Full circle
As I reflect on the past 7 years, I realize there are two places that truly shaped my journey. Their impact on my life is real, and I carry that gratitude every day. Both places hold a special place in my heart.
- Apple Developer Academy
- Tokopedia
The first place, Apple Developer Academy, is the gateway and catalyst to my career switching progress. It's safe place to make mistakes, learn, and grow. A place where I can experiment with ideas, build my own apps, and learn from the best.
It’s a lot of fun and learning at the Academy. The challenge after challenge. Pivoting here and there. PUBG and GrabWheels after class. It’s such memorable experience.
The Apple Developer Academy also led me to Tokopedia, where I started working as a software engineer. Something that I had never imagined before, working at one of Indonesia's big tech at that time. I still remember my first day. My excitement when merging my first pull request. My confusion and desperation implementing unit test for the first time. I still remember when Apple announce home screen widget for iOS 14. Me and my team scramble together, brainstorming ideas and work for this feature. This is the first time I felt like I'm part of something big. We shipped it when iOS 14 released and got us featured at App Store.
5 years and 7 months.
I learn a lot. I break a lot too. But nobody ever pointed fingers. Instead, everyone was there, lifting each other up, helping each other move forward. That culture of support and trust is something I’ll carry and cherish forever.
But a lot has changed since then and changes are inevitable.
So, what now? For me, the answer feels simple: there’s no better place to return to than where it all began.
I’m back at the Academy. This time not only to learn, but also to share, passing on my experience of building large-scale iOS apps to the next generation of Apple platform developers.
Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned in these seven years, it’s this: you never really know how far a single opportunity can take you. And maybe, just maybe, the next story that starts here will be even bigger than mine.