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Hello, World!

Hello, World! This is my first post here on LexTech, so I figured I should walk you through my journey in tech thus far. Perhaps some of you might relate, perhaps some might find it inspiring, or perhaps some might find it boring. I just want to shed some light on my specific process because I feel it’s only fair to do so as my first-ever blog post. So here it goes.

Meet Alex 👋

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been obsessed with technology.

I remember from a very young age telling people that I wanted to be an “Engenheiro Informático”, which is Portuguese for “Software Engineer” or “Computer Scientist”. However, when I was young, all I knew was that I enjoyed watching technology evolve.

I spent countless hours watching YouTube videos about different devices:

Because of that, I decided I wanted to dedicate my life to “building computers and tinkering with them”. Mind you, back then I was about 10-12 years old, and for some reason, I thought that an “Engenheiro Informático” built computers for a living.

⚠️ Plot twist: That was totally wrong, but we’ll get there.

Table of Contents

Open Table of Contents

My First Interactions with Computers

I was one of the few people in my class who actually spent a lot of free time browsing the Internet. I already had pretty good intuition for understanding web interfaces and Windows computers since I got my first personal computer at about 5 years old—it was called the “Magalhães”.

🇵🇹 Fun fact: This was actually a pretty big thing here in Portugal!

The Magalhães ran both Windows XP and Linux Caixa Mágica on dual-boot, so me and most kids my age quickly got acquainted with those systems. I have vivid memories of:

I guess the Magalhães was actually my first interaction with a PC where I had any idea of what I was doing (even though I actually had very little idea of what I was doing).

Magalhães Computer

That whole experience later led me to other computers. When I reached 10 years old, my parents bought me a new computer—for me, it was like finally having an “adult computer”. That’s when I really became comfortable interacting with these machines.

The Minecraft Era 🎮

This new PC, running Windows 8, finally had Internet access via WiFi and was actually powerful enough to play a few “serious” games like Minecraft, which became a great source of knowledge for me. It taught me not only how to survive if I was ever left alone in a block-world, but it was also the first time I truly tinkered with a computer.

Back then I really got into:

At that stage, I got into image editing with Photoshop and video editing with Sony Vegas Pro, since that’s what all my favorite Minecraft YouTubers said they were using. (I might’ve even dabbled a bit with YouTubing myself using Fraps, but we won’t get into that).

By this point, I was skilled enough with computers to stand out from my peers in IT classes. The classes taught very basic things, but I was one of the best at those basics. I became that kid the teachers would sometimes go to when their computers had problems, you know?

After those experiences, I had a realization:

Wow, I’m pretty good at this computer stuff, and I really enjoy exploring it. Maybe I could turn this into an actual profession?

And that’s when my parents told me about this “Engenheiro Informático” profession that was all about computers.

BINGO! 🎯 That’s what I wanted to become.

The Shift to Programming

Fast-forward a few years and I finally discovered that this profession I was seeking was actually about programming, not really about tinkering with computers.

Dang-it, I don’t even know what that is…

I’d already spent the last years of my life telling everyone I knew what I wanted to become when I was an adult, and now I had discovered that it wasn’t what I thought it was.

What do you mean these people don’t tinker with computers for a living? What else are computers even for?

I guess at this time, I simply decided to accept the fact that it was more about programming than anything and still go through with it, since it’s still related to computers and from what I heard, it was one of the best-paying professions one could have since demand kept on increasing for jobs in these positions. At least that’s what my parents told me.

My First Steps into Code 💻

When I was about 16 years old, I started to learn at least the basics in programming, just so I could get a little head start. I knew that the following school year, I would have an IT class where they would teach us how to build webpages with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, so that’s what I started learning first.

I started with HTML, and I can’t tell you how satisfying it was for me to have built my first webpage ever. Granted, it was a less than 10 lines HTML file that only wrote “Hello, World!” without any styling whatsoever, but hey—that was enough for me to think:

Oh yeah, I’m a programmer now!

When classes started, I built my first “serious” webpage using only HTML and CSS. It was a Batman-themed website with embedded images and videos and sections for different characters from the Batman universe. It was obviously a static page, but for me, it was my first “professional looking” website. I’ll share a photo of it here just so you can see how “professional” it actually looked 😅:

Batman Website

The JavaScript Challenge 🚀

Then it was time to finally learn some actual programming. The task was to either integrate dynamic JavaScript elements into that static website we had created or build an entire dynamic website from scratch. We opted for the second option and built a quiz website where you would:

This wasn’t an incredible success in the class (nor the grade) but at least it was a funny little goofy website. It was enough to make me and my friend laugh.

Personality Quiz Website

The rest of that IT course was pretty fun as well. After that website stuff during the first term, we got to explore:

I was pretty satisfied with my performance during those stages, thanks to my previous YouTuber phase where I learned a lot of what was being taught in those classes.

Bachelor’s Degree

At 18 years old, I finally got into University, after a great amount of stress to get the grades to do so. I got into Computer Science and Computer Engineering at Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa (ISEL). Even though this wasn’t my first option, my studies at ISEL are what REALLY defined the Software Developer that I am today.

