Why you should always follow your dreams!

• By Ana Nogal
• Posted 05 Aug 2015
• dreams codurance career culture

I started at Codurance a month and a half ago as a C# developer. I was glad to have the opportunity to work in a place where people value your effort to be a better developer.

I had been away from C# for more than 4 years, but I was happy to return. This was for me a great opportunity to catch up with my main language. But my passion is with iOS. In my own time, I started to apply all the techniques that I've been learning, especially on honing my TDD skills and applying TDD to iOS.

So why did I apply for C# and not iOS? Well, I looked for three months for a iOS company that could give me an opportunity. It was really hard. They all wanted senior developers who could get there and get the job done, but I'm not at that level in iOS yet. I still have a lot to learn and I needed an opportunity to learn more from experienced developers, exchange thoughts and understand how things work. Working in C#, I've worked with several clients, I know how to address a problem, and how I can put my expertise to help, but that's not yet true when working on iOS projects. This kind of experience is what I missed from my journey in the world of apps. I'm the primary developer of 4 apps, but that wasn't enough. I've deployed them all to the App Store, despite having to dedicate a whole day to it every time! But I was my own client. They all started as small pet projects that got big enough for me to stay at home for four years and try to make it work. I really loved it, but I missed the exchange of experience in a team. This is what makes you grow in your profession. The great discussions that a subject can lead to…

So two weeks ago, Sandro mentioned that we had an opportunity in iOS. A client was willing to have me as an apprentice, if I could pass the interview. I was thrilled that I could pursue my dream! Given a choice between iOS or C#, I will always choose iOS, but I never thought that Codurance would help me fulfill my dream. I can definitely be more profitable in C# than in iOS, but Codurance choose to give me an opportunity to grow.

Since my first job, where I stayed for 7 years, I haven't had the same feeling. I still say "my company" when I'm talking about them with friends. Since then I've worked in several companies not only in Portugal but also in Spain. None of them made me feel a team member or cared about my opinions. My colleagues have made me want to be a better person, not only a better developer.

Oh! by the way, I've done the interview and I started yesterday. ;-)

In the last two weeks, I reviewed everything I learnt about software development and applied it to Objective-C. I've been learning a lot! Even doing katas has made me investigate and discover all sorts of new concepts and approaches. But that will be the topic for another blog post.

So if you have a dream and you can't pursue it right away, don't lose the passion for it, and never ever put it in a drawer.