Why I started coding?
Coding is worth trying regardless of what background you are from. You will never know until you try it. Here is my story — of how I started and how things have progressed since.
During the beginning of the pandemic, as many people I was left with room to reflect and I started to consider a different career path. Then I came across Tjejer som kodar (Girls who code), an organisation which aims to inspire women to code and join the industry. Their message resonated with me so I signed up and tried their introductory coding course.
This sparked a curiosity that led me to Technigo. Fast forward to today and I am halfway through their 24-week front end developer boot camp. It has been a rollercoaster of frustrating bug searches and exhilarating aha-moments and along the way I have found many more reasons as to why I code and continue to code. The continuous positive learning experience, solving problems that I would have been clueless about only a few months ago, and being part of an awesome and supporting community (thank you Technigo! 💖), to name a few. But the one that stands out is the feeling of empowerment that comes with the ability to create something from scratch. One minute the screen is blank, the next it is filled with your code, something that you’ve created, mind blowing!🤯
But this journey hasn’t all been easy. There have been struggles with doubt when I’ve wondered if I am good enough and feeling like an imposter in this new world (not coming from a technical background), and it has at times felt overwhelming. To that, my savior has been my team and the coding community, and knowing that I am not alone in this, and neither are you.
So, I thought I would share some realizations from these first twelve weeks of the bootcamp, and hopefully they can be of some help to you if you’re considering doing something similar yourself. Here goes:
Be kind to yourself:
Learning to code is difficult, but it is a craft and as any other skill it takes time, patience and grit to learn and perfect. You will struggle sometimes, but don’t be discouraged. The obstacles you face will become easier and less intimidating over time.
Don’t be afraid of asking for help:
Bashing your head against a problem for too long doesn’t help anyone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, you are most probably (definitely) not the first person to have encountered it and you will be surprised over how helpful the coding community is. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and remember — StackOverflow is your friend.
Dream work is Teamwork:
The stereotype of a programmer as a lone wolf is not necessarily true at all. In this boot camp I have both pair-programmed and mob-programmed and it has been one of the most enjoyable aspects. You get to share with and learn from each other, get direct feedback and inspire each other. So not only is it fun, it is often more effective.
Take pauses and don’t burn out:
It is easy to get completely engrossed in a task and just plow on without stopping, or to sit for hours on end to try to solve a bug. I know, I have been there, but take my advice and avoid the temptation. Taking pauses and letting your brain rest away from the screen has been a game changer. Of course, it’s much more effective long-term because you won’t burn out, but also — I have realized that I often discover solutions faster when I’m away from the screen (because yes, I think of my code day and night).
Divide your task into smaller pieces
Sometimes larger tasks can seem insurmountable and overwhelming. This was true for me and to battle this it has been helpful to break them down into tiny tasks and attack them separately and systematically. That way it’s much more manageable and comprehensible — and less scary.
So, those are some things that I have picked up so far on my journey and hopefully they can be of help to you.
Before I got into coding, I thought it was reserved for computer wizards and super humans. But I now know that it is not the case. If I as a non-technical person can do it, so can you!