You may find this individual with long hair walking around the premises of East West University with earphones on or maybe at some obscure debate tournament during any other weekend. A shy well-spoken kid just blending in the crowd of people his own age. However, there is something special since this kid is a second-year university student as well as a professional software engineer. At the tender age of 21 earning a competitive salary similar to a senior-level corporate job holder. He is Akhlak Hossain JIm, and this is his story.
Take us through a normal day in your life
A normal day consists of me waking up at 6am and getting ready for classes, followed by a 2-hour bus journey to reach my varsity, attending one and a half hours of mostly boring classes, maybe having something for breakfast, something light like a samosa or generic paratha and bhaji.
When do you work office?
I attend meetings from my university library or anywhere I can find some quiet. These meetings last about an hour or so, but are not frequent. I sometimes have to attend classes with earphones in my ear (secretly) because I need to be present in an urgent meeting. I got that permission from my faculty once but most times I just don’t bother them as they are giving the lecture. I continue my office in the gap hours between classes, I start my journey towards home around 7:20pm, the whole time I stay connected to my office, after another 2-hour journey I reach home and freshen up, if I have any priority tasks I complete those quickly and sometimes do extra work for the next day. I complete most of my work during the night, maybe study a bit, then have dinner and then go to bed. This is how I spend my day, full of classes and work.
What do you do?
I am currently working as a UI developer at Assetmantle.one, an Indian blockchain company and an NFT marketplace.
Simply put, I make web applications using React and Javascript, more specifically I write about a thousand lines of code per day in my remote job. I found this job while surfing linkedin and before that I used to work for an American company as a front-end developer. I have also worked at a few Bangladeshi companies such as AmarTaka.com and others. I have over six years of experience in the arena of front-end development and UI design.
How did you cultivate the skills for your profession?
I always wanted to be independent, I found cyber security fascinating, but going through this, it occurred to me that the vast space of cybersecurity can’t be covered just with some free courses. After some exploring I found front-end development as a passion. I did a few courses on cybersecurity and I came to know of some coding languages such as Python and Javascript. While exploring Javascript I found a similarity to HTML which I studied in my HSC textbooks so I started to explore more. I started consuming YouTube videos on these languages, I learned about HTML and CSS and browsed to see some free courses on them, it was not an option for me to get admitted in an institution and learn these skills, for I was part of a very middle-class family, so learning from free courses was the only option. I got into learning Javascript, all of the courses were from Open-Classrom, Linkedin Learning, Coursera and or anywhere good and free, and there was always YouTube.
When did you feel you were ready to apply for a job in the real world?
After learning and writing code for one or two websites, I started to wonder about the interview processes and the industry as a whole, knowing full well I may lack the skills to get a job, I started applying for them anyway. After three or four months of self-learning, surprisingly I landed my first job. It was a software firm in Uttara, after working just 7 days, they told me that they would not give me my promised salary. So, I deleted all my code which I had written for them and left instantly. I patiently worked on my skills and after a few days I landed my second job, Alhamdullilah. I haven’t looked back since then.
What was your motivation for entering this field?
My motivation was purely monetary, I was broke, I had a single mom and had to pay rent and college tuition. I didn’t have any choice and tuition wasn’t cutting it. I wanted to take on my family’s responsibility, I used to do odd jobs as a delivery guy for my Aunt’s shop and around 5 tuitions a day along with my college classes, feeling burned out and no way of progression, I knew I had to do something more impactful, and that’s how I ended up coding.
What are the perks of being self-sufficient at this age?
I feel free, I don’t feel any angst like some of my former and current classmates, I didn’t have any expectation to get into a good varsity, didn’t join UDVASH as my friends for admissions, I wasn’t pressured to get “GPA 5” and how could I have been? I was already doing 8 hours of work on top of my HSC studies. I didn’t have any “usual” expectations and nor did I hear gossip one might face in this society. I am currently studying CSE in East West University. I feel like a sponge taking in my education not for the CGPA or a good paying job, but for my own pleasure.
Also, I have already fulfilled my wishes, I am the breadwinner of my family, I pay for the bills, the groceries, medicines everything. I think I can confidently say I made my mother proud. Normally it also gives me the freedom to fulfill my desires at a young age with my own volition and earnings, I think in the middle ages of my life I can be more patient and easygoing. I would probably not face a mid-life crisis like most people.
Best aspect of paying your own bills?
I am currently as happy as a 21 year old kid can be. Let me share a story. I went for a job interview for a prestigious newspaper company in Bangladesh a few days back. Right after I sat in my seat and gave my introduction, I felt they were somewhat shocked,
They asked “Will you do the job if we offer it to you right now?”
I replied, “It depends”
They asked what do you need? “
I told them – a high compensation, flexible working hours for my university studies, adequate vacation time, learning allowance for courses I might need for skill development – are some of the things I expect.
Hearing this they switched to Bangla and said, “Bhai ei salary to amra amader senior developer ke I deina.” (We don’t even pay our senior developers this much.)I politely declined their counter as it was less than what I was making at that time.
Sometimes it feels funny to me that there are so many courses on how to face job interviews, how to be smart, humble and so on but ultimately its the skill speaks for itself, especially in my field of software. Gaining that skill isn’t a glamorous process. It involves studying in the dark for hours by your own will and being disciplined.
You can find Jim’s work at https://ahjim.com/ Also follow some of his contributions on Github