Who Am I?
My name is Siyamthanda Maxwell Gxowa, I am 26 years old and I am a Full-Stack Web Developer. Born and raised in George where I spent all my early education life. My tertiary education background is a BSc in Biotechnology and PGDip in Immersive Technologies at the University of The Western Cape.
My early childhood in the township gave me a curious mind to ask a lot of questions about my surroundings and how things work. This birthed the love I had for biology and technology. I would always ask questions like 'how do cellphones and computers work?' or 'where do babies come from?'. My parents thought I'd be a lawyer with the questions I always had!
How I Got Into Development
I initially studied Biotechnology to become a Forensic Scientist as my love for the profession grew during my high school years. As years went by in my 4-year course, being in a biology lab for the rest of my life, didn't really quite suit my personality trait. The lack of excitement about the course grew and finished the course in 6 years! Two years after my record-time!
I was then made aware of a course during my final BSc year about the Immersive Technologies course at the university in partnership with EON Reality. Now I was like, how cool is that? Virtual reality is the big thing in this decade and is still growing! I enrolled for the course and I have been happier in what I do ever since.
The course focused on 3D, Mobile, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality application development. It also included a project phase of 4 months where we had created an AR mobile application. The application was created by a team consisting of 3D designers, developers, and project managers. We all came from different educational backgrounds such as Medical Biosciences, Information Systems, Geology, and Accounting to name a few; most of us was our FIRST time coding EVER!
At the completion of the course, I was a certified XR Developer through EON Reality and the application research paper was submitted at the time of writing this post at The Journal of Applied Sciences. I had to move back home due to my situation and was left heartbroken, miserable, and depressed due to the loss of my father in early 2021. It was a difficult time for me and had to pause my career and help out in the family business.
How I Started With Web Development
Being at home I started reading a lot and realized that I had to start picking myself up and that I was the only person who would save me! With AR and VR requiring more advanced hardware I decided not to pursue building such applications. I then decided to look for development that would only require a minimum of a laptop and a connection and that is how I landed in Web Development.
A friend of mine who is a senior full-stack developer at a top company advised me to start learning the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I started with websites such as W3 Schools, Sololearn, CodeAcademy, YouTube, and more. In February 2022 I enrolled in a Bootcamp on Udemy titled 'The Complete 2022 Web Development Bootcamp' by Dr. Angela Yu.
The Bootcamp focuses on HTML, CSS, Javascript, Node, React, MongoDB, Web3, and DApps. I am now 70% percent complete with the Bootcamp and currently learning MongoDB. My portfolio is under construction showcasing my resume and projects. My goal is to complete the Bootcamp by the end of April 2022 and land a development job before the end of 2022.
Conclusion
Right now I am just learning and reading a lot, which is why I have decided to start blogging so that I can also learn while sharing. Let's connect if you have an idea in mind where you think we can share minds: Email: maxwell.gxowa@gmail.com, LinkedIn. Please share resources and let me know what you think of the article. One love!