Fabrizio Scandola

Treehouse basically made me realise that rapidly changing my professional path was possible.

What first drew you to the web industry?

It was actually a friend of mine. I was studying Business Science while he was developing websites and having a lot of fun doing it. So I started doing the same things on my own, asking him for some advice and eventually his passion completely infected me. He helped me a lot in getting started and also suggested I try Treehouse.

What work were you doing when you first joined Treehouse & what encouraged you to learn with us?

I was finishing my studies at University and Treehouse looked quite promising as it was offering everything I could ask for at the time. Plus I had the free trial to test. What more could I have needed for encouragement?

You're now a Full Stack Developer. Tell us a little bit about how your career has evolved since learning with Treehouse.

Just after discovering Treehouse I was sucked into it and studied for something like 8 hours a day. As I become more and more confident with my skills I started looking around for some client projects and eventually managed to land a freelance job for a company in my town. It was quite a big job at that time. I updated their website with news and new pages plus I made it totally dynamic and built a small CMS in PHP from scratch. From there I moved onto helping a local party to build their own website for the elections they were taking part in.

Then my girlfriend moved to the Netherlands and I decided to look for a job there and within two weeks of researching online I landed a job as a web developer in the company I am still working for today. It’s a web agency based really close to Amsterdam with big clients, so I’ve been able to grow a lot here. After almost a year, I started working for one of their biggest clients as an external Python consultant and developer.

What has the value of a Treehouse education meant to you?

Treehouse basically made me realize that rapidly changing my professional path was possible. This was awesome as it lead me by hand through subjects that seemed very scary in the beginning. It is a way of teaching that I think can be appreciated by many. Step by step, it takes you straight to the point, not wasting time in useless merely theoretical stuff. I was able to think: "I can do this!"... and eventually I did. :)

What are your plans for the future, and what’s up next on your learning path?

My plan for the future is to constantly improve my coding skills but also build some software that can help a lot of people. I want to find something that will really matter. I want a problem that can be solved by automating processes. A lot has been already invented, but a lot is still waiting to be done. I am just looking forward to finding the right problem… in order to solve it efficiently. I am not looking forward building a startup out of it. It is the whole process that I care about.

I’d also like to build a game (actually I am already doing something similar as the consulting work I am doing has a lot to do with helping the company deliver an innovative 3D game built with Unity). Still, I need more people than just myself for this.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with new students who are aspiring web developers?

The only advice I can give new students is also the name of a famous song: don't stop believing. If you really want it. Don't do it for the money.