No catchy title for this one. I realized, I have been using this blog to document or talk about different tech items, but never got into why I wanted to learn it in the first place.
A little about me, I have a degree in Public Relations and was involved in graphic design and writing all throughout college, I loved graphic design and was that annoying designer who showed everyone things I made. I worked at the student center so my designs were found around campus, I remember I used to take pictures whenever I saw my design in the wild, I loved creating something.
Fast forward to after graduation, I got my first job in Advertising where I worked as an Account Coordinator on a huge client's website (more QA and UX than typical account work) This was the first time I heard all these terms (PFA, SEO, CMS) and the first real interaction I had with websites. I was responsible for QAing and basically making sure the site did not break throughout a few iterations. It was cool, but I got bored and wanted a challenge. Mind you, during that time I started to learn some basic HTML and CSS since I thought it was really cool but did not think I was smart enough to learn anything else so I gave up.
I wanted a challenge so I worked at a couple other agencies doing social media, print marketing and now back to digital, until I realized it is not the companies, it is just not the right field for me. I was bored and needed a challenge. I love making things and solving problems not just telling people to do things.
So this led to me deciding OK I am going to learn how to code, so with the help of Udemy, Youtube, books (yes I read some programming books), some (amazingly patient) developer friends, and freeCodeCamp, I got the basics down relatively quickly (not easily!)and started building things. What really helped my confidence is finding a local community/networking. I found a local meetup where we learn together, build together and support each other which got me from making some JS projects, to being confident in using React.
Nowhere near done, my next step in my journey is to get a full-time dev job. I am currently freelancing on the side, but that is why and how I got to where I am now
Top comments (1)
Interesting background. I'm someone who gets bored pretty easily, so I feel you there, I'm always looking for a new challenge, something to learn.