Becoming a Developer | Learning HTML + CSS

My journey has begun. I heard it’s a great practice to record everything I’m doing as I learn to code on some sort of platform, so I thought it’d be awesome to start a blog here on Medium. No, I don’t expect anyone to read this, nor do I really care. This is for me. A journal, of sorts, to record my journey to becoming a developer. So it’ll be random, it’ll be crazy, and it’ll likely be filled with loads of newbie mistakes…I can’t wait!

The reason for wanting to switch? Many. I’m currently the Social Media Manager at SendGrid. It’s a great job with great people at a great company. But I don’t have a passion for social media, and I don’t even know if I have a passion for marketing. And at this point, I’m not sure I necessarily have a passion for developing, but I need a change. And I’m willing to put in the time and effort to explore if this is right for me…and if it’s not, I’ll hopefully make a lot more money doing some I’m still not passionate about. You feel me?

So, what have I done so far? About two weeks ago, I made this decision to start pursuing this career change. To kick things off, I started just talking to all the software engineers I know. Friends at Google, quality assurance engineers at my company, my brother, father, everyone I could think of, and I started gathering and compartmentalizing the advice they gave me. I even talked to our Sr. Director of Quality Assurance at SendGrid, Mary Tappe, a good friend of mine. We chatted for a bit, and she started sending me in the direction of finding out if QA would be right for me. So what have I done thus far?

• First, I hopped back on Code Academy and began taking lessons in HTML and CSS. I don’t know if I’ll ever do anything with it, but I heard it’s super easy to learn and an easy confidence win (which I’m going to need). So far, it’s been really good. I finished the quick and easy HTML course and now I’m just about finished with the CSS course. It’s been great! I’ve learned a ton and had my fair amount of struggles along the way, too. Positioning with CSS was a pain in the butt at first, but I’m starting to get the hang of it more. To put everything I’ve learned to practice, I started my first project last night. I’m trying to learn to code the profile page of the LinkedIn website. Hopefully I’ll have something to show for it soon, but my idea is to create a more interactive resume, beyond just clicking “read more” and embedding links on the page. I’m hoping to make it look like the LinkedIn page, but then add some additional usability with some JaveScript as I learn that. We’ll see what happens, but if all else fails, at least I learned to code a cool/professional page like LinkedIn.
• Next, I’ve started taking a few basic Udemy courses. First, I wanted to get a good understanding of what I’m getting myself into, so I started taking a Pre-Programming course. It’s basically teaching me everything about how computers, browsers, servers, and everything in between works. Definitely recommend because it’s making everything so much easier to understand.
• Also, Mary Tappe recommend an ISTQB course on Udemy that’s teaching the fundamentals of Quality Assurance Testing. It’s kinda dry, and the speaker is very hard to understand, but I’m enjoying it thus far. Only about 10% through, but I’ll let you know what I think.
• Been working through some fun/easy coding on some phone apps too. Mainly, SoloLearn and GrassHopper (by Google). They’ve been fun. Not a ton of learning, per se, but I feel like it ingrains a bunch of principles and definitions in my head. Plus, it’s on my phone, so I can always do it.
• Listening to some coding Podcasts, too. Nothing too fancy or technical, but lots about where to start, how other successful developers did it with a busy schedule—those sort of things. Nice to listen to during workouts.

And that’s really it at the moment…planning on finishing these Udemy courses and finishing putting my HTML/CSS skills to the test with this LinkedIn page mockup. It’ll likely take me a while, especially with this week being Thanksgiving week, but I’m excited to take a stab and put what I’m learning to the test.

So for now…that’s all!