How and Why I am starting a Machine Learning Career.

6 min readApr 9, 2019

The world is evolving so fast, and we have to evolve with it in every sense. The goal is to be part of the future always. The internet has so much content to offer. We don’t have to wait to afford material to learn.

This is a story is mostly about me, about how I taught myself how to code and why I have decided to study Data Science through to Machine learning and how I am going to do it. I am writing this story to always remind myself of where I am going and to inspire anyone who is or will be in my situation. Since I am not usually a very interesting person, I will try to make this story as interesting as I can.

I am a web developer ( story of how I got here 👇 ) but now I want to dive into DS and ML. So how does Machine Learning turn things around?

Ideally, I want to build cool stuff and be part of the future. I don't mean web development is not cool, I just find the wave of smart things too exciting to let pass by. I am actually still a web developer for the next few more years, now learning Elixir and Vue. Also as you will learn down this story I studied some mathematics and statistics. I recently checked out what it takes to become good at Data Science and Machine Learning. Correct me if am wrong, it’s mathematics, statistics and a good computing background in a well-suited language like Python, my choice if language for this. I have found the use for the maths in my head. So here is how I want to study Data Science and Machine Learning.

I have written a brief backtrack of my career before I started this and you can read it at the bottom of this story.

The Goal

The goal is to study a programming language that can be used for DS and ML, then study Data Science using this language then slowly start on Machine Learning and land in Artificial Intelligence based on the same language up to where the rabbit hole ends. I choose Python 😀😀😀!!

Obviously, I still don’t have enough money to afford a good course in Data Science or Machine Learning. Plus I love teaching myself these things so I have created my own curriculum of content collected from several corners of the internet that when put together will do the magic in a year. I recently came across this medium article of things to remember when teaching yourself Machine Learning and this other article of how this dude studied machine learning using a Trello board. So, I have created four public Trello boards.

The Strategy.

The idea is to collect all material from the internet, links, videos, tutorials and some affordable premium courses on the current section on board, put it together and break it down to tasks such that the learning prices become agile. So my four-year programme is to learn python, data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Each board will take a year to complete. Setting up the board is part of the course.

The Learning process.

I am doing this because I believe I don’t have to wait to afford courses to study, the internet has so much to offer people like me. Everything I will learn will be documented right here on Medium and on GitHub.

How I got Here.

So you have read my approach, here is a little about me. I am a Full Stack Software Developer. Initially, I was studying Electrical and Communication Engineering which I enjoyed and believed in at the time. I always knew I will love my career after graduating. While pursuing the Electrical and Communications Engineering course I did some very interesting and serious mathematics, statistics, a little physics and some programming in C and C++. Everything was awesome! But somewhere along the way, things changed and I had to change too. Let me break it down for you.

First 3 Years

During my 3rd year, things started being creepy, classes got boring and there was no connection between me and the career anymore. University strikes and some other issues issue killed my drive, one of which was the fact that after graduating you cant operate until a particular Board of Engineers certifies you. I needed a free space to play with my knowledge without any limits.

4th Year to 5th Year.

When I reached 5th year I had completely lost interest in becoming a Telecommunication engineer. Other life issues also crept in that demanded more from me. I did a number of jobs that weren’t working. Then just when it was very frustrating enough to give up I noticed I owned an HP laptop that ate the time was only being used for watching movies and playing video games.

The Googling and Try everything Episode.

After spending some time on Youtube and Google I tried most things a computer could do from Autocard designs to Photoshop which never worked out. A lot happened in between but in short, I landed in starting to code.

Finally Figured it out.

After I figured out most job adverts were coding jobs actually mid-level, I decided to go for it. I learned Linux, Virtualization and CCNA with not certification because I could afford the exams. I hoped to build a profile basically LinkedIn and a nice CV with all tech terminologies I came across. Eventually, it paid off. I learn for six months and got an internship during a strike/attachment episode and since then I have never looked back. After all, I figured out the internet has enough to make me what I want to be.

Internship then Full-time Jobs

During my first internship, I was assigned roles like creating project diagrams, experimenting with new C-IoT devices, consuming SOAP and REST APIs in Java and setting up test environments. Slowly I grow to become an advanced at system administration, cloud and developed a Software Developer thinking. I never studied Computer Science so I wouldn’t say I have a computer scientist mind, getting there.

Since, as you may tell by now, I am a millennial, I had to leave the internship programme to find something else. I was aggressive and determined. At this point with small C and JavaEE knowledge, I applied for a new web developer job that required JavaScript knowledge. I actually got the job because the task I was given was simple. I guess it was my luck too.

80 hours a week Episode

The new job came with more responsibility, a legacy application written in JS for NodeJS, deployment cloud environment. The application was buggy, inefficient and very hard to maintain. Sleepless nights and 75 hours a week translated to growing from Junior developer to Lead developer in about a year. I have grown to love being a web developer for the last 2 years. I have got to work with remote teams and do some Freelance jobs and moonlight with some. Full Stack web development is awesome!

I anticipate that my web developer skills and my learning approach will transition me to a very proficient Machine Learning expert.

If you have any suggestions please feel free to comment here and inspire somebody.

Thank you.