From Apprentice Electrician to Software Developer
…Or how I decided to ditch literally DIGGING DITCHES to bashing my head against my computer screen on a very regular basis trying to understand the ins & outs of software development.
Rewind to 5 years ago today, I was a single mama of two lovely children and an IBEW apprentice electrician. I’d just finished my undergraduate degree in Arts & Letters and although I felt called to pursue a doctorate in History, my circumstances required that I stay put and find gainful — possibly meaningful, employment. I applied to and was accepted into the IBEW inside wireman apprenticeship and as a 3rd generation electrician (almost every male member of my family is/was an electrician) I felt pretty comfortable on the job site and working with my hands, loved the complex problem solving I was able to do on a daily basis and felt inspired by a job well done and satisfaction in seeing the lights go on when a project was finished. Unfortunately for my situation — over time it became apparent that I was not going to be able to move forward in the apprenticeship due to child care/scheduling issues and eventually I found myself back at Square One.
Lucky for me, I live in Portland, Ore. aka “the Silicon Forest” and was having lunch with a good friend of mine who suggested that I take those problem solving, critical and creative thinking skills and apply them to teaching myself to code. He sent me some links to FreeCodeCamp and a few other online tutorials. From there I found my way to PDXWIT, Women Who Code Portland, and ChickTech Portland and started studying and networking in earnest! I attended conferences (CascadiaJS, .Net Fringe just to name a couple) and Meetups every week. Eventually, with the help of a wonderful mentor (through PDWIT) I landed my first internship, then my first job in tech — as a Tech Support Engineer at Jama Software.
Eventually, a major life change happened again (joys of single parenthood!) that proved overwhelming for me & I had to make some changes in my life quickly. I spent a year at the coast with my kids which gave me the ability to decompress a bit and reflect on what it was I really wanted to be doing with my career — with everything I had worked so hard to learn so far — I knew that I needed to move past the tech support roles and into the world of software development. But how exactly was this going to happen?
I decided I needed a more structured learning environment in which I could truly up my game and learn the skills I would need to become a software developer. Thanks to a generous scholarship to attend Bloc.io I am on track to meet my goal of becoming a developer and I couldn’t be more thrilled!
