From my experience in technology- Part 1

Don't limit yourself by your boundaries, limit yourself by the strength to break those boundaries

Passion for computer science wasn’t so trivial for me. Until my 10th grade, I loved biology and then my interest grew in mathematics but computers were never my cup of tea. I still remember in my 10th grade, my friend got a smartphone and she was flaunting it. I asked her whats new in it, she along with many other features told me its Android. I have heard the term but never understand it, so, out of curiosity I asked her though she herself didn’t know. One other incident was when I first time actually opened my laptop in June 2015 and believe me when I say that at that time I didn’t even understand what rar files were. I took computer science as a part of the herd and till my 1st year, I was a studious girl studying to score marks and listening to seniors to take part in some activities. 

My life took turn when I did a course in hacking in my summer vacations of 2015 and got exposed to the world of technology. At that time, I came to know about many trivial and non-trivial things in technology. Being first-year student I didn’t know much at that time and my struggle to understand took me to where I am today. I started exploring terms and various other things. Then I decided to do a course in Java as advised by my friend during my 3rd semester and it becomes another good decision. In trying to prove myself best in class, I actually started enjoying solving problems and challenging myself. I struggled with some problems, worked on them for days and filled copies with various ways to solve that problem. Then I did android app development and started working on projects in app and website both at that time. I won’t lie but I seriously felt lost in classes. It was only when I and my friends worked on that movie project in my vacations and my skills sharpened.

All my hard and smart work showed results in the 3rd year when I got my first android app development internship and started on many other projects. I also become active in local developer communities and learn about other things. And then the day came when I won Smart India Hackathon 2017 and it was a start of lifetime achievements.

Whatever I have learned these last 2 years or so, I am going to share in this blog series which I found fruitful. But at first, I need to tell this that everyone has different stories but one thing that is important in achieving your goal is passion and perseverance. So, use this to learn about my ways but don’t forget to find your own as well. And those who have an excuse of college, I have completed two coding courses, internship and all these achievements within my college life and an aggregate of more than 85%.

How to approach and accomplish?

Single answer STAY HUNGRY, hungry for knowledge, hungry for learning and most importantly, hungry to become better each and every day. And you will find your own ways just like I did when you are eager. There are many resources online to learn but does it matter? Unless you decide to go there and find them, read them and use them.

I was no different, I was also completely naive. But it was all my hunger due to which I found my ways. I started going to be technical events and meetups. Hell! I went to meet-up in between my end semester exams. I started following technical pages (my whole FB feed is more technical).

Projects

I have realised that learning through a project is much better than theoretical language. I have learned PHP, Django and very much Android App Development only because of projects. Even I got a good hold of Java and python after working in Android App Development and Django respectively. So, I always advise people to go for projects irrespective of they are taking classes. The most important thing that I feel with working in the project is that it teaches you how to Google or search. All the languages, frameworks and resources are vast, you can’t neither teach them nor study them. Hence, it is important that you learn how to find your use case in that vast sea which you will learn with practice. Also, in the end, you are learning to create something, right? Then why not, creating while learning.
Personally, I don't like to work on hardware projects but it's up to you. I would advise to work on projects that drive you to work on them. It can include personal projects, projects for someone’s good or just because you want to work on them. I worked on many projects at the same time just because I loved to work on them.  Here's a link which has some good ideas for projects to improve your skillset. 

Now come showcasing your work and project. For this, I always advise to use a version control and nowadays Git is very popular. Host your project code on Github to showcase it. Github is one of the best things in development, it also it a major repository of open-source projects as well. And git always comes in handy even during internships. If you are working on a website without backend you can host it on Github pages directly. For all other websites, you need hosting service, you can use 000webhost.com for PHP as it is free for 2 websites. You can also host projects on heroku.com. For apps, upload it to play store or apple store as applicable.

You will find my personal favorite one here. This was my hidden project some time ago but I am really proud of it.

Initial Project

I came across this question many times. So, I would suggest you create your online portfolio on Github. You can also use already available templates from Google. This project is good in a way that you will love to create it as it is about you and leave you an option to explore your creativity. Editing templates have two benefits other than the creation of your project - it's easier to edit template then creating from scratch and you will learn in a much better way like coding style, commonly used libraries, etc.

If you feel there are some new terms you don’t know about try to Google them or learn from peers. You can also ask in comments or mail me at meghaaggarwal493@gmail.com, I will try to give an easy explanation.
More coming soon!

/codeb1ooded/