2022 Wrap Up - A Journey To Open Source.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Introduction
Hello there 👋 ! Before starting this blog, let me introduce myself to all my readers. I am Vishrut Agarwalla, I have done Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications from an ok-ish college Pune Institute of Computer Technology, Pune and then I worked for a company called Eurofins IT Solutions for like 6 months as Associate Software Engineer and then I left it and started with Open Source.
So, 2022 was more of a roller-coaster ride for me rather than just a year, as I joined a company and left it in 2022 itself. Also, I was introduced to Open Source in 2022 and did some contributions also.
So,
How it all started?
I am a person who was a bit familiar with programming but I had no knowledge of Open Source, nor do I know anything about Remote Jobs, Tech Twitter or Tech Communities. Also, I didn't know that we can connect with different folks around the world and move around the world for tech conferences and other stuff.
So, first of the difficulty was that I had done my Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications and that too I graduated in 2021 which was during the COVID-19 pandemic. So for obvious reasons, there were very less companies that came to my college to conduct their placement drives.
Then, I had very less marks before that, lots of backlogs and a year down as well i.e. I was running already later than my friends who joined engineering with me but graduated 1 year before me. So for me getting placed in a company was like climbing Mount Everest, let alone getting a remote job and other stuff.
So, long story short I had nothing to write on my resume as I had no activities, no prizes, no good grades, no internships, no projects nothing.
Turning Point
After graduating all my friends were working in some company or other and I was just sitting at my home, with no job nothing. Then, I decided to buckle up and start coding and learning stuff at full pace and look to get placed in a company. So after all, that I worked hard for like almost 5-6 months rigorously and sincerely and finally got placed in Eurofins IT Solutions as Associate Software Engineer in April 2022.
But, then I was not satisfied and also I did not like the culture in that company as they had a very toxic world culture and that company's tech stack was also very old and obsolete. So I left it in September 2022.
Start of My Actual Journey
So, while working in the company I came across Kunal Kushwaha's youtube channel first started by learning DSA but then I came to know about Open Source, Remote Work, Tech Conference and Tech Twitter.
So, during September, I came across this month-long Open Source Festival called Hacktoberfest. So I wanted to get started with Open Source but I was not good with Git and Github. So I decided to Contribute and learn it along the way. So, I did my contribution and to my surprise,
I got this 👇 and also some swags from Hacktoberfest, just waiting for it to reach me.
Blog Writing
I heard from many folks on Twitter that writing blogs can help you to land jobs and get recognized among folks around the world as people would read your blogs and other stuff, but I was very afraid of writing anything like blogs etc. and I disliked writing it down. Also, I had no experience in writing blogs and technical stuff but then I came across Kunal Kushwaha's Hashnode Monthly Challenges which made me understand that it is very easy and very simple to write a blog, but even after that I did not have so much of guts to pull it off.
Then, finally, at the end of December, I saw that Hashnode was running this cool challenge called DevRetro 2022. I made a profile on Hashnode then I thought about writing a blog and made a small structure of whatever was on top of my head and then I published this 👇 blog in January 2023.
Learning and Building in Public
I never knew that there is a thing called Learning and Building in Public. So, in one of Kunal Kushwaha's videos, I came to know that if you are learning anything then you need to share it in public which will help the community to learn from you for those who are starting in tech and also people will acknowledge you that you are doing something and there are fair chances that you might end up getting a job from this.
So, he explained that learning in public just means that you need to share your journey in whichever way you like in the form of blogs, threads on Twitter or maybe in the form of Youtube video but you should share it in the public as it will add value to the community even if it is a small value but it does add value.
Things that I learned
Through this, I came across many like-minded and interesting folks around the world.
Got into many communities like we make devs, EddieHub and GrowInCommunity.
I started sharing things in public and didn't hesitate by thinking that people are going to judge me or something like that.
It also gave me a good sense of achievement and made me look forward to learning new stuff and sharing it to add as much value as possible by me to the community.
