From camera to code - Dev Retro 2022

Hey Folks 👋️

Let me tell you about myself in brief, I am Danish Khan, a first-year B COM student, and before 2022 while I was in my last year of school I have already worked on a few video editing projects as a freelance video editor. Mid-January, I saw a friend of mine who is a computer science student at NIT Durgapur builds a cool AI Project. After using the app, I don't know from where but suddenly an urge to learn to program takes birth in my mind. I wanted to learn, so I made a few quick searches and landed on some youtube channels for the roadmap to learning machine learning and AI. Then I took a course on Coursera on Machine Learning. Although I took the course, I didn't do anything for the next 2-3 days, I was confused about whether I should quit freelancing as a video editor or not. After a few self-talks, I concluded that as of right now I am not having any responsibility to earn my living, I will spend this time learning what my heart says, instead of just settling on one skill.

Problems faced:

The Mindset change is quite real between editing videos and writing code. The first few days whatever I did, just didn't run properly, there wasn't even a single moment I remember where things worked as it was shown by my instructor. I was not able to get it that why did the same code which my instructor showed didn't work?

Learning to code had steep learning for me. There are many concepts, languages, and technologies to learn, and it got very overwhelming at times. To overcome this challenge, I had to be persistent and stay focused on my goals. I also found it helpful to break down complex topics into smaller chunks and practice regularly to improve my skills.

Programming Languages Learned

Python
R

Tech Learned

Keras
Tensorflow

How did I make the switch happen

To make this transition, I took the following steps:

Research and planning: Before making the switch, I did research to understand more about the field of software engineering and what it would take to succeed in this career. I also planned out my learning path and set specific goals to help guide my journey.
Learning the basics: To start my journey, I took an online course in machine learning and artificial intelligence to learn the fundamentals of programming and data science. This helped me to gain a strong foundation in the basics and build up my skills over time.
Practicing and applying my skills: In addition to taking online courses, I also practiced my coding skills by working on personal projects and participating in coding challenges. This helped me to apply what I had learned and gain practical experience in a low-stakes environment.
Seeking guidance and support: To further my learning and gain experience, I sought out mentorship and guidance from experienced developers and connected with other learners through online communities and local meetups. These resources helped me to get help when I needed it and stay motivated on my learning journey.
Building my portfolio and seeking opportunities: As I gained more skills and experience, I began to build a portfolio of my work to showcase my abilities and skills. I also started to seek out opportunities such as internships or entry-level positions to gain real-world experience and build my professional network.

Overall, making the switch from video editor to software engineering required a lot of dedication, hard work, and a willingness to learn and adapt. With time and effort, I was able to build the skills and experience needed to succeed in this exciting and fulfilling field.

Future Plans

I want to dig deep into NNs
Build some opensource projects