Wearing an Apron at 14 Years Old
I started working at 14 years old. A diploma in bakery and pastry, then a certification in chocolate making. For ten years, I worked in demanding establishments: Lenôtre, La Maison du Chocolat, the Plaza Athénée. Places where you learn discipline, pace, and how to handle pressure.
I also spent a year in Australia. Working in my trade on the other side of the world, traveling between contracts, discovering other cultures and other ways of living. An experience that opened my mind in many ways.
For a long time, the goal was clear: start my own business. I tried, but between the sacrifices it required and a tough economic climate — in the middle of the Covid pandemic — the drive faded. No tragedy, just the honest realization that this path was no longer mine.
Finding My Way
When you leave a profession you've been in for ten years, you don't necessarily know what to do next. I tried music — a few months in a studio. I liked the world, but the rhythm, the atmosphere and the prospects didn't suit me.
Then, five months in Asia. The right time to enjoy life, step back and think about what I actually wanted to build.
Toward Tech
When I got back, my cousin brought up programming. My father thought it made sense — he had done some when he was younger, and I had always been behind a screen. My sister had also dabbled in code. The idea grew from there.
Looking into it, I saw what software development offered compared to pastry: better salary prospects, a wider range of opportunities, and above all a flexibility in working conditions that barely exists in a kitchen. I decided to try the 42 entrance exam — the piscine.
63 Hours a Week, for a Month
The 42 piscine is a month of total immersion. Nine hours a day, every day, no break. On top of that, 60 hours of commuting over the month in my case. You move forward exercise by exercise, concept by concept. You don't understand much at first, but you keep going. You talk with people who are sometimes in the same situation as you, sometimes not at all. It's not about being talented — it's about not giving up.
After the final exam — eight hours straight without a break — then a month of waiting, I finally got the result. I was in.
The Core Curriculum — and a Knee Down
The 42 core curriculum is where things get serious. Increasingly complex projects, C programming, system-level work, algorithms.
Then I injured my knee. Torn anterior cruciate ligament. At that point, I was in the middle of minishell, one of the most demanding projects in the curriculum. I pushed hard with my partner to finish it before the surgery.
Minishell done, straight home. Surgery, then two months of doing nothing. No drive, no motivation, no headspace for coding. Meanwhile, my classmates kept moving forward. The stress of falling behind, of no longer being at the same level when I came back.
I had fallen behind. But nothing insurmountable. I caught up gradually, project by project.
Discovering DevOps
The Inception project laid the foundation. Docker, containers, infrastructure — I quickly understood the practical value of these tools in the professional world. Building reproducible environments, automating, thinking in systems rather than lines of code: that's what suits me.
Alongside that, I started Glasck with friends — a real project with real users and real infrastructure to manage. That's when DevOps went from an interest to a professional direction.
What Nobody Shows
I'll be honest: it's not easy every day. There are tools to learn constantly, gaps to fill in certain languages, moments where you look around and realize others are clearly ahead of you. Classmates who progress faster, who land jobs while you're still struggling.
Demotivation comes in waves. But it always ends up giving way to determination.
Step by step, it moves forward. Every tool learned, every project completed, every problem solved adds a brick. It's slow, it's not linear, but it moves forward.
What pastry taught me is that everything is built step by step. Code is no different.
For Those Who Are Hesitating
I've never been the strongest in my class. I don't have a job yet, no perfect track record to show. But for those considering a career switch, those hesitating to try 42 or another path into tech: it's possible. It will be demanding, there will be doubts and difficult comparisons. I can't promise it pays off. What I can say is that I'm moving forward, and that every day I get a little closer to my goal: a career that suits me, with working conditions that allow me to live well.