cat story.md # accounting → tech, the long way

Accounting to full-stack AI, told step by step. Kept as a journal, so it can grow as I write more. No CS degree, no connections — I started from zero.

1. Final sem · 2021

   Where the itch started

   It started with a final-semester group assignment that touched accounting software. That was the first time the word 'programming' meant anything to me, and I got curious. Fresh out of a First Class Accountancy degree at UiTM, I started researching whether I could pair the two at all.

2. Late 2021

   Python first, on an old phone

   My first language was Python, learned from the book Python Crash Course — no AI to lean on yet. About a month later I moved on to HTML, CSS and JavaScript. When my brain was overwhelmed I'd lie down and learn on my phone: SoloLearn, Programming Hub. My laptop was old, so I even coded on the phone. All of it free.

3. Early 2022

   TalentLabs, because I loved building UI

   Three months in, I found a TalentLabs post on Instagram. Four tracks; I chose Software Engineering, because turning HTML, CSS and JavaScript into a real UI was the part I loved most. Classes were at 8pm, two weeknights a week.

4. 2022 – 2023

   MySTEP, and a detour through Finance

   Through MySTEP I landed a Finance placement — not tech. Before it ended I was offered MySTEP+ to take an advanced front-end course, and I chose frontend again, studying it while working as a finance trainee. The placement company went bankrupt before it was up; if it hadn't, I might still be in accounting. Every one of these courses was free for me.

5. 2022 – 2023

   QA intern, and a Notion portfolio

   Using my TalentLabs and online certificates, I applied for IT internships myself and landed three months as a QA tester at an AI and data-science startup — mostly remote, it was Covid. My first portfolio was just a Notion page: I had to convince people to hire someone with no CS background.

6. 2023

   Eleven months, building proof

   After the internship I was unemployed for about eleven months, finishing the course and really understanding what I'd learned. I built my own portfolio site (no AI then, so endless open tabs) and learned to deploy — frontend, backend, database, UI/UX, the full flow — as proof I could do it. It went through so many versions.

7. 2023 onward

   Sharing the whole way

   I didn't learn quietly. From the early courses to the homelab, I posted the progress in public — LinkedIn, Threads, Twitter — what I shipped, what broke, and what finally clicked. With no CS background, being visible was half the portfolio. It compounds.

8. 2024

   The first frontend job

   Almost two years to land a frontend role. In 2024 my first company found me on LinkedIn; the boss reached out and offered it, though I still had to interview. Terima kasih, Todak Digitech.

9. 2025

   A door I thought had closed

   My first freelance came from a cold resume I'd sent months earlier and given up on. Three or four months later they emailed — not to interview, but to ask if I'd collaborate. They'd kept watching my gerak kerja. Rezeki datang lambat sikit: sometimes the work speaks before you do.

10. 2025 · now

    Second company, and AI

    Now I'm at my second company, still frontend, building AI-focused features with OpenAI and Claude APIs and a bit of vector search — the only woman on a small Japanese team. Studying an AWS course on the side.

11. 2026

    AWS Solutions Architect, passed

    The AWS course I'd been chipping at on the side finally paid off — I sat the exam and passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate. First cloud certification, no CS degree behind it. Proof that the slow, self-taught way still gets there. Alhamdulillah.

12. 2026 · now

    Full-stack, and AI-first

    A contract with IntelliLabs AI Solution, alongside the day job, and this time the whole stack: Express and Postgres, Laravel, Docker, plus WordPress for two government agencies. I work AI-first: write the spec, then review and test what the coding agents build. Four-plus years in now, coding since early 2022, alhamdulillah.

13. Always

    Nights, and the homelab

    Outside work I tinker: self-hosting a small homelab, poking at hardware, breaking things to understand them. Software to hardware, whatever catches me — the building still happens in the open. If you're thinking of switching: think hard first, it costs time and energy. But tak apa kalau lambat.

Belajar tak pernah henti.

always, still learning

Cheers ✨