TLDR#
I love video games, which got me into computers. Went from Game Design Degree to project co-ordinator to an IT degree. Now I am working in an industry that I enjoy because of how much there is to learn. It took me a while to get here though, details below (more like my whole story… But maybe read it if you have the time).
Moving to Australia alone#
Growing up, I loved playing games. So much so that I decided to make it my first specialization when I finished my GCSEs. I studied in Australia for 2 years (lived there for 3), then decided to move back to Malaysia for personal reasons. It was a great experience as I got to interact with people who had a different cultural upbringing, and it led to some of the best times of my life (so far). I still keep in touch with some of them, and always look forward to hitting them up whenever I am back in Melbourne. Some people saw my 3 years in Australia (especially considering my choice to pursue a degree in game development) as a waste of time, and for the first trimester, I felt the same way. I was having a hard time adjusting to the new environment, knew no one there, had no immediate family, and was struggling to keep up with the course. I remember the first assignment I ever had to hand in was a programming assignment of all things.
It was the day of the submission and my program couldn’t even start. Out of options, and desperate to get something running, I turned to a few strangers in the lounge that were in my class and asked for help. They were kind enough to help me out and work with me on getting my game running. I submitted my assignment with literally 5 seconds to spare (not even sweating). But the moment when the reds disappeared from my console was when I was hooked. The feeling of having an idea in your head, then telling a computer how to do it, AND having it actually work was addicting. I ended up graduating with little to no hiccups after that.
But what about all those other game design modules? Aren’t they useless to you now? Definitely not. I was being taught by some of the best educators I knew. Not only were they knowledgeable, with real working experience, but they were also genuinely having a great time working, and teaching us. It was contagious seeing how much they just enjoyed talking about everything they were so passionate about. And they taught us how I enjoy being taught, not with strict instructions, but by challenging how I thought about everything. Shout out to Sae and all of the wonderful people (students and faculty) I had the pleasure of meeting there, you guys are amazing! After graduating, and spending about a year in Melbourne, I decided to go home.
The Glorious Return#
It was definitely a culture shock, coming back after so long. I ended up being more outspoken (thanks to being in a foreign country alone), and generally easier to talk to and work with. However, I had a rough time finding a suitable job. With the combination of my specialization, and the industry landscape at the time, I ended up working as a project co-ordinator for a local animation studio. It was the roughest job I worked at so far.
For 10 months, the entire studio was swamped with projects and deadlines, so much so that we were all consistently working 12-14 hour days. Some weekends were also spent at the studio with everyone else, hard at work. But again, the people there were great. I got to learn a lot about project timelines, and handling clients. It was also there that I got my first glimpse of IT. See, when I was there, I was also given IT related tasks. Nothing too crazy, but enough to get my toes wet in the world of computers. Couple that with the fact that I was still about 21 years old at the time, I decided to leave the studio and pursue a second degree in IT.
To be very frank, I learned a lot more in my first degree than I did in my second. Only some of the lecturers seemed genuinely interested in teaching. The knowledge I gained was still useful, but it definitely was nowhere near as enjoyable as my first. And it definitely was not just the course content, I love learning about virtualization, networking, and everything that comes with IT. COVID hit during my final year, and it actually gave me a lot of time to learn stuff that did not fall within the syllabus.
Jumping into IT#
My first full time job in IT came from the same company where I did my internship (a friendly local startup). There, I was working more on the server infrastructure side of things, as a system engineer. Much of it was learning about server roles, on top of virtualization, and networking. Much less on Linux (we still did a bit), mostly Windows. I specialized in the Active Directory, group policy, and Exchange server, among others. After that, I jumped onto powershell scripts, automating some of the initial setup, and troubleshooting steps we generally take. We were also given the opportunity to pursue certification from Azure along with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Not long after that, an opportunity came to work at a software company.
After learning so much about the server aspect of tech, from specific server stuff to backup solutions and how they work, I decided it was time to take a leap towards the software side of things. And there was 0 overlap between the two. There, I learned not only about backend Java development, but also how big companies (this company was a bigger multinational) automate a lot of their processes. From being in the weeds with debugging code, to working with automated build steps, and release processes, to release planning and scope definition, I learned so much. There, I found a new love for documentation, and knowledge sharing as well.
Whenever we were working on something new and had questions regarding the technical implementation, we would conduct spikes to explore the possibilities and propose solutions. From the initial problem statement, to investigating tools and implementations that could help us, to finally proposing the solution with detailed documentations on testing methodologies, some cost-benefit analysis, and some more detailed explanations on the finer details, we ended our spikes with a presentation to the team (and sometimes, the entire department). This was where much of the public speaking I did back in Melbourne came in very handy. I was not only comfortable with presenting, but was able (according to my peers) properly articulate them such that everyone understood the problem and the solution we were proposing. But something was lacking, I now had the knowledge of the server level architecture, and some of the software development side of things, but when you are working in a big company, much of the responsibilities are delegated across different departments. We had departments for consultation, core development, even regional development could be separated across different teams and regions. I was lacking a lot of knowledge on how to start from scratch. If I ever wanted to start my own company (not that I plan to), or encountered an issue outside of my teams scope, I would have no clue at all where to start. Then, the opportunity to take another leap came along.
Where I am now#
I was provided with a new opportunity to join another local startup. This was another opportunity for me to learn about things that I previously never had the chance to. Compared to working at a larger company, startups gave me the opportunity to work on and experience all the other aspects of software development that I had previously missed out on. I was back to talking to clients again, I could look at the infrastructure needed for CI/CD pipelines that I used on a daily basis from a completely different perspective. I now had more access to everything. And I could bring all of my previous experiences and wisdoms with me. Also, I went from Java to Typescript, which was another not-so-significant change. On the surface, I was doing the same things, software. But everything was different, and it allowed me to challenge my understanding of what I thought I knew. And that is something I find to be extremely valuable. Especially as someone whose career is still just getting started. Hopefully, there will be more for me to share here in the future, but for now, I will leave it at that. More updates to come.