Career
10 min read
My Career Journey: From Campus to Software Engineer
How a bootcamp, a certified internship, and GoTo's Generasi Gigih program shaped my path from photography into software engineering.
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How a bootcamp, a certified internship, and GoTo's Generasi Gigih program shaped my path from photography into software engineering.
Hi everyone!
In this post, I want to share a bit about my career journey, from my college days to moving away from home to build a professional career. It has been almost three years now, and along the way I've had many experiences that taught me valuable lessons.
Before working as a Software Engineer like I do today, I went through a fairly long and varied path. During college, I worked as a photographer and videographer while studying. At first glance, that field is quite different from what I do now. Sometimes I still don't know how to explain how my career took this turn. But alhamdulillah, all of those experiences have become an important part of my life up to this point.
I studied for a bachelor's degree in Informatics Engineering. In my early semesters, though, I was still deeply into photography and videography. Somehow, in the end, I chose Informatics as the field I wanted to pursue for my future.
Quite a few people probably thought I picked the wrong major, since my interests used to lie elsewhere. But I believe that Allah SWT has His own plans. Over time, I actually became proud of choosing and studying Informatics.
College wasn't always easy either. I was one of the students who started university in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Honestly, learning without face-to-face classes was a challenge of its own. The lack of direct interaction made studying feel heavier, especially when I had to understand new material on my own.
Long story short, early in college I set my photography and videography hobby aside for a while. I decided to focus on studying, deepen my knowledge of Informatics, and finish my degree as well as I could.
Semester after semester went by. Around my third or fourth semester, I started getting interested in joining one of the communities in the Informatics department. At first I wasn't very keen on communities. But I saw many students joining to learn the fundamentals of Informatics together, from programming languages to building simple websites.
That was when I realized a community isn't just a place to hang out. It's also a place to learn, share information, and build connections. I made many new friends and learned about career opportunities in tech, which turned out to be much broader than I thought.
For me, this was one of the starting points of my career in Software Engineering. What began as a wish to learn and broaden my horizons slowly gave me a picture of the field I wanted to pursue after graduating.
In my fourth semester, I came across a government program that I found really interesting: Kampus Merdeka. At the time, it offered various self-development opportunities, including independent training programs run by partner companies and a Certified Internship program (Magang Bersertifikat).
Since I felt the knowledge I was getting in class still needed to grow, I chose the training track to broaden my perspective and deepen my tech skills. As it happened, a few friends from the community joined the same program.
The training program gave students the chance to learn more intensively, through something similar to a bootcamp. The material focused on practical skills needed in the industry, and it could be converted into university credits. What made it even more appealing was the chance to train with various companies without paying anything. For a student like me, that was incredibly valuable.
Alhamdulillah, I passed the selection and joined the training in my fourth semester. I chose to focus on Frontend Engineering through a program run by Ruangguru, one of the best-known education and training platforms in Indonesia.
The program was held online. During the training, I got to learn many things about building website interfaces in a more structured way. That experience helped me build a foundation of skills that would prove useful once I entered the workforce.
I feel very lucky to have been part of that program. Besides gaining new knowledge, the experience made me even more sure about continuing down the path of Software Engineering.
In my fifth semester, Kampus Merdeka opened again. That was when I found out students could join the program up to two times. To me, this was a golden opportunity I didn't want to miss.
This time, I decided to take a different track. After doing the independent training program before, I chose the Certified Internship for my second round. Alhamdulillah, I got good news again. I passed the selection and was accepted as an intern at an education startup based in South Tangerang.
Unlike the previous program, which was online, this internship required me to work on-site at the office. It became one of the important steps in my journey, because I started to get a much more real picture of a professional work environment.
At the time, the program also covered round-trip travel costs and provided a monthly allowance. That support helped me a lot during the program, and even allowed me to save some money. For me, this opportunity wasn't only about gaining work experience. It was also about learning to be more independent and adapting to a new environment.
During the internship, I focused on Frontend Engineering again. I felt it was the right call, since what I'd learned in the earlier training became my foundation for the internship. I could apply what I already knew while learning new things directly on the job.
Alhamdulillah, during the internship I achieved two things that were far beyond my expectations. The first was receiving the award for best intern at the company. The second was an offer to join as a full-time employee after finishing college, without having to go through the selection process again.
Of course, I was very grateful for both. To me, they were proof that the effort to keep learning and give my best can open doors I had never imagined. However, I couldn't accept the job offer right away, because I still had college obligations to finish first.
After returning to campus and getting ready for my sixth semester, I got the chance to join another interesting program. Before classes started again, there was a break of about a month. During that time, I found information about a program from GoTo, one of the biggest tech companies in Indonesia.
The program was called Generasi Gigih, a digital talent development program that gives participants the chance to learn the skills needed in the tech industry. Its learning activities could also be converted into a full semester of university credits. By joining, I could focus on developing my skills instead of taking regular classes as usual.
