The year was 2016 - was in Bangalore - Silicon Valley of India - procrastinating my hours away.
Somewhere deep down I was not content - knew I was better.
I was like millions of developers out there getting an average salary without any direction of what next.
1) Self help books
The first sense of direction I got were from Self help books.
Got hold of The Mastery Manual by Robin Sharma. That was my starting point - that book gave me a direction.
It made me make a roadmap of what I wanted to master. For the first time in my life I had clarity.
Started with Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell.
Used to get up early mornings at 5AM and put 2 hours into practice.
Evenings - post work - Used to put 2 hours into practice.
Weekends used to practice for around 8 Hours.
Did each and every problem. It took around 4 months to finish that book.
2) Practice
Practiced like a maniac on HackerRank - got to under 1000 ranking in Algorithms.
Next moved on to Design Patterns - Took around 2 months to get my head around it.
Next moved to Threads - Again took around 2 months to complete each and every problem with loads of practice.
Every day it was at least 4 hours of personal coding + 8 hours on weekends or sometimes more.
At the end of 2016 I was seeing problems in a different light - Felt I did not belong in the place I was working anymore.
3) Javascript
2017
With that skill - secured a place in a wonderful company with package much higher than my peers. This is where my interest veered towards Javascript.
The love-bug that bit me was Angular - yeah I am one of those guys who learnt a framework first and then Javascript.
However made sure to get my Javascript skills right. That again took around 6 months of undeviating practice and sacrificing all those beer bashes.
Started contributing to Github and at the end of 2017 - Had close to 40+ github projects - yup thats how much I coded. Currently its 85+.
2018
Added React and Vue - threw in docker and a younger Kubernetes then into my forte. Webcomponents - Microfrontends - CSS - Flexbox - yada - yada - yada - coded everyday - everything.
Was a pro at work by this time - the goto guy - led teams - attended and conducted numerous hackathons - won many.
There wasn't a day where I did not code or learnt something new. Udemy and Pluralsight were my best buddies.
It felt like I was on a roll and that something exquisite was about to happen.
4) LinkedIn
While I was in middle of this transformation - Deleted all my social media accounts (Facebook - Instagram - Quora).
The only account which was active was/is LinkedIn .
Had worked on creating a brand for myself.
All this led to something that I have experienced only in the movies.
2019
On a lazy morning - I see a message from a Recruiter from Toronto, Canada in my LinkedIn. He had reached out for a job opportunity with an all expense paid move coupled with a pay which was around 4 times of how much I was earning at the time. It was too good an offer to refuse - In fact at first I thought it is a scam - well it wasn't.
Interviewed - cleared and 3 months since the inception of that message - Was in a completely new country - again doing what I love - Coding.
In short - was able to turn my life around - Have inculcated amazing habits - Have a hunger to learn more and most importantly - I am at peace with myself.
Since 2016, have read close to 100 books and continue to read everyday - it provides clarity and a wide spectrum of views.
I do hope my story inspires you to go above and beyond in your life.
A word I believe in - Perseverance.
I still feel - its just the beginning.