From electrician to tech lead: From overalls to a monitor

Introduction

Seven years ago I stood in the middle of a factory, hands dirty with oil, overalls full of dust, machines roaring around me, and a feeling in my head that my life was going nowhere. Shifts dragged on one after another, and when it rained I got on my bike and pedalled home, soaked, exhausted, thinking that this was probably how it would be forever. I was not desperate, but I felt that I wanted more. Not because I thought I was better than the people around me. They were honest and hard-working, the same as me. I was never top of the class. I was not some exceptional talent. I was an ordinary kid who wanted to achieve something in life. One day I stopped in the rain, looked at myself, a dirty electrician on a bike, and said: “I do not want to do this for the rest of my life.” The wish for a change led me to programming, something I had never dreamed of and had no background for. Today, at 26, I am a front-end tech lead at Raynet CRM, one of the best CRM systems in Czechia and Slovakia. Nobody handed me any of it. Everything I have, I earned myself. It was not easy for me, the same as it was not easy for anyone in the factory, and I do not want this to sound as if I am something more. I just decided to go after my goal, even though I did not believe in myself at the start.

Beginnings: No background, no help

I never thought I would be a programmer. As a kid I was not the one who spends hours at a computer or builds robots. I ran around outside, played football, and the real world interested me. Technology passed me by. After school I became an electrician, because it was practical and within reach. I could wire cables and fix a socket, but I knew nothing about programming. Life in the factory was a routine: get up, work, go home, sleep, and repeat. The people around me were great and hard-working, and I respected them. It was not about being better than them. I just felt that I wanted something else. I bought an old laptop, the kind that growled like a tractor and overheated after a while, and started searching the internet for what programming even is. I had nobody to point me in a direction. No friend, no acquaintance in the field. The first evenings were chaos. I sat there after a shift, eyes burning with tiredness, trying to understand what “Hello World” means in HTML. It felt like a foreign world. I did not believe in myself, but I told myself: “If other people managed it, I can manage it too.” And so I started.

Discipline as my only companion

Every day I set time aside. After a shift, when I came home dirty and exhausted, I told myself: “At least an hour.” Sometimes I got up at four in the morning, still in the dark, so I could get through a tutorial before work. It was as if I had two jobs. At the factory I was bolting and repairing things, and at home I was learning something new. I searched for answers on Google, went through YouTube videos, and read forums into the night. When I first understood CSS and saw a page change according to my code, I felt hope. Then came JavaScript, a completely different world. I spent hours staring at errors in the console, not understanding why it would not work. I often wanted to quit. I had impostor syndrome, the feeling that I was a fraud who was not cut out for this. But the drive to achieve something kept pushing me. I wanted to be proud of myself, of managing it on my own, of something nobody could take away from me. When I managed to get a simple calculator or an animation running, I told myself: “Maybe there is something to this.” Discipline kept me afloat. Even when I did not believe in myself, I did not give up.

A road full of disappointment

After months of learning I decided to try for a job. I wrote a CV, an ordinary one, with no degrees, just a few sentences about what I had managed on my own. I sent it out. First ten, then twenty, and in the end about a hundred. And what came back? Silence. Now and then an email: “Thank you, but we are looking for someone with experience.” Or: “Without a degree, it will not work.” As a junior with an electrician’s past, I was invisible. Those moments wore me down. I sat at home in the evening, staring at another rejection, asking myself: “Why am I doing this?” Impostor syndrome grew stronger. I felt like a fraud who was only playing at being a programmer. Once I sat in the kitchen while it poured outside and told myself: “Maybe I am crazy.” I wanted to give up, go back to the overalls, back to something certain. Then it occurred to me what that would mean. No progress, just the factory. I wanted something I could be proud of. So I got up, opened another tutorial, and sent another CV. After six months, full of rejections and doubt, someone called. “We have a junior programmer position at Pickering Interfaces in Třinec. Do you want to try it?” That call changed everything.

First job: An unwanted project and an international team

When I joined Pickering Interfaces in Třinec, a subsidiary of the British company Pickering, I felt my life moving. For the first time I had colleagues, and not just any colleagues. I worked on an international team, on a project that reached beyond Czechia. After months of learning alone it was liberating, but it was not easy. I came in as a replacement for a programmer who had left, and I inherited a project nobody wanted, forgotten code that nobody wanted to maintain or develop. As a newcomer I got what newcomers usually get: the hardest, least popular work. At the start I did not know where to begin. Impostor syndrome followed me. I was afraid I would fail. But I told myself: “I am different. I will learn it.” I got stuck in. I learned as I went, fixed bugs, and looked for a way through. Bit by bit I got that project under control, and today I am glad of it. They were not soft on me. They threw me in at the deep end, and that forced me to grow. I even got a whisky glass from the British Queen for my work. A small thing, but for me a symbol that hard work means something. After two years in Třinec I had to leave my hometown and move to Ostrava. A hard decision, but I knew another challenge was waiting.

Growing at Raynet CRM: From junior to tech lead

In Ostrava I joined Raynet CRM as a junior programmer. I started at the bottom, but for the first time I had colleagues and mentors who helped me whenever I needed it. No question was stupid. As I put it: “The one who is afraid to ask stays a fool forever. The one who is not afraid is a fool for only a few minutes.” I was not afraid to ask. After years without support, that was a change. I had a team that pulled me forward. Mentors taught me to write better code and to think like a programmer. The discipline I had built joined up with their guidance, and I grew fast. In four years I went from junior to front-end tech lead, at 26. Today I design solutions and work on a top-tier CRM. My managers trust me, my opinion carries weight, and I have a say in how the team works. I am proud, not only for myself, but also because I can help my family and friends whenever they need me. Working with your head is demanding. Sometimes I miss ordinary work with my hands, bolting, repairing, something you can touch. But I know that what I do now matters. A few months ago I wrote a piece of code that programmers around the world can use, and they do use it. When I see that, I feel that my work reaches past my desk.

What is next: Vision and mentoring

When I was an electrician, I did not believe that at 26 I would be a tech lead. Now I tell myself: “We will see where the road takes me yet.” I want to keep growing, in technology and in leadership. I dream of a bigger influence, maybe leading a larger team, taking part in breakthrough projects, or trying to build a business in IT. Maybe one day I will make my own application that helps people, the way Raynet helps now. Every day I learn something new, whether it is a framework or how to motivate a team. Now I am the mentor for my juniors at Raynet, and I enjoy it. I see myself in them: the doubts, the fear of whether they are up to it. I help them the way I once needed help, and seeing their progress keeps me going. The road taught me that we set our own limits, and I do not want to set them.

Closing: You can do this too

My story is not about talent. I was not a genius, I had no background, and for a long time I had nobody to help me. I am no different from the people in the factory, or from anyone doing work they do not enjoy. I am not better. I just decided to step out of my comfort zone, even though I did not believe in myself. At the start I had impostor syndrome. I did not believe I was up to it, and I wanted to quit. But I did not give up. From the factory, through Pickering Interfaces in Třinec, where I worked for a British company, to Raynet CRM in Ostrava: from zero to tech lead at 26. I am proud that what I achieved is mine, and that I can support my family and friends. People often do not step out of their comfort zone. They think they are not cut out for a change. I was the same. But I want to tell you: you can do this. The best time to start may have been a year ago. The second best time is now. You do not need a background. I did not have one. It is enough to start, to stick with it, and not to give up. I managed it, and you can manage it too. Take that first step. It is worth it.