Making The Leap Into Development

Lakshman 'Lucky' Hariharan

Thinking that coding was ‘too hard’, the fear of the unknown, and believing that I had missed the boat left me feeling stuck in my job. I graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2021, and later secured a full-time role as an actuarial analyst. I quickly realized that even though it seemed like I was doing well, I was not happy in my field.

I thought back to CS115: Introduction to Computer Science from my first year of university, where we used Racket to study the basics of programming. I remembered how I resonated with the course, and enjoyed working on each week’s assignment. I decided that enough was enough, and resolved to re-introduce the fun of programming into my life. So I quit my job, and enrolled in a coding academy called Skillify. Their support has accelerated my growth by pointing me in the right direction and providing key people and resources.

For me, learning to code has not only meant investing in my programming skills, but also my self-confidence, and my ability to embrace the discomfort of solving challenging problems. The process has involved constantly learning, and sharpening my ability to navigate uncertainty effectively. With these skills, I've built a personal landing page, features for the Skillify website, and I want to explore building applications for mobile!

At Skillify I've scoped out and built a few games, and helped build a coaching dashboard for Skillify coaches to more easily track a student's progress. Building this feature included learning to use GraphQL to talk to our backend, which I had never done before!

I know there is a lot left ahead of me on my journey, and I will keep my head down and keep learning! I cannot overstate how grateful I am to my family for their support, and to Skillify for their expert coaches and resources!