National Coding Week: Oliver’s Story

National Coding Week is sadly coming to an end, so we thought we’d feature another Platform81 Web Developer – step up, Oliver!  Our young developer has had experience with coding from an early age and loves the fact he’s being paid to do something he loves.

When was your first encounter with coding?

My first ever coding encounter was when I was in high school at age 14/15. I was playing around with some html/css in an attempt to create a website for my Dads ‘brilliant’ entrepreneurial business concept which would take the world by storm and reward us both with unimaginable riches… it didn’t.

What made you want to take it up as a career?

I genuinely enjoy the creativity and flexibility of computer coding. The possibilities of what you can create are really endless. For this reason, I took it up as a hobby in-between school hours. (*Lightbulb appeared above head*) Wait..what!? I can get paid for something I love doing in my free time? … so that’s what I did.

What’s your favourite part of the job?

Although I do enjoy sticking my headphones in to tackle some of the more frustrating day-to-day coding problems, the main reason I arrive at work with a smile on my face ready to tackle the day ahead is the great team we have here at P81. Collaboratively working on projects with the Web team is a major plus for me.

Any tips you would give to anyone who has just started coding?

It gets easier. No, it really does. The daunting errors and hundreds of lines of code will seem off-putting at first glance, however after a few weeks practice, you will soon learn that becoming a web developer is not only achievable but also enjoyable!

What advice would you offer to someone who is thinking of taking up coding?

My advice would be to simply stick at it. The scope of new things you can achieve in the industry every day is fantastic. Knuckle down for a couple of weeks to learn the basics and before you know it, your whole family will be turning to you for every technical related problem in the house.