My Journey into Web Development

Hey everyone! My journey into web development didn’t exactly start off smoothly. I studied IT at VKGTU in Ust-Kamenogorsk, but honestly, I wasn't really into programming back then. It seemed complicated, confusing, and on top of that, I didn’t see many opportunities here in Kazakhstan. It was 2011-2015, and there weren’t any big IT companies around. We were learning C#, and at the time, I decided that programming just wasn’t for me.

After graduating, I worked for myself for a bit — doing projects in printing. Then I spent a year in government service (yes, I wore a tie too), and after that, I worked in IT for about five years as a system administrator, helpdesk, basically a jack-of-all-trades IT guy. Then 2020 came along, COVID flipped the whole world upside down, and I decided it was time to reassess my life. That's when I saw Yuri Dud’s interview about Silicon Valley, where some regular guys from the CIS were talking about how they made it in the US. I watched it and thought, “Why not me?” — and decided to become a developer.

I started learning however I could: YouTube videos, Udemy courses, Googling every single question (thanks, Google, you're a real friend!). After some time, I found Hexlet and started learning there — first for free, then with a subscription. The progress was slow because I was balancing it with my job, and I tried to spend weekends with my family. But after a year of persistence, I managed to transfer to a web developer position in my company, working with Bitrix. I learned a lot there, thanks to my incredibly awesome mentor (shoutout to Dima!). I worked there for about two and a half years, and although I was happy with everything, certain circumstances forced me to switch to freelancing.

Now I'm a freelancer, and it’s a challenge for me. I’m growing as much as I can through different projects, and self-learning hasn’t gone anywhere. Why did I move to freelancing? Let’s just say it has to do with my future plans, which I’m not ready to fully share just yet — so stay tuned! That's all for now. Thanks for reading, and see you in future stories!