PPC Bee Success Story: From a physics teacher to a front-end developer
Two years ago, I was working as a teacher. Initially, I liked my job, but as time went on, the overwhelming desire to use a baseball bat while at work became too much. I returned home in a bad mood, which didn’t help home life. There were only two ways out of this situation. The easier one was to turn on autopilot at school every morning, solve nothing and hope I didn’t end up in a madhouse or alcohol treatment center. I chose the second option, decided to leave the education field, and completely change careers.
I didn’t know what professional direction I should head in, but luckily, Pavel (a friend of mine) helped me. He mediated a meeting with a personal/profession consultant, František Dalecký. We discussed various options about my future job together, and we came to the conclusion that the best way forward for me would be to use my lousy knowledge base of front-end development from high school than to start from scratch. In the end, I decided to become a front-end developer. Together with František, we created my personal development plan. He recommended both study sources and online courses for me.
Next, I chose an online course on Udacity, specialized in front-end web development. I completed the course in half a year. It was a really hard time for both me and my family. I am grateful to my awesome wife because she supported me wholeheartedly during this difficult time. My days were long. I worked at school in the morning, came home and played with children, then after all that, studied the whole evening until late into the night. Sometimes, I spent my days sitting in front of the computer.
I finished the course in June and ended my employment at school at the same time. At this moment, I got an offer to get experience through an internship at PPC Bee. Even though the company is located in Prague, and I live in Jihlava, I accepted the offer and started in July, gaining experience over the whole summer. I found out what it means to work as a front-end developer and quickly realized that theory and practice are totally different. But I was happy. I was immediately involved in all work processes and devoured all the new information.
I got an offer to stay at PPC Bee at the end of summer, which I took. So, I became a part of a great team of people. I have the opportunity to develop my skills every day. I started to learn English, and also take part in pair programming. I am progressing and working on the kind of tasks that I simply could not have imagined doing during my study and internship.
When I look back after a year working at PPC Bee, I have to say that changing professions was a good choice. I like my job, and don’t return home angry—even though I commute 100 km a day. I have the opportunity to develop my skills and am doing my dream job.
To sum up, I would like to thank everybody who helped me to change not only my job but also my life.
Do you also want to start a new adventure? Then join Petr and the rest of us! We're currently looking for a senior React Front-end developer. If you're interested, don't hesitate to leave us your CV here.
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