In this article, I'll be sharing my thoughts and realizations about me, working as a web developer in a start-up company.

I started working as soon as I graduated in college 2 years ago. I've been part of a team that developed an alert system for a start-up company in our province. My co-workers were also my classmates in college, we finished the MVP (minimum viable product) within 2 months, my role there was more on the server-side, database design and implementation using Laravel and Mysql. Our codebase is horrible to be honest. Looking back, there was no one who can do code review, since we don't have a senior developer, We just use what we see on the internet copy pasting code. (I wonder how they are doing now), I left after finishing the MVP, due to poor management, being underpaid (provincial rate) and I felt that developers there are under valued.

As a result I tried applying on developer jobs in Metro manila. Luckily, after hundreds of resume sent-out, around 10-20 interviews, I've been hired in GSS Labs as a web developer. It's also a start-up company, and I'm their first employee. By the time I got on-boarded, We are just only two. The one who hired me is a japanese that is starting to build a software development team here in the Philippines. I was shocked at first, when I knew that I'm his first employee. I was very afraid as soon as I learned the situation, but as time goes on, I liked how dedicated and passionate my boss is. I was given front-end projects, mostly converting Photoshop designs to HTML/CSS packed with animations and a pixel-perfect requirement. To my surprise, It was very hard for me. As a fresh graduate, my front-end skills were not that good. I struggled to meet the deadline, and eventually failed to deliver the project. My morale and confidence is very low that time, I'm thinking of quitting, I studied front-end technologies and that's the first time I learned about freecodecamp, I finished the web responsive course there, It's very helpful indeed, backed with constant practice, and eventually I kinda, learned how Japanese software engineers develop their websites, I didn't quit.

Weeks past, and there are new team members, I feel relived, Now I have someone who I can ask for help and guidance, working with others is also great. I learned how to use git for team collaboration. Time goes on, and day by day I improved. Trial and error, I think I got the ability to find useful resources online, how to formulate questions, stacking numbers and points on stack overflow, joining tech communities and developers group. I built my network.

I reached my first year working as a web developer, I learned a lot, both technical and non-technical skills. Skills that I think are deemed necessary when you want to survive in this kind of job. grit, discipline and humility, These three things are the skills that I learned during the past year, aside from the technical skills that I acquired, mostly on front-end.

For those who are starting their career in the software industry, Be prepared, it's not easy. This article cannot summarize my one year of experience working as a web developer. I can say that, in these job, I will not give you time to be complacent on your current knowledge, every month new versions of the tools we currently use updates, in short, what you know today might not be the best option on the future, or worst already deprecated. So, if you really want to pursue this career, you must study not only the technical side, but also the motivation, why you want this job.