Q: What was your background before learning to code?

Before learning to code, I was running my own small company in the gaming industry. We were offering services in and around computer games. We helped players to play their games the way they enjoy it the most: by coaching them, playing out their repetitive content, and by supplying them with goods they need. At one point, I was managing over 25 international freelancers, playing games for our clients all day and night.

I always knew that it would be useful to write automation and process optimizations, but I was too busy to ultimately go for it. I followed a common belief that you had to be a genius or mathematician to be good at coding, so I eventually prioritized other things for a long time.

Q: How has learning at Altcademy help you get promoted so quickly?

Learning at Altcademy enabled me to get promoted quickly. After just three months, I had done all the projects and felt that studying full-time was not the path I wanted to take.

Therefore, I accepted a job as an account manager in a gaming company. There, I quickly identified inefficient processes and wrote small web applications and tools, based on my learning at Altcademy, to optimize those processes.

My manager was impressed with my initiative and the unexpected overall productivity boost, so I was promoted to manage a team. I then built more applications and conducted an analysis of incoming support tickets, as well as automated more small processes, to improve productivity even more. This led to the creation of a new department, which I was entrusted to lead.

Recently, I left the company, as I received a job offer that combines my experience in optimizing processes with leading teams, which I am currently enjoying. With Altcademy, I learned enough to build web applications and tools and was able to use this knowledge to further my career.

Q: What languages and tech stacks did you use to optimize workflows?

I used pure JavaScript for my first project and moved more into React. Recently, I have been using Python a lot for analyzing and manipulating data frames. I enjoy using frameworks like streamlit to bring prototypes to production or plotly.Dash to built beautiful dashboards to visualize my analytics. Especially the latter I really enjoy, as it combines HTML, CSS, React with Python libraries.

I have realized that building things is a better approach to learning than hand holding, and I have been learning everything I need to know by looking it up - a great lesson. This is the main skill set I have learned from attending Altcademy.

Q: What are your goals in the next 5 years?

In the next five years, I aim to progress from a manager to a director, double my salary, and explore any business ideas that are worth pursuing. Additionally, I hope to be part of a company that develops something with meaning and gives me the opportunity to manage teams of smart engineers.