My previous website

Hello y’all. My name is Jacob Lepler. I am a software engineer based in Washington, D.C. I would like to showcase my previously built website before learning Ruby on Rails and other tools. Now, I say previous, but at the time of writing this, it is actually the only website I have up. However, I do plan on revamping to 2.0. I realize my current website is lacking a few important things that I would like to include, like more contact details/socmed links, bio, and maybe a blog! I also would like to showcase my new recently acquired skills :)

www.jacoblepler.com (last updated 2020)

Working through these projects certainly taught me a lot about the software development process. While working these out, I had developed an understanding of HTTP requests, HTML, CSS, how Nodejs works and it’s many features (including Node Package Manager), express server, Reactjs, MongoDB, Firebase, and other tools such as Jest for testing. Even though I had a good repertoire of projects, I wanted to continue learning. Over the past few months I have learned Ruby on Rails, more Javascript and React, and gained more confidence in my ability to develop apps.

It all started with learning Java…

I started learning web development in late 2019 starting with Java. Everything from OOP, to working with the Spring Framework; including Spring Security and MVC. Around that time is when I had my first glance into HTML and CSS. Afterwards I took a short break and continued working my two jobs at the time.

I attempted briefly to understand Python, Django, and more HTML/CSS, however, by that time I had lost some momentum and motivation to continue my pursuit. It wasn’t until Covid hit that I really started to buckle down and dig into software development.

It didn’t come easy to learn these technologies since it seemed unintuitive at the time. However, like all things it takes time to become proficient - time, energy, and a lot of frustration and doubt!

However, it took all of 2020 and on the cusp of returning to normalcy in 2021 to really start to feel like a developer. My intention is to build more projects, collaborate on open source, recreate and deploy my new website, network with other developers, and look for employment as a software engineer.

Wish me luck, and if anyone reading this wants to reach, please do! I am more than happy to meet and converse :)

Jacob L