Hi there!
I just started the “Learn Python 3” course on Codecademy. I thought I will share my journey with computing thus far so that I can get some insights, and help from the Python community.
My wife and I are from and reside in India. I am working as an attorney in a law firm and also volunteer in a not-for-profit organisation that fights for digital freedoms.
Computing has been a long term interest for me since high school. However, I did not take it up as one of my subjects in high school and did not obtain a degree in it. Even during the time in law school, I was not that keen in learning it in a systematic manner. However, I was able to retain programming concepts during that period.
After graduation, I joined a firm which catered academic services to legal service professionals. Much of the firm’s work was executed through the Internet, and also the firm had a sister concern which is a PR consultancy firm and both firms shared office space. That firm also undertook web development. So, I was exposed to web design and development (especially on Wordpress). It was during that time I learnt Python and wrote some simple scripts.
And obviously my interest in computing piqued during that time. Then, after working there for two years, I went to pursue a Master’s Degree in Law in the US. The law school offered a program in association with the Computer Science school in Digital Forensics. I took it up with great excitement. The second half of the course was quite tough (we did a bit of reverse engineering using IDAPro). However, since I was the only non-tech student there at that time (the second half), the instructors went easy on me.
Then, after finishing the Master’s program, I came back to India in 2016 and started practising law. Even here, I did a bit of coding when I got time (I made a simple court cause list parser and counter using BeautifulSoup). But still I did not take up coding seriously (something like a profession or for a long term project).
After practising law for about 2.5 years, I moved to the current city where my wife and I reside and joined the law firm and volunteer for the not-for-profit. Since, the firm works for digital freedoms, I am surrounded with things and sometimes people who are technologists (or at least knowledgeable in tech). And as part of an initiative of the organisation, I conduct Digital Security Training sessions.
Now, my interest in computing is at its heights and I desire to change my profession and, God willing, become a programmer.
Compared to the US, it is difficult to switch your profession, especially when the switch is between two professions which are based on completely different disciplines.
However, slowly, I am going to attempt to achieve this.
So, I am trying to gain a good understanding about Python (also switch to Python3 in the meantime) through the courses here in Codecademy. And also learn web development to build web apps (have some ideas in my head).