying law, but a light shone and a voice called out to me – “Michael, study Computer Science instead”. I then honoured the call and started preparation to get admission into University to study Computer Science. Thankfully, I got in.
In my first year (2012), I was introduced into the art of programming.
The idea of me building something for people to use was similar to being given a magic wand, which felt very good. I started experimenting with Visual Basic, the drag and drop system helped me easily visualize my ideas.
Year after year, I delved deeper, building applications for friends and small organizations. Everything changed when I was paid to build an application in my third year, a holy grail was given to me. I didn’t know people would pay you for what you enjoy doing most. It was an eye-opener.
To me, programming is not a task, but a hobby, and creating things is wired in my core. I became a frontend web developer because it’s the closest programmable bit to the user (had not discovered Product Design at that time) and I enjoy that feeling of being able to engineer experiences for users whilst controlling what they see and how they use the application as a whole.
As humans, it’s pure happiness to see people follow you. In programming, it’s the same feeling, if not more when you see metrics of the people that depend on what you build. I like the influence, though little, to control how people carry out their daily important business, leisure or personal tasks using my applications.
My Cuurios-story
I joined Cuurios in October 2018; a very good decision I must say. I applied because I wanted to learn how things are done in other companies, and Cuurios’ “Data to Actions” tagline sounded like a place that would boost my programming knowledge and nudge me to code more complex applications.
At the very beginning, my first project gave me sleepless nights, as I didn’t understand most of the application. I bought whiteboards and started disintegrating the project to understand the whole quite-complex system. Now, however, I have gotten a better grasp of working on complex systems, my frontend skills have improved dramatically. The best decision so far. I feel my role in Cuurios is important (very much to me), I control how and what the customer sees. Though you need to have a very keen eye for design to do this and Cuurios has enabled me to perform this art efficiently, even using my little Product Design skill. Although I cannot single-handedly add a button anywhere I like, but I can make sure the button sits where it can be easily accessed.
At Cuurios, every ticket is like a HackerRank question, especially when it comes from Leen (COO). Sometimes I’d have to read and re-read to be able to digest the problem and think of a suitable solution which has improved my problem-solving ability. I ask questions a lot and that has helped me grow. In addition to that, Gaetan’s (CTO) experience has made me a better programmer. I take time to study the codebases of the applications built. (When you learn from the best, you become like them).
I also wonder sometimes, how Leen does it, that he is everywhere from a business standpoint. I’ve learnt from him that you need to understand the customers’ request in-and-out.
I believe Cuurios is a place to be to sky-rocket your career and build fantastic projects, and most importantly everyone at Cuurios is human.