Paying it forward
As well as building applications with PHP and Drupal, I spend a lot of time helping others and "paying it forward".
I write and contribute to open-source software and offer free online pair programming sessions to work on open-source projects.
I speak at conferences and meetups.
I create content, including videos and coding live streams.
I mentor at in-person events, such as DrupalCon, and for bootcamps, such as School of Code.
I've organised events, such as PHP South Wales and DrupalCamp Bristol, and reviewed session submissions for DrupalCon.
But I wouldn't have been able to do this without others doing the same when I was learning and getting into software development.
In July 2008, when I was evaluating technologies, I posted a question on a forum (I was learning HTML, PHP and MySQL then).
Someone replied and recommended using Drupal, which is how I learned about the project.
If they hadn't done that, I may not be in the position I am now.
I might not have found Drupal, contributed to it, worked for the Drupal Association, or spoken at DrupalCon.
Now, it's my turn to pay it forward.
- Oliver
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