The COVID-19 University Experience 🦠

It was 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of that, my university experience was really different from people who got into university pre-COVID. I was stuck at home taking my classes through Zoom, so during my free time all I did was work on school projects and study.

I developed a really good work ethic and started getting great grades right from the get-go. EXCEPT for one specific course I was taking… PROGRAMMING.

📊 My performance breakdown:

I thought I was going to have to leave Computer Science. Since the core of CS was programming and that was the only thing I was bad at, maybe it was a sign that I was in the wrong place, right?

The Programming Breakthrough 💡

By the end of the first semester, I had to take a few mandatory exams to pass some of the courses. I excelled in all of the non-programming ones. But when it came to the programming exam, I knew I was screwed, so I decided to throw myself to the wolves and just do an infinite amount of programming exercises until my mind would finally understand it.

After hours upon hours of exercises like printing specific patterns with loops, extracting the highest number from a list, counting character occurrences in strings, etc., it finally clicked. My brain had been struggling with the fundamental logic of Lists and Loops, but after all that practice, everything started to make sense. Suddenly, I could solve exercises without much effort and write clean solutions.

It worked out! I had finally understood the logic of it all. Then the exam came and I got an amazing grade!

🥳 HOORAY! Maybe programming wasn’t so bad after all.

What I Built During My Degree 🛠️

By the end of my degree in 2023, I had great professors and made great friends. I learned a lot and had already built a bunch of cool projects for my classes. Even if I didn’t know everything, I had gained the tools required to learn whatever I wanted, since the fundamentals were already present.

By this time, I had built:

Learning by Doing 🎯

When it came to practical knowledge, ISEL was really on top. All the courses were focused on developing actual projects, and you learned by doing, not by watching.

There’s only so much you’ll learn by simply watching a professor coding or talking about coding. You need to actually WORK on projects. Build stuff. Build cool stuff. Start from zero and learn as you go. When it comes to programming, this is a really important lesson.

The best way to understand a solution is to have had to come up with it to solve a specific problem.

Master’s Degree

After a successful Bachelor’s degree, it was time to start my Master’s. I got into my university of choice for my Bachelor’s (the one I wasn’t able to enter initially because my grades weren’t that great), which was one of the most prestigious universities in Portugal.

The Disappointment 😤

It was like getting kicked in the butt. I went there with the goal of specializing in something within the Computer Science field. But that program had Math again (I’m good at math, but I thought I was past that), and every class felt like an intro class. They were completely useless, at least for my learning method. I was going to 2-hour classes and just sitting there listening to lectures about theory without any practical application.

I wanted to DO stuff. I wanted to LEARN.

I felt like my life was backtracking and became really depressed during that time.

Finding Aptoide 🚀

That’s when I decided I wanted to get a job. I needed to DO something. Use what ISEL gave me and apply it where it would be valued, instead of wasting my time in some class that taught me close to nothing.

During this period, there was a Job Fair at the school, so I went to see what companies were there. And there I met with people from Aptoide. I had already heard of Aptoide when I was about 12 years old tinkering with my old Android phone, so it was like meeting an old friend.

They stood out from the rest of the companies at the fair because they were the ONLY company that was offering a part-time developer position for students. So I decided to apply. If I got the job, I would be able to:

Applying was one of the best decisions I made. I got the job and started working as a part-time software developer for Aptoide. Now I was getting paid, applying my knowledge, and had a good excuse to skip the classes at school since I was a working-student now.

Balancing Work and Studies ⚖️

Eventually, I ended up doing the majority of my degree while working 4 hours a day at Aptoide. I was almost never at school, but the work I did at home when I wasn’t at Aptoide was enough to get good grades. Not at the level of my grades at ISEL, but considering I was working 4 hours a day while juggling 5 coding projects and 5 tests at the same time, my grades were pretty good.

📊 My attendance record:

I won’t lie, it was tough to spend so much time working. At one point I felt like just an additional little push would drive me towards burnout. But by then, the toughest part of the degree was already finished and the rest of it went by peacefully.

Looking back, that decision to join Aptoide while still studying completely transformed my perspective on what software development actually is. The hands-on experience taught me more about real-world software development than any classroom ever could. I discovered that I genuinely love building products that people actually use, solving real problems, and collaborating with experienced developers who challenged me to grow.

Today

Right now, I’m still working part-time for Aptoide as a Full-Stack developer and I’m close to finishing my Master’s thesis, which is also in collaboration with Aptoide. It has been a long ride, but alas, my academic studies are almost complete and I will soon be able to focus all my attention on what I really enjoy: building cool stuff with the knowledge I have developed.

Looking Forward 🚀

And that has been my entire journey in tech so far. I’m sure I’ve left out some details along the way, but if they’re truly important, they’ll probably surface in future posts. I hope you enjoyed hearing about my experiences, and I thank you for your time and interest.

We’ll see what the future holds for me. 😊

What’s next? Stay tuned for more posts about my projects, learnings, and adventures in the tech world!

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