Surviving the Learning Curve: Lessons from My Leap into Software Development

A Leap into the Unknown

I still remember the moment I made the decision. After years of guiding others through their career journeys, I realized it was time to embark on my own. Transitioning from psychology and career counseling into software development wasn’t just a career change—it was a full-fledged reinvention.

I braced myself for the challenge ahead, enrolling in a 4-month intensive software development training at CESAE Digital. I knew it wouldn’t be easy—I hadn’t studied math, physics, or algorithms in over twenty years—but I wasn’t prepared for just how demanding it would be.

Then came Mindera, where I spent three months developing a full-stack web application from scratch. This wasn’t just an assignment—it was a real-world project, complete with tight deadlines, complex requirements, and the constant feeling of being one step behind.

This is the story of how I survived the learning curve. If you’re in the midst of your own transition, I hope my journey reminds you that struggling doesn’t mean failing—it means growing.

Act 1: The Shock of Learning Again

The first days at CESAE Digital were a whirlwind. I sat in front of my screen, staring at Java code, feeling like I was deciphering ancient hieroglyphs.

“How does anyone make sense of this?” I thought, frustration creeping in.

I had spent years working with human behavior, ambiguity, and emotions—things that didn’t always have clear-cut answers. Programming, on the other hand, was unforgiving. A missing semicolon could break an entire program. An algorithm that looked correct could still produce the wrong result.

The biggest shock? Logic isn’t intuitive. It’s learned. And I had to relearn how to think.

For the first time in years, I was a student again—not the expert in the room, not the one with the answers. It was humbling. It was uncomfortable. And it was exactly what I needed.

Lesson 1: Be patient with yourself. Logic is a skill you build, not something you’re born with.

Act 2: Drowning in Technologies

Just when I started getting comfortable with Java, the floodgates opened.

“Next, we’re diving into HTML and CSS!”

“Now, let’s tackle PHP and Laravel.”

“Time for Swift and Kotlin—mobile development awaits!”

“Oh, and don’t forget—we’re learning Angular too!”

It felt like learning five new languages at once. Every week introduced something new—concepts I barely had time to grasp before moving on to the next one.

And then came Mindera, where the real challenge began: building a full-stack onboarding gamification platform using React (TypeScript), NestJS, and Prisma ORM—technologies I had never worked with before.

I remember the moment I first opened a blank React project. The cursor blinked, waiting for me to write code. I had no idea where to start.

Panic set in. “What if I can’t do this? What if I’m just not cut out for it?”

That night, I opened my Journal of an Aspiring Software Developer and wrote one line:

"You don’t have to know everything today. Just solve one problem at a time."

I tackled it step by step. Even though the API and front-end were developed simultaneously, I focused on one challenge at a time—first structuring the data, then refining the API, and finally ensuring the front-end consumed it correctly. Slowly, the app started taking shape.

Lesson 2: Don’t try to learn everything at once. Focus on solving one problem at a time.

Act 3: The Self-Doubt Spiral

There was a moment during my training when I genuinely questioned if I was cut out for this.

I was struggling to grasp data structures and algorithms, falling behind in some modules, and comparing myself to classmates who seemed to be flying through the content.

At Mindera, the project was moving fast, and every sprint review felt like a test. I doubted myself constantly. Would I ever feel confident in my skills?

Then, one day, something clicked. I was debugging an issue in my application, carefully analyzing my code. Without thinking, I recognized the problem and fixed it immediately.

No Google. No Stack Overflow. Just me, my code, and the logic I had built over months of struggling.

I had grown. I just hadn’t noticed.

That’s the thing about learning curves—they don’t feel like progress until you look back and realize how far you’ve come.

Lesson 3: Growth happens in the struggle. Keep going, even when it feels like you’re not improving.

Act 4: The Mindera Experience—Bridging the Gap Between Learning and Doing

My time at Mindera was a crash course in real-world software development. Unlike the structured learning at CESAE, there were no step-by-step instructions, no teachers to guide me.

I had to gather requirements, meet with stakeholders, and iterate the product based on feedback—all while learning new technologies on the fly.

I wasn’t just coding. I was solving business problems. And for the first time, my past experience in HR and career counseling became an asset.

• I understood the onboarding process from a user-experience perspective.

• I knew how to gather requirements effectively.

• I could communicate with non-technical stakeholders.

The transition from career counseling to software development no longer felt like a complete reinvention—it felt like an expansion of my skillset.

Lesson 4: Your past experience is never wasted. It will shape how you approach new challenges.

Act 5: Thriving, Not Just Surviving

Looking back, I realize the most important lesson wasn’t about coding—it was about resilience.

I survived the learning curve not because I was naturally good at programming, but because I refused to quit.

I embraced struggle as part of the process. I learned to lean on my peers. I stopped measuring my progress against others and started focusing on my own wins.

And now? I’ve built a full-stack web application from scratch.

That’s something I wouldn’t have believed possible a year ago.

Final Lesson: If you keep going, you will get there. Trust the process.

Conclusion: If You’re Struggling, You’re Learning

If you’re in the middle of an intensive learning journey—whether in tech or another field—know this:

You’re not failing. You’re growing.

The hardest part isn’t the syntax, the frameworks, or the algorithms. It’s believing in yourself enough to keep going when everything feels overwhelming.

I still have so much to learn. But if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s this:

I belong here.

And so do you.