Nevertheless, Jess Coded

#wecoded

I began coding because...

I liked the idea of being able to look at a website and be able to say "I did that". I still get excited at the mere thought of something I made or even coded a small part in being out there for people to see. It never gets old for me.

I started with a small piczo site around 12 years ago, with dreams of creating the world's largest gif repository. I moved into sites where I could custom code the entire thing and I remember reading through the Wikipedia page for CSS and it didn't say much other than that it stood for "Cascading Stylesheets". It's been updated since, with so much more information, and that makes me happy to see, that information is getting dispersed in so many more ways.

I got a real introduction to real programming by deciding to do a Bachelor of Computer Science in university. I liked the theory behind learning programming and being able to making things happen (and also being able to say "I did that"), but it was sorely lacking in creativity.

When I took my first web development course, I was hooked. I was also frustrated. I still knew so little. Javascript didn't make sense, I made some silly looking websites, but in the end I persisted. This was the creativity I was looking for.

I'm currently working on...

I have so many things on the go right now. It's a busy time working at an advertising agency, and I have so many exciting projects starting or current. Some Wordpress templates, some custom giveaway contest coding, some UX wireframing, among many others. I love my job because they give me an amazing opportunity to take on new things, and continually learn and strengthen my skills, and also let me branch out. For example, I'm currently working on getting Google certified!

At home I'm strengthening my design skills and learning more about Javascript and of course working on redesigning my personal blog and my portfolio website. It's a never-ending quest to find the perfect design that I don't want to change within a month.

I'm excited about...

Everything web related. It's moving so fast, and there's constantly something new to learn or check out, and that's the best part about being a web developer. I'm currently loving everything to do with flexbox and I'm excited about the upcoming grid and the support it'll get.

I'm always looking forward to emerging trends in web design and seeing what will come next, to see where we can go from flat colors and parallax scrolling, and what we can achieve with animations.

CSS is making bounds in improving the flexibility and it's come a long way from tables and background colors. I feel like I've grown up alongside it and I'm excited to see what the web has next.

My advice for other women who code is...

Try not to get frustrated! Everyone starts from somewhere. I still feel a huge anxiety when I know how I could do something but lack the technical understanding at the time to make it happen. Everyone who has done something like this knows the feeling of staring at the screen and wondering where to start or why their project isn't working or why the background just isn't changing to red when I set it that way.

Break it into manageable chunks and attack those. It's easier to look at a site and say "I'll set some global font styles" than "I'm going to build a website."

Also, enjoy it! We're in an exciting time, and if you don't like what you're doing there's something out there you will.

Find your niche and love your work. <3