1992 - first computer

2001 - self-taught web dev (from a book, retro)

2002 - the Geocities years (artist's reconstruction)

2006 - studied for Computer Science A-Level (more books)

2007 - A-Level Project - produced CRM system for a local business from scratch in Visual Basic, including databases and dynamically generated UIs

2007 - Received A grade and school award for Computer Science

2008 - ...

Despite years of self-taught tinkering and my formal studies, I still didn't feel someone like me could be a 'real' programmer. I'd never met one, for starters, and in my mind, they sat in terribly fancy places hundreds of miles away doing terribly complicated things.

After school I spent some years focusing on my studies and HR career. When I surfaced for air, I found that the dev world had changed beyond recognition: languages I knew were obsolete; smartphones, apps, web 2.0 and the cloud had arrived. When I tried to revive my skills, I felt overwhelmed.

I finally began a full stack course in 2021 and have fallen in love again with the challenge of problem-solving. I'm 50% of the way through my course, have completed the front-end section, and will now be moving onto the back-end section. I know I have lots more to learn, but I'm excited to keep going this time.