Eliana Jordan, 35, is a scuba instructor, software developer, and entrepreneur who lives mostly in Southeast Asia. About five years ago, while stuck in a pandemic lockdown and out of work, she learned to code. Jordan has used that skill to develop a scuba-diving app. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
After getting my business degree in Spain, I did a bit of marketing work and decided that office life was not for me. I moved to London to learn English and travel the world. After two years in London, I went to Thailand. That’s where I tried scuba diving. It was like meditation. I did my open-water course, and that changed everything because I loved it so much.
Eventually, I taught scuba diving in the Philippines, Indonesia, and other places. I moved to Australia with a work-authorization visa and decided to become a scuba instructor. I was there for about two years.
When the pandemic hit, I got stuck in Bali because I was on holiday. My job back in Australia told me they were closing, and I couldn’t find another scuba instructor job. Everything was closed.
I had been thinking for a while that I wanted to learn to code because I had an idea for a booking app, like Airbnb for scuba diving. Because I was in Bali, and had savings and couldn’t work, I said, “OK, this is the time.”
Something in my brain clicked
I learned from YouTube tutorials because there was no AI back then. I remember calling a developer friend and saying, “I don’t understand anything.” He said that was normal. It was pretty intense at the beginning, but I loved the challenge.
Eventually, I enrolled in a boot camp because I wanted a proper foundation. When I was learning by myself, I didn’t feel like I was going anywhere. Then, in the first week of boot camp, something in my brain clicked, and I understood everything.
I started sharing my projects on LinkedIn. A company contacted me because they had hired people from the same boot camp. I started there as an intern, then found my first full-time developer job after failing two technical interviews at different companies.
The company where I worked used a coding language I had never used before. They promised training, but eventually, I had a meeting with human resources, and they fired me because they said I would never make it. That only made me more determined.
I got another developer job. After about two years working in corporate life as a developer, I realized I had learned a bit, but not everything I wanted. It was a remote job, but I quit to focus on building my app because at least I had some experience.
I worked part-time as a scuba instructor to pay the bills
My main reason for getting a developer job was to learn more coding and more about the whole tech infrastructure to build my own product.
I moved back to Thailand and worked part-time as a scuba instructor to pay the bills while I built my app. Scuba gave my brain a break from coding. There is more money freelancing as a developer, but sometimes it’s not just about money.
That was almost exactly three years ago. Since then, I’ve collaborated with brands on social media about coding, so I’ve earned some income from that.
Many nights, after working as a scuba instructor — full of nitrogen on my brain — I worked on the app. It was pretty intense, but the mind is quite powerful if you want to do something. It is still at an early stage, but suddenly, after years of hard work, everything seems to be coming together.
I work a lot of hours some days, but I have more freedom than when I worked an office job. If I want to go scuba diving on a Tuesday morning at 11 or kite surfing because the wind is good, I don’t have to ask permission. I can work early in the morning or later in the evening.
I wake up very early every day without an alarm because I love what I do. I have my iced Americano coffee and start working on my app. When I was working for someone else, I was checking emails, writing code, fixing bugs, or doing these things that I didn’t want to do. This is my own thing, and that’s really made me proud.
I love coding and scuba diving, so this is the perfect combination. I turned 30 when I was in Bali and learned to code. Don’t be afraid to start over. It’s never too late.
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