I’m back! I know it’s been three weeks of silence around here, but believe me, it’s been for a very, very good reason. This isn’t a technical post like the ones I usually write, but a more personal update about a big change in my life that I’m incredibly excited to share: I’ve landed my first job as a programmer!

The journey has been intense and the learning curve steep, so I thought it would be interesting to share the whole process with you, from the interview to my first week “in the trenches.”

Weeks 1 & 2: The Calm Before the Storm (or rather, the Study Session)

It all started three weeks ago with a job interview. The usual nerves, technical questions, project discussions… but in the end, the feeling was good. So good that, shortly after, the news arrived: the job was mine!

The joy was immense, but it quickly turned into a deep sense of responsibility. I knew I had to come prepared, so those two weeks before starting became a personal training camp.

My goal was twofold: to brush up on technologies I knew I’d be using and to explore others that sparked my curiosity.

1. Brushing up on PHP and Firebase/Firestore: Although I already had a foundation, I wanted to go deeper. I reviewed PHP syntax, its quirks, and built small projects to get comfortable again. At the same time, I dove into Firebase and Firestore. I set up small applications to fully understand how to structure data, how security rules work, and how to interact with the database in real-time.

2. Exploring the World of AI (RAG and Faiss): As you know, artificial intelligence is a field I’m passionate about. I took the opportunity to work on small projects with RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) and Faiss, a library from Facebook AI for similarity search. I wanted to understand firsthand how a language model can be combined with a vector database to create more powerful question-answering systems. It was fascinating, and although I wouldn’t be using it on my first day, it helped keep my mind sharp and continue learning. And hey, who knows? Maybe I’ll use it in the future.

Those were two weeks of intense study, but incredibly rewarding. Every small project I completed was a confidence boost.

Week 3: My First Week in the Real World

And then the day came. The third week was my first week on the job. The feeling of opening your laptop knowing that the code you’re about to write will be used by real people is… indescribable. I fixed my first date bug, prepared JSON data for an AI model, and added several new features to an internal application (modals, Firestore fields, validation logic). If you want the full details of everything I did in my first months, I cover it in depth in my post about my first 3 months as a developer.

And to Top It All Off: The NASA International Space Apps Challenge

As if the week hadn’t been intense enough, I decided to join the NASA International Space Apps Challenge over the weekend. And what an experience it was!

Our team developed SpaceCrafter, a project I was particularly excited about. It’s an educational web application designed for kids and space enthusiasts to design and build their own 2D space habitats.

The best part is that it’s not just a simple drag-and-drop game. Every module you use is based on real designs from NASA and the ISS, with their actual technical specifications, costs, and weights. As you build, an AI assistant guides you in real-time, offering tips on where to place life support, how to optimize efficiency, or alerting you to design flaws.

The project included user profiles to save your creations, an achievement system, and even a leaderboard for the community to vote on the best habitats. It was an incredible challenge to develop all of this in one weekend, but a fantastic opportunity to apply everything I’ve learned and continue exploring new ideas.

Conclusion

It’s been a crazy week, in the best possible way. From fixing bugs in production to developing new features and capping it all off with a NASA hackathon. I’ve learned more in these past few days than in months of studying on my own. The feeling of applying theory to real-world problems, collaborating with a team, and seeing your work have a direct impact is incredibly motivating.

Now, it’s time to keep learning and adding value. And of course, get back to the blog! I promise the wait was worth it.

Here is the link to the NASA project if you want to check it out: SpaceCrafter. See you in the next post!