English is not my first language, so this article may not be perfect. Still, I hope you stay until the end, and that each new article gets better than the last.
This is not a motivational post. But maybe, in some way, it can motivate you to keep going after your goals, whatever they are, because sometimes they really do become real.
I started learning how to program when I was sixteen, back in 2017. At that time, it was just a hobby. I was in high school, spending most of my day there, and my only goal was very simple: to learn how to “hack” the school Wi-Fi, because I didn’t have a mobile internet plan.
It took me almost two years just to learn basic things: Python, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. In the end, I did get access to the network passwords, but not by writing any magic script. I simply started to understand computers better and used the access I already had to get the keys.
After that, I went to college in the computer science area. It wasn’t a bachelor’s degree, but a technician course focused on systems for the internet. In my first year, I realized something important: I knew much less than I thought. I didn’t become a good programmer, I was actually pretty bad.
That year was full of ideas, new areas, and constant learning. I was very interested, so I joined as many projects as I could and went to as many academic events as possible. It was the first time I was truly humbled.
Still, I kept studying, kept practicing, and had many “eureka” moments. By the end of that year, in 2019, I got my first job.
In this job, I taught basic computer skills, hardware concepts, and helped with game development classes. I also started building institutional websites, providing technical support, and writing small scripts to help with daily work.
In 2020, I moved to a software house. It should have been a great experience, but due to delivery pressure and poor management, it became chaotic. Even so, I learned a lot.
During this time, I took on a second job to accelerate my learning, and I had to lead teammates very early in my career.
I stayed as long as I could, until the cost became too high: my health.
At that point, I had to make a very hard decision. I passed the Thoughtworks program for black people, and I also had the option to join another company in Brazil focused on investments. But I felt I wasn’t ready to move to India for two years.
So, I joined a startup as a contractor. For the first time, I had better work-life balance and much higher productivity. I built most of the core APIs and CLIs, participated in important technical decisions, and worked at a mid-level position that paid me more than my two previous jobs combined. I loved this experience.
Still, I was hungry to become a senior developer and my career plan there wouldn’t get me there fast enough. So I moved again after a few months.
Until this point, I had mostly worked on general systems: ERPs, micro-SaaS products, and typical software house projects. Then I entered a very different world: a traditional investment bank.
Along this journey, I became a consultant for financial systems, but I also switched companies a few times. I learned about investments, core banking concepts, and insurance. Over the next years, I worked with multiple traditional banks through consultancy projects and passed through many business domains: human resources, edtech, and payment gateways.
I also worked with many codebases and programming languages. I had experience with LATAM consultancy services, worked closely with Colombian teams, and had the opportunity to work with companies from Portugal.
At that point, I was officially a senior developer and much more confident in my English.
I first reached the senior level in 2021. Over the next years, I kept trying to truly be senior, moving into tech leadership and specialist roles. But one topic always stayed in the back of my mind: cryptocurrency.
At first, I tried investing in crypto using my previous financial knowledge. Then, in 2022, came the NFT and crypto-games bubble. I tried to follow the wave and understand blockchains, dApps, and smart contracts, but I never really felt like I belonged in that world.
At the beginning of 2024, I left my last traditional bank job and decided to become a solopreneur. I stopped working for consultancies and tried to give my own consultancy services, build my own things and maybe build things to others as a software house. I passed through several businesses until I reached a client building a blockchain-based solution for tax systems.
Then life happened. I got sick. But I liked to work with blockchain.
So, I kept applying and eventually, I landed my current project: working on a crypto wallet at a US-based startup.
And this is where this story really begins.
My last month has been full of new experiences. I think the first big difference when working at an international company is that, to work with people in other countries, time needs to be crossed, and we also need to be more autonomous. I feel much freer working this way.
Another important thing is that when we deal with business logic that spans many countries, like my current team does, we have the opportunity to learn a lot about other cultures. This doesn’t feel distant at all. I’ve found that working for companies from other countries that operate internationally is very different and I’m not just talking about internationalizing your codebase with i18n.
So, that’s it. This is not a technical post, but a bit of my journey. I’m willing to write more about it, and maybe translate my other posts to English, taking my small knowledge one step further, because I see that this could be really rewarding.
I hope this helps you.
See ya!