Intro

I’m Eric Joseph, 24 years old. I currently work with Android app development, but I’ve also built projects across different areas. Coding is more than a job for me, it’s my hobby, and I love building whatever I’m curious about.

Learning on my own has always come naturally to me. This year, however, I took a new step and started a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. I had previously tried a Systems Analysis and Development course, but I ended up losing interest over time.

2008–2012

I was always taking apart remote control toys and reassembling them into something new. My favorite part? Those tiny motors — I loved experimenting with them.

Later on, a neighbor opened a small LAN house, that’s where I played my first games and started experimenting. I remember copying desktop game shortcuts onto my microSD card, thinking I’d somehow get the full game at home (my first “pirate hacks”, lol).

That experience sparked a big question in my mind: “What is this machine? How does it work? Can I make a game too?”. I was around 11 years old back then.

At this time the Lan House was closed permanently, sad. Now, where can i search more for “how this machine works”? After that, i’ve back to play with my friends in the street.

2012-2016

Not satisfied with that, I learned how to search, in the school library, by asking the IT manager, and exploring everything I could.

Keywords here: search andask, they’re essential in our field.

In 2012, I got access to my first PC, well, actually, it was my grandmother’s, and the whole family used it.

My time on it was mostly spent searching for books and printing them, page after page. I admit, I read tons of PDFs, especially books by Kevin Mitnick.

Was there another way to do it? I didn’t know.

I read a lot of books, reading was my only way to learn back then. Later, my mother gave me a laptop for my birthday.

I had fun coding with VBScript to prank my friends, pretending it was a game, haha, good times!

I also started learning how to mess with devices on the same LAN.

That was back in 2014, I remember it clearly.

VB Script Troll

But unfortunately, my laptop broke, and once again, I had no way to practice, only read.

However, I had an Android phone. I ended up jailbreaking it using a friend’s laptop at school, with the help of some online tutorials.

I downloaded QPython, a Python engine with an interpreter and editor. From that point on, all my coding was in Python. Math at school was hard to do manually, so I wrote a script to do it for me, haha!

2016-2020

After spending a lot of time writing Python code in QPython, I gained a solid foundation. But I still wasn’t satisfied and eventually, I gave up. No PC, no money, no direction.

2020-2024

Fast forward to 2020, right after finishing high school, I bought a mini laptop, also known as a netbook in some places. That’s when I was finally able to practice consistently again. I dove deeper into coding, now as a self-employed developer, and that’s when my career really began.

I started with bug bounties, cybersecurity consulting, and backend maintenance. Since then, I’ve worked with many clients and built all kinds of solutions.

2024 - NOW

But I forgot something important. The hype faded, and so did the clients. I had completely neglected my GitHub, LinkedIn, and didn’t care about going to college at the time. That was in 2024, and by a stroke of luck, I landed a job as a contractor, where I’ve been employed ever since.

https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/software-engineer-jobs-five-year-low/

Now, I’m picking up the pieces and doing it right…

---