This is How I became an Oracle APEX developer #JoelKallmanDay

It was the Second semester of 2009, I was still a Systems Engineer student in a Data Base Class, and our teacher asked us to build a Web Application that used a Data Base as the final project. We knew nothing about building web applications and had only built standalone applications, so we had to find out how to do it.

We found PHP and built a form and a report, it was working, but it took a lot of work and had many issues. My co-worker found Oracle APEX on the Oracle XE Version and showed me it, it was so simple and easy to use, and with a few clicks we had a working application with authentication. It was so easy that we thought our teacher wouldn't accept it, but anyway, we built our application using APEX.

Our teacher taught us to use Oracle Data Base, even taught us PL/SQL, that's why we thought: "It seems he is a Fan of Oracle, probably if he knows that we used an Oracle tool to build the application, he will give us a better grade on the final project", we said that to cheer us up.

The due date came, and we showed our project to the teacher, as soon as he watched the interface of the login screen he was surprised and said "oh!, you built it with APEX", we looked at each other and smiling we said "Yes", our teacher asked us if we had free time if we were looking for a job because he'd had a project and maybe he'd need students who know APEX. The next year my Data Base Teacher was again my teacher on another subject and asked me again to work with him, he already had the project and was looking for students who knew APEX.

I sent him my CV and he hired me. It was a project to develop an application for a governmental entity, I was just a beginner on APEX but believe it or not, I was one of the most experienced APEX developers on the team, the other members knew a lot about other fields like Security, Software Design, Platform, Database, and so on. Since the beginning, I had to learn how to develop APEX apps on my own.

The project took more time than expected and the team members were leaving one by one, in the end, I was almost the only one finishing the project but finally, we did it and delivered the software. A few weeks later I was contacted by the governmental entity to modify the software and was hired directly by them. I've been there for 10 years learning many things on my own, I'm still the most experienced APEX developer on the team... well. I'm the only APEX developer there.

I'm sure Joel Kallman directly helped me in the past, I posted a lot of questions on Oracle Forums and probably he answered one of my posts, He helped to grow the APEX community, and He'd be so proud of what we've achieved, and what we'll achieve, Let's celebrate this day and keep growing the APEX community! 

If you are an Oracle APEX Developer, tell me in the comments how you became an Oracle APEX Developer!