Matti's autobiography

Like many others I've struggled finding my passion in life. Be it a hobby or a career. I've always been interested in far too many things for my own good and found myself jumping from thing to another through the years. For the longest time I struggled with being a generalist and it took me years to find the rignt things to focus on and even longer to find balance with work and hobbies.

I had an idea of what programming was from an early age through playing a lot of video games. For some reason I didn't think programming or making games was a possible career path until later in my teenage years. I made my first website in 2007 with Adobe Dreamweaver in school and thought it was pretty cool. And that Dreamweaver really wasn't cool. I wanted to know how websites are actually built and I started dabbling in making websites on my free time with Notepad++. I also tried to get into "real" programming with Python but it didn't really capture me the same way HTML and CSS did. My handbuilt websites never really took off or stayed online for long. I did maintain a couple blogs with Blogger until those also faded into the ether once I lost interest.

I played around with the whole suite of Adobe software creating images, Flash animations, videos and whatever I felt like trying. Unlike Dreamweaver a lot of the other Adobe stuff was pretty cool! I got increasingly good with computers and software but it all never really felt creatively fulfilling in the end. I never really felt like I finished anything. My efforts didn't feel like they amounted to anything.

After high school I applied to Tampere University of Applied Sciences to study in the Degree Programme in Business Information Systems. I know it had to do with programming, computers and game development but didn't really know what I would end up studying if I got there. As I eventually did. I soon learned web design was also part of the programme.

During the first year of studies I was delighted. I got to do graphic design, editing videos, project management, programming, writing. Surely school had it ups and downs but being able to finally use all my skills I had acquired throughout the years was a relief. It also felt good being part of projects that actually got finished. For the first time I felt like I was on the correct path. Career wise at least.

During the early 2010s responsive web development had gotten really popular and my school established a new web related study path. After the initial year of general studies I applied to the new web path and continued there for the rest of my two and a half years of studies. I realised that the web is the perfect place for people with a wide range of skills but also it has many aspects to completely specialise in. Alongside web design, frontend development ended up being the cup of tea I was thirsty for.

So far I've spent 8 years making websites and in the beginning of 2023 I started a fun job at a product development company and with that have become quite pleased with my career. I'm good at my job and all those years struggling to find "my thing" really paid off. Obviously I don't need everything I've learned along the way in my current job but it's surprising how useful being a generalist is. I encourage everyone reading this to embrace it.

I know there's more to this story. I'll update this as I learn it.

Thanks for reading!