About Michael

Web Developer

Portrait of Kode Digital's web developer Michael

Work? I had no desire to work! Playing was all I ever wanted to do. Give me anything, and I’ll transform it into something to play with. Along with it came my mischief and my inquisitiveness. As my Indonesian mother would say, I like to “Lempar batu sembunyi tangan,” which directly translates to “throw a stone, hide your hands,” which simply means I like to cause trouble then pretend nothing happened. I am fairly certain that this would lead to my downfall someday, but let’s not think about that right now.

My desire to know everything would then lead me to my interest in the sciences, physics, chemistry and biology. So, I made up my mind that would a be scientist. In high school in got into a prestigious school that offers the science stream and yes it was perfect. For my straight A’s for my PT3 I even received an award from the Princess of Kedah. As I was going through my school life my parents also introduced me to MUSIC. At first, I was reluctant but then I said why not, since I was interested in learning drums but we did not have the resources for it so I started on the guitar. Then I started learning drums, bass, piano and trumpet, at this point I thought I might as well pursue a career in music.

Then I was introduced to ACCOUNTINGS, I was like WOW this is cool, I like MONEY, eh I mean balancing accounts, creating budgets and now I might as well be an accountant. But most of my cousins were already accountants even my sister took accountings. So, I wanted to be DIFFERENT.

I was then enrolled into Penang Matriculation College in Kepala Batas, here I took the sciences since my interest in how the universe and everything in it never faded but then 3 weeks in I realised they offered computer science as one of the subjects. So, I applied to drop biology and take computer science, which I got. Well computer science was very interesting till the point where it was the only subject, I would get an A in.

So, after graduating from matriculation, I applied to further my studies in public universities in the computer science field. My first 4 choices were mainly in cyber security as I was always interested on how hackers get into programs, games and software and then modify it, oh yes I was mischievous. Then I saw one of the courses which was games technology, hmmm interesting so I applied, since I also like to play games.

Et voila, I got games technology, and was enrolled at Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka in Bachelors of Games Technology. It wasn’t as fun as playing games but well it was still pretty interesting. I mean who goes to university to learn, I wanted to play, make friends and do activities. I had always been a very active kid so I joined a lot of extracurricular activities all throughout my student life. I joined my high school marching band, the choral speaking team, and also scrabble competitions. Not only did participated but we also won multiple competitions at states and national’s level. In college and university, I got a lot more active in sports and esports.

My greatest achievement while studying Games Technology was that one my games won a gold award in one of the Melaka State Innovation Competition. As my studies was ending, I was required to do a 6 months industrial training in my related field so I applied to most of the game development studios and companies, but most of it is in Kuala Lumpur which is far from my hometown Kedah, now I have to think about accommodation, transportation and finance. So, I decided to apply for IT related jobs closer to home instead.

Yeah, so that’s how I landed my internship role as a WordPress web developer at Kode Digital Sdn. Bhd. Completing my internship in Kode has been a great experience. Though I started with very little knowledge on web development, my colleagues and supervisor never stopped helping me. I was then offered as a junior role at Kode which I thankfully accept.

As you can see, I have been a jack of all trades BUT a master to none due to my interest in many fields, but I don’t really like that old adage, I want to be a jack of all trades AND a master of one. I am still interested in so many other things like starting my own game company or maybe become a commentator at an esports event or even go backpacking across countries. Well, my journey to greatness has just only begun and I am not sure what the future holds for me but I will face it and take one step at a time because I know I have God and the people who love and care for me as my support and I will do my best to be someone to them.