Today is the college entrance examination, which is far away from me. Recently, I saw Zhang Xuefeng's live stream on college entrance examination consultation, where he gave advice to many students and parents. Many people say that for ordinary families, the choice is important. Looking back on my own experience before and after the college entrance examination, it has indeed had an impact on me until now.
Before the College Entrance Examination#
I took the college entrance examination in 2008, graduated from undergraduate in 2012, and have been working for more than ten years. The college entrance examination is a crucial turning point in my life.
From junior high school to high school, I really liked chemistry and bought reagents to play with at home. I read a lot of books on university chemistry, especially the four major branches of chemistry. Of course, it was just for fun and understanding, and I didn't actually apply the formulas to solve problems. Later, when I went to university and studied chemical engineering principles, I understood the real situation of working in the field of chemistry.
During weekends in my sophomore and junior years of high school, I played around with custom CSS themes on Baidu Space. That's when I started learning CSS, HTML, and web-related content, which was my introduction to computer science. The freedom provided by Baidu Space was limited, and I only knew how to read JavaScript without being able to use it. It wasn't until my sophomore year of college when I started self-studying PHP+MySQL that I got exposed to both front-end and back-end development. This laid the foundation for me to become a full-stack engineer.
Finally, in my junior and senior years of high school, I started living in the school dormitory. I had a falling out with my roommate in my senior year, and we both disliked each other, which made me explode emotionally. Although I tried my best to focus on studying, I still became extreme and really wanted to get far away from here (Jiangxi) and never come back.
College Choice#
The college entrance examination results were 10 points higher than the cutoff for first-tier universities, which was quite awkward. I could go to a good second-tier university or a mediocre first-tier university. At that time, there was no Zhang Xuefeng to explain the future employment and working conditions of various majors. I was still obsessed with chemistry and kept looking at majors related to chemistry. I insisted on going far away and didn't want to stay in my hometown.
In the end, I went to a regular second-tier university in Xi'an to study materials chemistry, which I can say now was not a very good choice. The university was just an average second-tier university, not even among the top in the second-tier category. The subjects of biochemistry, environmental chemistry, and materials science have been challenging even after so many years. Without pursuing further studies, it's difficult to find direct employment. Xi'an was also really far away, and only the 24-hour K-train could get me there.
Self-Study#
In my sophomore year, I bought a laptop and started learning various programming things on my own, starting with PHP+MySQL. It was actually just continuing my previous hobby and doing it as a leisure interest. In my junior year, I interned and visited chemical plants. I took professional courses on chemical engineering principles, dealing with a bunch of approximate empirical formulas, calculating equipment capacity, flow control, pressure limits, and so on. A real chemical engineer needs to be familiar with equipment and be on the front lines, not just understanding the principles. As for research, I didn't want to pursue further studies.
In my senior year, I casually signed a tripartite agreement and found a small technology company in Xi'an to switch to a career in computer science.
Returning to the South#
After graduating in 2012, I worked at a small company, doing both PHP backend and JavaScript frontend. They used Zend Framework and jQuery MVC, creating complex applications, but fortunately, there was no 996 work culture. During my free time, I discovered Go and started learning it. Later, I answered questions in the Go community, contributed to beego, gogs, and Gitea. I started to become known in the Go community and made friends.
As an inland city, Xi'an didn't have many tech professionals using new technologies like Go at that time. Java was still dominant. I felt that I had to return to the south. I really wanted to find a job related to Go or a job that used new technologies (just like now, my work is mainly focused on Rust, pursuing new things). Through communication with the community, I returned to Xiamen in 2014 and was recommended to a company to work on backend system development. Although I changed jobs a few times, I am still in Xiamen until now.
Some Thoughts#
After going around in circles, I didn't end up working in the field of my college major. Instead, I relied on self-study and exploration to develop my current abilities. To some extent, my unsuccessful choices were saved by my efforts and reselection. Although I am satisfied with my current situation, I still have regrets. Why didn't I just take the college entrance examination for software engineering? 😂 Hahaha
Things are unpredictable, and the trajectory of life can only move forward, unable to go back.