A Newbie in the Tech World

A year ago, I started my first blog. I decided I would use Wordpress because it allowed for easy content management (which I later realized, wasn’t so ‘easy’ to the average person, but more on that later!). My blog became a platform to post my writing for prospective employers, friends, and anyone else who wanted to venture into my world. Little did I know that downloading that one free Wordpress theme would lead me down a path I could never have imagined!

I’m currently a student at HackerYou’s full-time front-end developer bootcamp. A 9-week, 360-hour course that covers everything from HTML & CSS to Javascript, SASS, Grunt, Wordpress, and more. I spend ten hours a day staring at my computer screen, attempting to solve complex coding problems.

Going back to a year ago, I completed my blog and decided to take on another project for the small business I manage. I worked with a designer to completely re-brand and re-design our logo and company website. From there, I landed another client and took it one step further by tackling an e-commerce site, teaching myself the ins and outs of not only Wordpress, but also web plugins and extensions. I spent hours reading forums, watching YouTube tutorials, and readings books in order to teach myself the basics of these programming languages. I came to realize that I was only scratching the surface…

At the time, a career in journalism was the focus of my eye. I was waiting to hear back from an application I had submitted to an MA J-school program. But I had a lingering thought: what if I pursue web development? Clearly I enjoyed it, and I knew this because I could spend hours (and I mean HOURS) in front of my computer trying to understand concepts that were completely foreign to me. I mean, who does that? I realized that this was the first time since I graduated from university that I found something I was genuinely passionate about; something that really challenged my brain and was fun to do. I met with Heather Payne, founder of HackerYou and Ladies Learning Code and was immediately sold on the program. I dropped the journalism application and started HackerYou’s program eight weeks later.

How’s it going, you ask? There are good days and bad days. It’s definitely emotional. Sometimes I scream at my laptop, sometimes I jump for joy, and sometimes I just don’t get it. After all, I’m learning completely new languages from scratch. I’m challenging my brain in completely new ways. I should also point out that I have no background in this — at all. I graduated with a liberal arts degree and worked in retail for the past six years. I’ve always loved my Mac and I have a knack for languages, a factor I believe contributed to my interest in learning computer talk.

What I didn’t think about was the other side of learning to code, and that’s being a complete newbie in the tech industry! It’s a different world and one that I knew nothing about. But I’ve definitely found my niche and that makes me super happy. I feel like I’ve become part of an industry where I can be myself and meet amazing people, while continuing to learn new things. And the best part? Being able to contribute, in such a powerful way, to the ever-changing World Wide Web! The possibilities are endless, and I feel empowered knowing that I can create something beautiful from nothing by typing endless lines of code into a machine.

After this course is finished, I intend to begin the job hunt. This has been a complete career, and arguably, life transition. If you’re contemplating the switch to this industry, I suggest you do your research and consider your options. Does coding excite you? Is it something you see yourself doing? If so, I say go for it. And this is coming from a tech newbie who’s still learning and growing with a lot more to experience. But that’s what makes life exciting, right?