From massage therapist to developer: Hannah’s story
At 26, Hannah decided she was ready to start using her brain over her brawn — in part because she was already developing arthritis and carpal tunnel after six years working as a Massage Therapist. Her desire to find a career that could lead to more opportunity, and to have a job that was challenging her on a daily basis drove her to look into code schools and attend The Iron Yard. “I just was tired of going home and being in pain everyday and not being happy with what I was doing. I did some research on careers that weren’t going anywhere, and coding was number one.”
When a friend mentioned The Iron Yard, Hannah did her research and read the website front to back. Feeling good about the school, she decided to go through some online code lessons on Codecademy to make sure coding was something she would feel comfortable pursuing as a career.
After realizing that coding was something she would enjoy doing, she decided to take the plunge and enroll in our Front-End Engineering course at our Greenville, SC campus.
Hannah, like a lot of our students, encountered “imposter syndrome” during the course but reassured herself that it was pushing her forward into a new career field for her future. “I didn’t know everything, but I knew what was expected of me every single day.” Making a career shift at any stage of life can be intimidating, but reflecting on what you’ve accomplished each week is an excellent way to stay motivated when you’re in the middle of some really challenging work.
Every cohort has their own personality, and during Hannah’s, you could often find the students hanging out late into the evening on campus writing lines of code and other times having a fun night of Karaoke. One of the other things that impressed Hannah about The Iron Yard was the staff. “What surprised me the most about The Iron Yard was honestly the staff and how much they really do care about us as individuals and our education. I guess for most of my life I feel like I’ve been on my own, and I’m going to make whatever I want to happen for me. I just was very appreciative of all the extra help that they were always offering if I needed it.”
After graduating, Hannah made sure to keep stretching her coding skills by watching Treehouse videos and making brochure sites during her job search. “Everyday I would spend a certain amount of hours looking for jobs and applying. I ended up doing two interviews, and the second interview I did, I was accepted and got the position.”
Hannah now works at Prime Line Digital and is enjoying being in the “normal” life schedule for now. “That’s what’s kind of exciting about coding now is every day’s different. Yes, it can be tiring, but it’s also exciting in a way, and it keeps your brain active.”
We asked Hannah what advice she had for students considering attending The Iron Yard and she stressed taking the time to practice before your course begins, “I definitely wish that I would have practiced a little bit more than I did beforehand. I only did some of the Code Academy pre-work. I didn’t finish all of it. What I did definitely helped, because I felt like I was overwhelmed enough that first week, that if I hadn’t done any pre-work, I don’t know how I would have gotten through it. Meeting with a former student also would have helped me and I wish that I would have taken up Faith [the Greenville campus director] on that offer beforehand, just to talk to them and see what to expect. I don’t think I knew how much time and effort I was going to have to put into it, but I would definitely tell students it’s just three months, and you will have your life back afterwards!”
Once you become a developer, you realize that it’s a career that is always evolving and changing and requires effort to stay in the know of the industry. Hannah works diligently to stay up to date with trends and industry changes, “I read and follow a lot of tech blogs and then women who code. I also ask questions to my lead developer. I’ll ask him is this what he feels like is still up to par or the new thing to do. He’s very good about telling us that.”
Hannah didn’t wait long before giving back to the tech community she is now a part of. She and another graduate attended Women Who Code in Atlanta to be a part of a hackathon and help other developers who were interested in learning how to code.
If you’re considering learning how to code, we would love to see you at one of our crash courses. You can find the campus nearest to you with the crash course schedule here.
