MIKAYIL_GACEK() { // alias raiku I build things for the web. }

Hey, I'm Mikayil. You might also know me under my alias raiku. Born and raised in Germany, I've spent most of my life in and around Frankfurt am Main. It's also the city where my mother (Polish) and my father (Armenian/Turkish) met.

My first smartphone was an iPhone, and I stuck with it for many years. At one point, I tried Android and hated the experience for several reasons—mainly performance and battery life. A couple of years later, I got an Apple Watch and a MacBook and was amazed at how well everything integrated. The ecosystem just worked. That got me curious about iOS/macOS development, and I started dabbling in Swift to learn the basics of programming.

I was just about to finish my apprenticeship in the automotive industry at BMW (my favorite cars!) when I discovered my love for programming, solving complex problems, and building things.

Once I had played around with Swift, basic playgrounds, and a few online courses, I wanted more - I wanted to understand how I could pivot and switch careers. Looking back, it shouldn’t have been a big surprise. I was always the go-to person for anything computer or tech related. I built my first PC at age 12 and spent countless hours in front of a screen every day. Besides gaming, I was also drawn to creative fields like music production, graphic design in Photoshop, video editing, game-development and making YouTube videos.

My mom always said I should study Computer Science, and she was right. But after school, I was just fed up. I wanted to move out, earn my own money, and be independent. I managed that part - but career-wise, I made the wrong choice. The math in Computer Science also scared me at the time. I love understanding how things work, but at some point in school, I couldn't naturally grasp some concepts. The teachers didn’t care to explain the why behind things - we were just told to memorize formulae for exams. Math was fun until it wasn’t. I was afraid this would be my life for another 3–4 years if I pursued CS, so I chose the next thing I was passionate about: cars.

I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Switching careers without getting a new degree is pretty uncommon in Germany. People here are very focused on formal education - and I get it. A degree is at least a signal of knowledge in a specific field. So I knew that if I wanted to prove my skills, I’d need a portfolio or at the very least, one project that showed I could do the job.

After finishing my apprenticeship at BMW, I became a fleet manager for enterprise clients in a mid-sized company. That only reinforced my belief that I had chosen the wrong path. So I started looking into how people transitioned into developer roles, and that’s when I found web development. A lot of people recommended it for beginners - and now I see why. It’s so much more approachable compared to many other tech fields.

At the same time, I was pleasantly surprised by the web app we used at work. It was written and maintained by a single programmer and one intern, and it was tailored to our exact needs. Compared to the bloated enterprise systems that I used to use that are slow and clunky, this was like a breath of fresh air. I didn’t even know software for businesses could be fast and enjoyable to use. I had many conversations with the programmer behind it. He encouraged me and told me I was on the right path.

Around that time, I was already taking full-stack development courses online, putting in hours after work, and gradually building up my knowledge and skills.

After going through FreeCodeCamp’s and The Odin Project’s curricula, I wanted something more structured - something focused on becoming job-ready as a full-stack developer. So I enrolled in Codecademy’s Full-Stack Developer career path.

That’s when I really "locked in." I was learning and writing code every evening for hours, building projects and filling my portfolio with work that showed I understood the fundamentals. When I finally built my own real portfolio site, I had enough confidence to start applying for jobs - and sure enough, I landed one from the first batch of applications I sent out.

From there, things took off. Doing this full-time while continuing to learn at home meant I was practicing 10–12 hours a day, 7 days a week. And it showed. I got better, faster, and more motivated with every problem I solved. I fell in love with programming and problem-solving. For the first time, it felt like home. This was more than just a job—it was my calling. The thing I want to dedicate my life to.

I want to go deeper. I'm planning to earn a degree in Computer Science while continuing to work full-time - not because anyone told me to, but because I want to. Because I’m curious. Because I love this. I’ve built countless projects at work and on my own. I’ve deployed full-stack apps from scratch and gotten comfortable building new things and maintaining legacy code. I’ve taught myself the theory I needed and developed strong practical skills along the way. Now I want to dig deeper into the fundamentals and commit myself to mastering this craft. Computers have given me so much - they’ve empowered me to do amazing things. It’s time I give something back to this incredible ecosystem.