My Journey to Become An Independent Software Developer

My Journey In Becoming an Independent Software Developer.

Hi! My name is Sam and I’m a Software Engineer from Canada! I wanted to share an article on my journey so far in becoming a Software Engineer, and specifically one with the capacity to move projects from ideation to production independently. I hope to share with you my learning journey, things I did well, things that could’ve gone better and where I’m looking to improve moving forwards!

In order to do this, I need to take you back, like way back, like 2018 back. I won’t go so far as when I first learned how to code (that’s a story for another day) but I will start with my first ever independent software project. In 2018, I was contracted by a publishing company called Quality Activity Books. They were a publishing company that created puzzle books, things like: crosswords, mazes and Sudokus. They wanted to modernize their workflow by investing in software that could create some of these puzzles for them. So my task was to build them software that could generate Sudoku puzzles for their books. Seems easy enough.

I dove into research. Identified common algorithms and solving patterns and got to work. Within a few days I had a working solution that could deliver on their needs. Eager to show it off, I booked a demo with the company to show them my work. Unfortunately, few stories are so perfect. The software was slow and un-performant over large volumes, and also couldn’t output the puzzles in re-usable format.

I learned a lot from this experience. It taught me to pay attention to the little things. All contract projects have primary problems and secondary considerations. I learned to think about: scaling, integration, testing etc.

As I moved forward in my independent career, I expanded my skillset from core languages (C++, Python) to more broader technologies: Web, Mobile, Embedded etc. I started to pick-up work in these new areas and become more confident in my abilities.

Recently though, I picked up a new project which really challenged my skillset both as a developer and independent. I was brought in to lead the development of a blockchain application. This was different from my previous roles in two respects:

1. I was now both a leader and a developer

2. I’m working on blockchain. How does that work??

It was the first time I had ever worked on a blockchain project, and I had to do it as a leader? The project really tested my ability to learn quickly, be communicative and work with new technologies. But the main thing that I took away was that the process was no different. All of the things that I had learned from my past experience didn’t go away just because I was working on some new fancy blockchain application. Those learnings grounded me throughout the project and enabled me to ultimately lead the application to a successful release despite not coming in with prior technical experience immediately pertinent to the application.

Overall my independent journey has been filled with some great experiences, and many moments of learning. But at the core of each experience, was the importance of attention to detail and communication. These are the two most important character traits of a successful independent in my opinion and I'm continuing to refine these skills as I go along with my independent journey!