One Year On From My HTML/CSS Course

From the CFG Archive: March, 2017

A few days ago, as the last session of the Oxford CF:G Python was coming up, I realised that it’s now been roughly a year since I finished my CF:G HTML/CSS course. So to celebrate, I’ve written up my coding journey, the challenges of switching into tech, and some tips!

​What Has My Tech Transition Been?

I started out working for Code First: Girls last January, and stayed there for 7 months. I then switched to a Web Developer Internship at Zooniverse, a citizen science research platform that’s based at the University of Oxford — an internship that was actually advertised in the Code First: Girls newsletter! When that ended, I went over to Oxford Computer Consultants, to do another paid Front End Internship, which is where I am now.

In my current day to day role, I sit in the UX Design Studio alongside the UX Designers and other Front End developers — most of whom are female! I get given wireframes (images of what the website should look like, created by UX Designers) and I then build the websites with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. When I moved to Oxford, having been a very keen codebar student in London, I decided to set up the Oxford chapter of it, which I now co-organise with two other lovely people. I also teach on the CF:G courses in Oxford which is really fun.

What Were the Challenges of Switching to Tech?

It’s worth bearing in mind that there is a lot to learn. I used to get a bit overwhelmed, and still do sometimes. You do have to work hard to make the switch, and it was more work than I’d expected — and at times knew. Someone once pointed out that I was trying to make up for a 3 year degree that I didn’t have though, and that helped me get everything in perspective. I now always try to focus more on enjoying the journey, rather than being frustrated at not being a Junior Developer yet. It became easier when I embraced that.

Tips:

Over the past year, I’ve learnt a lot through the various opportunities and experiences that I’ve had. Here are some of the key things that helped me keep going:

• Have projects that you’re genuinely excited about! Build things you really want in your life — this makes it so much more fun and engaging.
• Don’t get too down if you aren’t progressing at the rate you feel you should be, or feel that others are progressing faster than you. It’s really important to make sure you have a good understanding of the basics, so take as long as you need.
• Ask developers for help and ask to meet up in exchange for cake and coffee when you get really stuck — don’t let yourself get bogged down in problems and demotivated!
• Have friends who are interested in tech too. If you’re all learning together at the same time, you can talk to each other. It also helps, having someone who understands when you want to vent about or enthuse about a recent technology you’ve been working with.
• Just because one person’s explanation doesn’t make sense doesn’t mean you’re stupid. I used to worry about this all the time, but now having had a go explaining things a few times myself, I’ve realised that explaining and teaching is actually really hard and a skill! Sometimes you click with someone’s perspective and sometimes you don’t.
• Find a mentor! Mentors can help you with not just code, but also making career decisions. These can be quite intimidating, particularly at the early stages of transitioning to tech. I embraced that I didn’t know what I was doing, and reached out to someone with a lot more experience than me. I have been very fortunate to have an amazing mentor called Ryan, who has helped me throughout the past few months.
• Be proactive — just because a company isn’t advertising internships doesn’t mean they aren’t open to hiring you as one, if you come across as really keen and enthusiastic. If there isn’t a codebar, set one up. If you want to do some coding-related volunteering, reach out to organisations!

Lastly, one of the most important things is helping each other. Help out on CF:G courses, share your knowledge with family and friends and do things like write blogs about what you’ve learnt. This reinforces your own knowledge whilst helping others. It also boosts your confidence, and has been one of the most important things for me this year.

The Pros of Switching into Tech
It has been hard, but I’m so glad I did. I find working as a developer incredibly empowering. I get given small problems and I solve them. I go home at the end of the day knowing that I fixed things and have tangible examples to prove to myself that I can succeed at things. I’ve also found that a by-product of spending my day job working on my problem-solving skills is that I feel better about making decisions and solving issues in other parts of my life.

If you would like to ask me anything about any of this, you can find me on Twitter at @WebDevBev. I’d lastly like to say a big thank you to Level39, who hosted the Code First: Girls course that I first learnt to code on and a huge thank you to Code First: Girls, who started me off on this path.