Hello readers, I will start by introducing myself, I’m Sadiq Salis Gebe a self-taught developer with over six years of experience in the tech industry, I started learning programming in college. Everything was going well when I was focusing on building static websites with HTML and CSS, and then I started getting curious about how dynamic websites work. So, I started researching how to create a dynamic website, while I was doing that a friend suggested PHP and MYSQL, which I started learning.

After learning the basics of PHP and MYSQL, I remember testing my skills by building a login and registration system with PHP and MYSQL, which was awesome, I was excited about it. I kept on building mini projects to enhance my skills and at the same time, I was reading Books like PHP and MYSQL for Dummies, mastering PHP, Clean Code in PHP … etc. My final year project topic was to develop a social networking site for my department, I faced a lot of challenges in developing the app, but the most challenging one was, trying to get real-time messages on the platform, it was a very big challenge for me at the time, it took me a week trying to figure out how to implement the feature. The first step I took was to identify the problem, then come up with the algorithm, read blog posts on relevant issues, identify tools that will be used in solving the issue, and then use socket.io to solve the challenge. I successfully completed the project.

Being a self-taught developer was not easy for me because I was not following a structured way of learning, I was just doing stuff on my own and I was not treating it as a career, it was along the way I discovered I could make a living with programming. This led me to start applying for jobs and attending tech meetups, but I kept failing interviews, after this experience I decided to discuss it with friends and some people in the tech community. I later realized that I have a knowledge gap and I need to have real-world experience in solving complex problems and doing things in a structured way.

I started looking for a way to gain more experience in a structured way that would make me an industry-standard developer, I explored a lot of options which included enrolling myself into a coding bootcamp, but that’s not the solution because I already have the knowledge, I’m only missing structured way of doing things. After sharing my concern with an old friend, he suggested that I should apply for an HNG internship, telling me about the benefits of HNG, so before I applied, I did research about HNG and it turned out to be what I was missing, so I applied for the internship.

I’m eager for it to start as I’m planning to gain standard and structured experience, expand my knowledge and network, gain more confidence in getting a job, and fill the knowledge gap that I have.