How I start my software engineer career

The Beginning – Falling Into Blockchain (2021)

I began this journey in 2021, during the peak of the blockchain boom.
At that time, NFTs were everywhere, and I was deeply fascinated by the space. Naturally, I wanted to launch my own NFT project.

To make that happen, I started searching for online resources and teaching myself everything from scratch.

Here’s the funny part:

Most software engineers start with Python or JavaScript.
If you studied Computer Science, your first language was probably C or Java.

But me?

My first programming language was Solidity — a language used to write smart contracts.
Its syntax is somewhat similar to JavaScript, but at the time, I knew absolutely nothing about software development.

Looking back now, it’s honestly kind of hilarious.

I jumped straight into smart contract programming without understanding the basics of software engineering. But that was the start.

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Learning Frontend the Hard Way

To launch an NFT project, writing smart contracts isn’t enough.

You also need a website to introduce your project and integrate the smart contract so users can interact with it.

So I began learning:

• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript

My early learning method? Extremely inefficient.

I would download other people’s website HTML files, inspect their CSS through DevTools, and try to reverse-engineer everything.

It was a complete disaster.

Eventually, I realized I needed to start from the fundamentals.
I searched for tutorials on YouTube and bought discounted courses on Udemy. I spent my days obsessively watching lessons and building projects on my own.

Back then, there was no ChatGPT.

Whenever I encountered a problem, I had to Google it or search through Stack Overflow threads. It was slow and sometimes frustrating — but I kind of miss those days.

Even though it wasn’t efficient, solving a problem after hours of searching gave me an incredible sense of accomplishment.

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Stepping Into the Industry

After COVID, I decided to test myself in the real world.

I joined a web development outsourcing company.
That was where I truly learned the standard software development workflow.

I was very fortunate to meet an amazing mentor there.

When I first joined the company, my CSS was… honestly, a disaster.

But he was incredibly patient and guided me step by step. I’m deeply grateful for his mentorship.

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A New Chapter – Studying in Australia

After nearly two years of growth at the company, I made a life decision.

I chose to resign and pursue a Master’s degree in IT in Australia. I graduated in August 2026.

And that’s roughly how my journey as a software engineer began.

There are many more funny and chaotic stories in between — I’ll share them another time.