Code Like Her Fellowship, week #6
by Bisikha Subedi
I wanted to become a civil engineer, rather I ended up taking Computer Engineering as my undergraduate course of study. I still remember my first day of bachelor’s degree class when my teacher introduced me to programming and I didn’t understand any of the concepts and went blank. I had no prior knowledge about the technical field when I joined. This made my undergraduate challenging yet somehow I worked hard and completed my bachelor’s degree with good grades.
Even though I was never interested in programming and I never explored its verticals, right after my completion of my bachelor’s, I got an opportunity as an intern in a software company. As the whole concept of programming was new to me I expected more guidance than I received. I worked as a junior developer and was also involved in the support team for over a year, during which I realized I had my foundations all wrong, and even after a year, I was still struggling to understand the basics of programming. I was lost in between the vague files and faced a lot of difficulty in understanding the flow of the program.
After a few calculations about my strength and weakness, I decided to quit my job and decided to learn the core concepts of programming. I had embraced my pace of learning and I started with the essential skills which I lacked previously. After dedicating my time learning the basics, I was ready to step up. Then I got to know about Code like Her Fellowship and I decided to give programming one more try.
After the completion of the basics of JavaScript, in the fifth week, we were given a single project every single day for over a week. We completed four different projects including ball bouncing project, Hangman, Sign up forms, password show/hide, and many more. During this week, I realized there is a difference between gaining theoretical knowledge and practically implementing the knowledge to convert it into a presentable output.
During the initial days of JavaScript, I was confident about my concepts. But that’s what I thought, when we started doing the project I realized getting familiarized with concepts and writing a syntax is not enough. I learned the importance of organizing and planning problem-solving techniques before starting to code.
It’s similar to assembling a lego house. We have walls, windows, and doors which we are supposed to join together to complete the structure, but we can only do that one step at a time.
Likewise in order to complete an entire project, we should be able to disassemble the problem at the beginning and then assemble each block with the desired solution, one at a time to create a final product.
During this week, we had a presentation and an interview about everything that we learned. This made me nervous as well as excited. Every one of the students had 15 minutes to present the things they learned during the Javascript class followed by the Q and A round. During the Q/A round we faced the probable questions which most of the companies ask during the time of job interview. After the interview session, we had a discussion on the do’s and don’ts in the interview that we will be facing in real-time with our mentor.
I am extremely thankful to our mentors who have not only focused on teaching programming but have been encouraging us by sharing their stories and experiences. He has shown us the vivid colors of the technical world with his cheerful nature. We are given an empty canvas and we can paint anything we want simply by using the browser and Visual Code Studio. I am really inspired by this line taught by our mentor.
Sometimes I turn back and look at myself, I have become a different person than I was one and a half months ago. I never imagined that I would be able to make a game just by writing a few lines of code. I might not be able to complete an entire game or project but I have learned to try it and developed confidence and optimism to work hard.
There is still a long way to go to be a good programmer, but I have figured out the path and now I know where I should begin with.
About the Author
Bisikha Subedi is an energized graduate of computer engineering. She is currently working as an Assistant Lecturer at Lalitpur Engineering College. She believes learning is a never-ending cycle and she spends most of her time learning essential skills. She believes to step forward and dedicate herself to her field entirely. Apart from this, she is a music lover who loves to listen and explore good music.