Challenges I Face
Even today sometimes I feel like having Imposter Syndrome by looking at amazing folks doing amazing stuff and I wonder sometimes why I am in this field? Is it really my zone? Am I going to survive here? and questions like that pop up in my head all the time.
I also saw that many folks have huge followings, people just appreciate them and want to connect with them and other stuff but I used to feel very lonely on Twitter initially.
Tech Twitter
Twitter is a great place to learn development, build or work on your soft skills and other stuff. You can check out me on Twitter i.e. vishrutagarwalla. So, I became eager to explore the world of Tech Twitter and guess what tech Twitter is very supportive and very diversified as you will find a lot of folks around the globe, sharing their amazing work and stuff without getting judged or discriminated against for their colour, age, gender, nationality and other stuff.
People are just here to learn stuff and support each other. There is a whole positive ecosystem around tech Twitter and folks are just amazing. I made some amazing friends over here Akshay Kumar, Mohd Imran and many others. We also started building our own community called GrowInCommunity which you can check out and join.
Also, I won my first giveaway on Twitter by Eleftheria Batsou, where I got a 30 mins mentorship session with Jones Zachariah Noel. This is what I like about Twitter it is very supportive, where you learn from others and are motivated to learn new technologies and upskill yourself.
Projects
In 2022, I build and worked on some amazing projects last year to apply my learnings, deep dive into web development and also to showcase it in my resume to get hired by an organisation as above mentioned I didn't have many projects in my resume to showcase.
Starbucks Redesign
So, some of the projects were Starbucks Redesign which you can check out. I built using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript with the use of some APIs for animations and other stuff.
E-commerce Website
Built a basic E-commerce website using ReactJS, GraphQL and TypeScript. In this project, I got to learn a lot about ReactJS, TypeScript and GraphQL. Got a good idea about how to create react app, how to code in TypeScript and how to implement GraphQL endpoints.
Weather App
Built a beautiful Weather App using HTML5, CSS3 and Vanilla JavaScript. I also used OpenWeatherAPI for fetching real-time location and real-time weather of that location.
And many more projects. You can check out my GitHub profile.
Lessons I learned
The last 4 months of 2022 were more productive and full of learning than the entire year itself. During this whole Journey of 2022, I learned a lot of life-changing lessons but some of the key learnings that I want to mention below 👇
It's Never Too Late
I started my Journey in September 2022, before that I had no clue about Tech Twitter, Remote Work, Open Source and any other stuff. I regret it a lot and also the main reason for me to regret it more is that I graduated in 2021, got placed in an average company, left it and still hustling to get a good remote job. But I think this hustle is worth it. So it doesn't matter where you start from but you should commit yourself and give your 100% and you will definitely achieve your goal.
Getting success is not a one day thing, Its a process and everyone has to go through it.
Blaming Surroundings and Situations is an Excuse
When I started out, I had no one to guide me, no mentors, no friends and nothing of that sort. But, I would say that the day you start your journey, you will start finding your way by yourself. Stop Blaming the surroundings, by saying that I don't have that environment and stop blaming situations, that I don't have a mentor or I have no one to give me mentorship are all excuses. The day you start connecting with people and asking the right questions in public automatically you will connect with the right people and you will get the right environment if you don't get one just create it.
Don't Compare yourself to anyone
In this journey, you are the only competitor of yourself. DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF TO ANYONE ELSE as everyone has their own journey rather you should compare yourself from yesterday to the next day. I read a quote in a book called "Atomic Habits" and I quote and try to implement it in my own life is:
If you can get 1% better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done.
Conclusion
Thankful to everyone who supports and helps me in the journey. And, I will try to upskill more in 2023, learn new things, write more blogs and also build some more projects. Till then, be happy and help others.
Be a part of my journey
Twitter (Vishrut Agarwalla)
LinkedIn (Vishrut Agarwalla)
