“I had to flee my country…”
Angel is a 42-year old father of two.
Five years ago, he had to flee his country of origin, Venezuela. He almost finished his career in Computer Engineering, but due to his other passion, which is entrepreneurship, he abandoned his career and started two new companies called Linkco and Artex. He did well in managing his very successful companies, but due to the political situation in Venezuela, he left his work and life behind and decided to have a fresh start in the USA.
Angel never forgot the education that he received from his university studies. He loved coding, but because he was following his dream of becoming an entrepreneur, he abandoned it and started doing other things. He remembered coding in Pascal, C++, and Visual Basic, among others, back in the day.
“I remembered how good I was at coding…”
After coming to the USA, Angel had to figure out what he could do in the new country. He learned English back in Venezuela to help himself adapt better in his new environment. He started a new business that sold wholesale refurbished computers. But when COVID hit, his sales went down a lot. He then had to start thinking again about what he could do in the meantime.
“Due to my entrepreneurial passion, and because I always tried to think about new ideas, I remembered how good I was at coding 20 years ago. So I had an idea and I planned to execute it as soon as possible. I started searching on YouTube on how to become a programmer, and the 3rd video that showed up was “Learn How To Code in Just 14 Days”. I thought, that’s not possible but let’s give it a try. Turned out that the video was the “War Game” of CWC. I started watching it and I realized that Chris is good at teaching and that he’s very easy to understand. I was very excited because thanks to Chris, I could make a game on my phone. That led me to subscribe to CWC+.”
“I can finally say that I’m an iOS developer!”
In addition to Angel’s complex struggle of trying to start a new life in a new country, he also encountered the challenge of executing something he’s passionate about that he knows he could do for the long-term. Coding remained to be one of his biggest passions, but given that he finished university decades ago, it became challenging for him to remember some aspects about programming. But thanks to CWC, Angel was able to get back on track towards becoming the best iOS developer that he could ever be:
“I think Chris and his team have a great formula on how to teach coding. Of course I had to look at other tutorial videos on YouTube, but for me, CWC has always been better. If you watch all the videos and follow all of the apps developed by students under CWC, you will always learn something new that can help you with your project. Well, after watching almost all of the CWC videos, I can finally say that “I’m an iOS developer”.
As Chris said, “You don’t have to memorize all the code we are applying to develop this app. You just need to understand what the code does and then apply it to your own project”. After doing and applying the same code to different projects, it became easier for me to remember the code and understand it. Right now, I can code without referring to what I learned in the beginning.”
How Am I Driving
Coding eventually became second-nature to Angel after watching how Chris made it easy. He was really surprised that he managed to complete his project after 8 months. Now Angel feels that he can code anything. He also always refers to CWC in the event that he forgets how to execute certain steps in his coding.
Now Angel is proud to present his iOS app, How Am I Driving.
How am I Driving rewards you with points for driving safely, which can be redeemed for any gift card of your choice in our gift cards shop. Simply drive like you will be going to the driving test to get your driver license and receive an abundance of points. The more you drive safely, the more points you get!
The best thing about this app? He involved his two sons in developing this!
“My 13-year-old son designed the characters Meg (The Mechanic), Nico (The traffic cop) and Bobby (The oldie ride),” Angel said.
“Meanwhile, my 9-year-old son helped me with some lines of code and redacted, in his own words, this for the app description in the app store:”
The app works by determining how well you drive. The better you drive, the more points you earn.
Read more on how Angel and his sons created the How Am I Driving app by clicking this link.
“So many people are willing to help you!”
Angel believes that if you put in the work and reach out, then there will always be kind people out there who will help you become the best coder that you can possibly be. He has these pieces of advice to share:
“Anybody, and I mean, anybody can code. If your passion is turning and bringing your ideas to life, and that idea can be developed through coding, then just do it. You don’t need to have a degree in software engineering to start coding. You just need passion and the desire to do it.
Also, do not give up. Nowadays there are many developers in the world who are willing to help you or partner with you to bring your ideas to life. There’s no reason to leave something behind or in half. If you feel that you are not achieving what you want to do, please don’t give up! I know you can do it and CWC can help you in achieving what you need. I won’t lie; I once felt I couldn’t do it but then I told myself “You can do it”. And guess what: I did it.”
Are you a CWC student who has a success story to tell? Feel free to share it with us through this link.