The Value of Doing Stuff for Free as a Young Professional

Release date: 17 Oct 2024

Creating an application for free helped me land my first Software Engineer job.

2 years ago after I finished my boot camp (where I learned how to code), I immediately started building a project for my local community.

This was the best decision I could have made for myself.

This project was something that I could later add onto my CV and also talk about in my interviews. Sharing this project with my interviewers almost always impressed them and I could prove that I knew how to code and I was passionate about the craft.

I still actively maintain this project and you can find it on my GitHub. It's called Recover and Secure.

Here are some reflections on my experience building this.

What was the project about?

Every year, my community holds an event in the UK which thousands (~40,000) of people attend.

This event has a lost property and left luggage department. Up until my app, everything was stored and managed with paper. This made operating the department really difficult.

After seeing this, I promised to make the department an application that would help them with all their tasks. I didn't know how to code at this time but I knew by the time the next one happens (next year), I would have the skills to build the application.

Why did I build it?

I've always wanted to build something useful that could be used in the real world. After learning how to code, that was a possibility.

I told myself if I'm successful then the app will be used to serve a lot of people. The idea of that gave me a lot of energy.

What did building the app look like?

Building this application was unlike anything I've ever done before.

At my boot camp, I did build web applications. But they were very simple just for the purpose of teaching me what is possible. Prior to building this app I had no experience building a real application.

But I was still excited.

The app took me a total of 10 months to make.

I worked on it full time for about 3 weeks before I landed my first job. After that I could only spend my free evenings working on the app. In hindsight, the app was really simple and it wouldn't take me that long now. But since I was a beginner at the time it took me a lot longer.

I learned a lot of new things. Technical and soft skills.

Building a desktop application.
Designing a user friendly interface.
Printing receipts with a laser printer.
Going back and forth with the department manager to see what the requirements of app are.

What was the result?

All the workers at the event loved it!

It was extremely fulfilling to hear from people how I've made their work easier. The department worked a lot better compared to the paper based system. The app served 1,000+ people and handled 7,000+ items across 3 days of the event.

I learned a lot more than I could ever do at junior engineer role.

I learned to deliver a project that's useful and helps a lot of people on my own.

Any future plans with the app?

My plan is to work on the app every year and make it better than the year before.

That's the beauty of building software. You can always make it better. There's a lot of useful feedback from the users that I need to implement for next year.

The idea of working on the app makes me really excited and I feel fulfilled when I see something I've built in action.

I would recommend anyone to create something for their community.