Freelance Developer

When COVID-19 hit in early 2020, the events industry collapsed overnight. As a sound engineer whose livelihood depended on live events, I faced a critical choice: reinvent myself or struggle financially.

I chose to pivot to web development - not because I had a grand plan, but out of necessity. I dove into intensive self-learning: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React. What started as survival became a passion.

Within 3 months, I delivered my first client project - a Single Page Application for a local coffee shop. Though the business couldn't survive the pandemic's economic impact, the experience proved I could learn fast and deliver production-ready code under pressure.

This period wasn't about accumulating an impressive portfolio - it was about survival, rapid learning, and having the courage to jump into an entirely new field without safety nets. Every project taught me something new, every mistake made me better.

In 2022, my wife and I relocated to Cork, Ireland. The cost of living - particularly housing - was extremely high. My freelance work became crucial for sustaining ourselves financially while abroad.

I continued working remotely with Chilean clients while making connections in the Irish tech community. This experience taught me how to manage projects across time zones, communicate asynchronously, and adapt to working in a different tech ecosystem.

The networking connections I made in Ireland's tech scene gave me exposure to international development practices and expanded my perspective on the global tech industry - experience that proved valuable when I later joined Walmart's international team.

• ▸Rapid skill acquisition under pressure - production-ready in 3 months
• ▸Self-directed learning and problem-solving without formal training
• ▸Adapting to remote collaboration across time zones (Chile/Ireland)
• ▸Client communication and requirement gathering
• ▸Working with existing codebases and team standards
• ▸Balancing multiple projects and deadlines independently

This period wasn't glamorous. There were no venture capital backing, no impressive client roster, no big wins. It was messy, uncertain, and driven by necessity.

But it taught me something invaluable: the ability to learn rapidly under pressure and the courage to jump into the unknown without safety nets. These aren't skills you can learn in a bootcamp - they come from doing, from failing, from getting back up and trying again.

Looking back, this "scrappy" period of freelancing was the foundation that made everything else possible. It proved I could adapt, survive, and thrive when circumstances demanded it.

The period from 2020 to 2024 - spanning freelance work, Agrosat, and ultimately Walmart - wasn't just about working. It was about complete immersion. Seven days a week. Early mornings studying before work. Late nights coding after work. Weekends deep in documentation, tutorials, and building projects.

There were trade-offs. Health took a back seat. Social life became minimal. But those four years of intensive, focused learning built something concrete: a foundation deep enough that when Walmart's technical assessment came in 2024, I passed without stress.

This isn't sustainable forever, and I have better balance now. But those years proved something important: you can go from zero to competitive in this field if you're willing to do what most people won't. Not through shortcuts or luck - through thousands of hours of deliberate practice when it matters most.