A place where developers tell their stories of how they became part of web3.

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What did you do before getting into web3?

For the past 5 years, I was working in a web 2.0 company as a technology lead & PM. Before that, I had my own startup and worked on games.

What were the first things you did in web3?

For me, it started with learning about smart contracts. CryptoZombies was my first hands-on experience. After this, I participated in the ETHGlobal Web3 Weekend hackathon. The first experience was really amazing, the way the community extended itself to help out a newbie like me was really amazing. After that there was no turning back, I participated in multiple hackathons, contributed to a couple of projects, and finally landed a Yield mentorship through EthernautDAO.

When and how did you start to think about quitting your web2 job?

Once I got to understand more about web3 and the new possibilities that it opens up I started looking out for how to make a leap into this industry. I believe that web3 has opened up a new way of coordination that would enable a lot of things that were not possible before. The industry is going through a monetization phase because of which I wanted to work on something that would eventually become a building block for the industry.

How did you hear about EthernautDAO?

I got to learn about EthernautDAO through my brother. He knew that I was looking to make a leap and pointed me to the tweet.

Have you applied for a mentorship? How did it feel?

I did apply for the mentorship with Alberto. It was tough summarising my work-life till now & make a strong case. Seeing the other candidates I didn’t expect to get through. So, I started applying for other mentorship options as well. I did hope to get in with Alberto as I had seen the work he had done & it made me want to work with him.

Did you work and get mentored at the same time?

I was working full-time in my last role while getting mentored. It was challenging in the beginning as I had to change my mindset. I was coding for a long time and earlier I used to focus more on getting the job done and not necessarily on the aesthetics of the code. Thankfully Alberto was really patient and got me through it.

If you have transitioned to web3 full time, how different is it from your previous career?

There is a huge difference. As a smart contract developer, you have to be responsible for the development, testing & deployment. Inefficient smart contract code literally costs money. So you have to be meticulous about each line you write. It’s really adversarial once a smart contract is deployed so you have to always think about how the code could be exploited by malicious actors which was not always the case in my previous role. I am also really excited about what we are trying to build as an industry. What we are building might end up being the foundation on which economies might end up running. Apart from this, I would say I am really happy about the people I get to work with within this industry. They are not only helpful & encouraging but always push the bar of quality & output.

What advice would you give to web3-curious devs?

Get your hands dirty as quickly as possible. Try to do a complete cycle of development, testing & deployment at least once to get a taste of what it is going to look like. Testing might feel tedious in the beginning however, you will sleep well when you have a thoroughly tested smart contract. Participate in hackathons to get yourself familiar with the things being built out there.

And special thanks to Ethernauts as well for starting EthernautDAO, I would be eternally grateful for this.

EthernautDAO offers free mentorships to experienced web2 devs trying to break into web3. If this sounds like you, check out the available mentorships in the EthernautDAO Discord and follow us on Twitter to get notified when a new mentorship is available.