Samuel Samuel DubikDubik

01 / THE PATH SO FAR

I've learned a lot. There's plenty more to learn.

1. 2020 – 2024Learning the foundations.BSc in Informatics · Technical University of KošiceView chapter

   01 / THE FOUNDATIONS

   Starting with C.

   • C
   • Java
   • C#

   I started programming in 2020 when I began studying Informatics. C came first, followed by object-oriented programming in Java. I picked C# for a semester too, because I wanted to try both alternatives and see the differences for myself.

   02 / TRYING MANY DIFFERENT THINGS

   Exploration of diverse technologies.

   University gave me plenty of opportunities to try different areas of computing. I explored the basics of machine learning in Python with pandas and scikit-learn, took a semester of Assembly because — why not — and even dabbled in Haskell to get a taste of functional programming.

   Networking.

   I was also curious about networking. I took three classes covering computer networks, network device configuration, and the theory behind how the internet works. I've always found the internet fascinating, so I wanted to understand what was actually happening underneath the applications we use every day.

   03 / LEARNING BY BUILDING

   My first React Native app.

   Somewhere along the way, I tried building a fitness app in React Native with JavaScript. It failed. Spectacularly. The app never became anything particularly useful, but it gave me the foundation for skills I would later use professionally for the next three years.

   Next.js and web development.

   Around the same time, I discovered Next.js. We used it for a team project where we built a web application that received data from measuring devices over WebSockets and allowed users to analyze the results. Since then, Next.js has become my go-to framework whenever I build something for the web.

   Co to žere / dashboard

   

   Throughout university, I tried to go the extra mile whenever there was something new to learn. I didn't particularly care if that made a project harder, took more time, or occasionally even resulted in a worse grade.

2. 2021My first frontend role.Frontend Developer · SYTELIView chapter

   • Vue
   • Bootstrap
   • JavaScript

   01 / THE OPPORTUNITY

   First real project

   After my first year at university, I wanted to get some practical experience and found a summer job at a small company in my hometown. They were building ticketing kiosk software with Vue and Bootstrap — and it became my first real experience with web development.

   02 / LEARNING ON THE JOB

   From watching to building.

   I came in knowing very little. They gave me a YouTube course on Vue and, thankfully, the time to actually learn it on the job. That’s where I picked up the basics of JavaScript and eventually started building simple layouts and functionality myself.

   03 / WHAT STAYED WITH ME

   I definitely didn’t leave that summer as a fully-fledged web developer, but it opened my eyes to a whole new side of programming.

3. 2023 – 2026Building for real users.React Native Developer · localhost s.r.o.View chapter

   • React Native
   • TypeScript
   • Scrum

   01 / FINDING THE FIT

   The side project paid off.

   During my third year at university, I started looking for a part-time job. By then, I had been learning React Native for about six months while working on my fitness app — and that happened to be exactly what they were looking for.

   02 / THE FIRST MVP

   Building with guidance.

   I started on a small MVP for construction workers, where they could find jobs, see worksite locations, salaries and other details. I built a good part of the app under the guidance of a much more experienced developer who oversaw the project. Eventually, he recommended me for a much larger project for Caterpillar.

   03 / A BIGGER WORLD

   A new scale. A steep learning curve.

   I got an offer to switch to full-time and work on a much larger project for Caterpillar. It was a big step up in scale, with I made it through the interview and joined as a junior developer. At first, the scale was honestly overwhelming. The codebase was several orders of magnitude larger than anything I had worked with before, there were libraries and systems I had never seen, and I was learning how to work in a Scrum team at the same time.

   04 / GROWING INTO OWNERSHIP

   Three years of moving forward.

   It took a while to get comfortable, but over the next three years I went from trying to understand the codebase to taking ownership of increasingly larger pieces of it. I learned a lot about React Native and TypeScript, but also about working with complex applications, multiple backend services, technical documentation and collaboration across teams. Eventually, I even got to lead several features myself — breaking larger requirements into user stories and helping guide them through development.