Generasi Gigih was in its third batch at the time. Having focused on Frontend Engineering before, this time I decided to take the Fullstack Engineering track. I saw it as a great chance to broaden my knowledge, especially because I wanted to understand application development not just from the frontend side, but from the backend as well.
The selection process was quite challenging. Based on what I heard at the time, only about 350 participants from all over Indonesia were accepted. Alhamdulillah, I was once again given the chance to be one of them.
Throughout the program, I met many new friends from different regions of Indonesia. The experience didn't just help me grow my technical skills. It also expanded my network and gave me the chance to exchange experiences with people who shared similar interests in tech.
Interestingly, the program had a follow-up opportunity: internships at companies partnering with the organizers. But not every participant got this chance. Only a selected few, based on their learning results and evaluations during the program, could continue to the internship stage.
Each company had a limited quota. Out of a dozen or so companies, each one only took a handful of participants, roughly three to five people. That competition made the opportunity even more challenging.
Alhamdulillah, I truly didn't expect to be selected for that follow-up internship. Out of hundreds of Generasi Gigih participants, I got the chance to intern at a health insurance company in Jakarta.
The internship lasted six months. But there's something I should mention: from the fourth to the sixth month, the internship was already outside the scope of GoTo's program. That meant I had to continue interning while also attending college.
For me, this was one of the hardest challenges of my college years. I had to manage my time, keep up with my work responsibilities, and make sure my studies kept going well. Handling two big responsibilities at once wasn't easy, but I tried my best.
Alhamdulillah, in the end I completed the internship in full. I'm also grateful that I got through the whole process without it getting in the way of finishing my degree. The experience taught me a lot, from discipline, time management, and responsibility to the importance of keeping commitments when facing challenges.
After going through three self-development programs in my fourth, fifth, and sixth semesters, I finally finished college at the start of my seventh semester. Alhamdulillah, thanks to the credit conversions from those three programs, I had enough credits to complete my degree.
I'm also grateful that I managed to keep my grades up and graduated cum laude. That achievement means a lot to me, because my college journey wasn't only about academics. It was also filled with training programs and internship experiences.
After finishing college and attending graduation, I still had the chance to join the company where I did my Certified Internship in my fifth semester. I reached out to their HR to let them know I had completed my studies.
Long story short, I received my first job offer after graduating. That moment marked the start of my professional career as a Software Engineer.
I worked there for about three months. Even though it was a relatively short time, I gained a lot of valuable experience and kept learning. I'm very thankful to that company for giving me such an amazing opportunity to grow, improve my skills, and become a better person.
However, at that point I felt I still wanted to keep growing and look for other opportunities that could sharpen my skills and broaden my experience. For that reason, I eventually decided to end my time at the company and look for a new challenge.
After resigning, alhamdulillah, I got the chance to interview at a startup in South Tangerang. The company then accepted me to join as a Frontend Engineer.
Of course, landing a job doesn't always go smoothly. Before getting that opportunity, I had sent applications to many companies. From that experience, I realized that job hunting isn't easy. There's a process to go through, there's waiting, and there's the possibility of rejection. But I believe every process still teaches you something useful for the next step.
In my first year at the company, I focused on Frontend Engineering. Over time, I gained more experience and was trusted to develop my skills on the backend side too. Going into my second year, alhamdulillah, I got the chance to take on the role of Fullstack Engineer, and that's the journey I'm still on today.
Looking back on everything from the start of college until now, I realize how much I've learned. This journey isn't just about moving from one program to another, winning awards, or getting a job. More than that, it's been a process that helped me get to know myself, understand which skills I need to develop, and learn how to face all kinds of challenges.
My career journey still has a long way to go. At my age, I want to keep learning new things, improve my skills, and prepare better for the future, including learning to manage my finances and save. In my view, a career is an important part of life, but we also need to think about the future and prepare ourselves for whatever may come.
To everyone reading this, I want to say one thing: keep learning and keep giving it your all while you still have the ability and the opportunity. Don't waste the time you have. If a good opportunity is right in front of you, try to take it and give it your very best.
I know that the path I've walked hasn't always been full of success. There have been many failures, doubts, and challenges along the way. But I chose to keep trying and never stop learning. I believe everyone has their own path and their own blessings. We can't always control when an opportunity comes, but we can prepare ourselves so we're ready when it does.
So keep trying, keep improving yourself, and don't give up easily when you face failure. Insyaallah, as long as we keep putting in the effort, learning from experience, and praying, there will always be valuable lessons to take from every step of the journey.
That's the story of my career journey, from the beginning of college to becoming the Software Engineer I am today. I hope this story is useful, gives you a boost of motivation, and inspires those of you who are still working hard to build your own path.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story. May we all be given ease in learning, working, and reaching our goals. Aamiin.
See you in the next story!