DEV Community: Debra-Kaye Elliott

Getting My First Code Review

Debra-Kaye Elliott — Tue, 04 May 2021 14:43:49 +0000

A few weeks ago I completed my first real project 🎉🤸🏾‍♀️ and couldn't have felt prouder of myself in that moment if I tried. That may sound like bragging, but if you're a new developer you know the endless tweaking, feelings of imposter syndrome and like you're not good enough because you know it's not "the best project ever". Yet, in your mind you know it's your best effort right now - at this point in time with your current knowledge. Eagerly I shared it with the community beaming with pride. Then after hitting the "Send" button I immediately started thinking about the criticisms my project would receive and how it would be torn down by all of these experienced developers. To my surprise (and relief) everyone congratulated me, said they liked it and gave great feedback 😌. I was even commended for having alt text for all the images and links.

Then I had a 1 on 1 review with a senior developer, which I was nervous about and dreading 😰. Though in my head I was proud of myself, I kept thinking "They're not going to like it and pick it apart." Surprisingly they liked it and said I did a great job for my first attempt at a project 😌. It turned out to be a great discussion about the things I did well and the areas I can improve. Want to know the real kicker? I didn't realise it was a code review until hours after the call 😲. We were so busy discussing different coding and industry-related things that it just transitioned into my project, and we just talked away. What stood out to me when I realised it was, in fact, a code review was that the senior developer didn't approach it from a "This is right, this is wrong, know-it-all, I'm better than you" way. It didn't feel like a code review like the horror stories I've heard where the hard work of developers was torn down or not given constructive feedback. Needless to say I was on a high for a good week or two...or three 🙃 - and still proud of my first project, of course.

No matter how small or simple your idea is for building and cementing your knowledge on your coding journey, create that project. I've been building a list of project ideas to one day be able to create and let me tell you, they're all complex and I haven't the slightest clue where I would even start. However, I'll always remember being extremely proud of completing this first project and it'll be the first thing I talk about if asked "What have you built?" or "What was the first project you ever did?"

If you're curious, check out Coffee Heaven here 🙂.

My Most Recent Achievement Was...

Debra-Kaye Elliott — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 14:55:50 +0000

It's been a year of lows, highs and more lows. To say challenging would be putting it mildly. The struggles continue. Nevertheless, I coded.

In the midst of the lows, the highs I achieved were both unexpected and amazing 💙:

My first tech blog post Navigating the World of Web Development relating to so many others in the dev community on this journey
Finding the Virtual Coffee community that's so supportive of where I am and encourage me to never give up
Being featured by CodeNewbie for the February 2021 Community Member Spotlight, my biggest achievement ever!

This journey is not one to be navigated alone. It has been challenging. It has been demotivating, more times than I care to admit. It has made me feel like I'm not progressing. This is why participating in the right communities is so important. The right people will meet you where you are and not judge you, will help you through your struggles, help you learn, encourage you to keep going and celebrate your wins with you. The saying goes "Surround yourself with positive and uplifting people," and those are the only types of people I want in my circle.

My biggest goal is to be the best developer I can be, and work with great people in a supportive environment. A developer will do great work and grow in an environment where they're supported, their voice is heard, their team listens, they feel valued and are celebrated. That's where I want to be.

It's been more than a challenging journey. Nevertheless, I coded.

8 Resources To Learn Web Development

Debra-Kaye Elliott — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 14:36:57 +0000

The tech industry has exploded with possibilities since the hit of the pandemic, which seems to be here for the foreseeable future. In adjusting to this new normal, opportunities to learn new skills have rushed to the surface. Maybe they were always there, but a lot has changed and for many people it's now about survival and changing careers to create a better life.

If that's you, here are a few resources (in no particular order) to help you learn to code:

But wait! Before you go diving head first into every resource to learn "all the things", check out my article Examine How You Learn so you don't get lost in numerous resources with no progress. Shiny Object Syndrome is real and it's easy to get caught up in what everyone says you should learn. This quickly leads to information overwhelm and frustration if you don't grasp technical concepts as fast as you see the developers you admire do.

Now don't let the hype on the interwebs fool you, learning to code is not easy. It will take a lot of time and you will get frustrated. There will be times you'll lose motivation and feel like giving up because it's not clicking the way people who are already successful developers talk about. Trust me.

Finding a supportive community that meets you where you are in your journey, helps you through your struggles and encourages you to keep going is also essential. Trust me.

I hope you found this helpful 🙂.

Until next time 👋🏾

Examine How You Learn

Debra-Kaye Elliott — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 15:34:10 +0000

Something many code newbies struggle with is figuring out how they learn, which leads to jumping all over the place consuming every resource. When I discovered web development I went down the rabbit hole 🕳️ of every blog post, YouTube video, and bookmarked every tutorial/Udemy course/bootcamp I came across 📱📰 💻 🎥 📚.

I started with one free online bootcamp (Frontend Masters), then switched to another (freeCodeCamp) because learning started getting "hard", then I was doing them both at the same time. When I started freeCodeCamp, part way through...aka several weeks in, I realised I wasn't retaining the information and forgot most of the concepts previously covered. Combine this with consuming alllll the things via blog posts, YouTube, ebooks, podcasts, and you get 4 months of jumping all over with no progress. It took me 4 months to realise I wasn't remembering many concepts because I wasn't actually coding or really understanding what I was learning 🤦🏾‍♀️.

Now don't think I'm saying these 2 bootcamps aren't good, because they are great resources. I still use and recommend them both if you're just starting your journey. What I am saying is:

Figure out the best way that you learn and find a resource to match your learning style.
It will be tempting to grab every free or low-cost resource that says "Learn Web Development". Don't. You don't need them all. Pick 1 or 2 that makes you code along - not just write a few words or lines. Bonus: Pick resources that give assignments to ensure you practice the concepts you're learning.
It may be tempting to juggle multiple resources at once. Don't. Focus on 1 and complete it to help cement your knowledge and understanding.

Examining how you learn may not happen overnight, but it's definitely important to do. Some people learn by reading content (blog posts, ebooks, course materials), some by visuals (watching tutorials/YouTube videos), and others by doing (building projects and breaking code). This last one is the way recommended by most developers, but also triggers imposter syndrome and fear of failure into many newbies, myself included 😬😨. Believe me, I know. Little by little I've been challenging my imposter syndrome by picking the resource that works best for me right now and completing the assignments provided.

A few other things I've learned along the way:

Never take on a project that doesn't help you achieve your goals, especially for free. Some people won't understand your reasons for wanting to go in a different direction and will try to keep you boxed in.
Find a developer community that you feel comfortable in and reach out to other devs who have experienced your struggles/you can relate to.
Ignore the number of hours you should spend learning to code being thrown around. Go at your own pace. Tutorials have video/information hours included, but a tutorial isn't just watching the videos. It's actually coding - during and after. Have you ever counted how many times you paused a tutorial to code along, or replayed a section because it just doesn't click in your head? 🤔 Neither have I. I'm more concerned with being able to do the thing and understand it.

Learning to code isn't easy for everyone, so don't let the obnoxious smarty pants or gatekeepers fool you. The great and supportive developers will help you along the way and encourage you to keep going 😊, but examining how you learn is the start to helping whatever you learn better stick.

Until next time 👋🏾

Just In Time Learning

Debra-Kaye Elliott — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 15:04:21 +0000

There are several programming languages and frameworks being eagerly thrown around in the web developer world, making it easy to get lost in 'all the things'. There may even be communities that offer open source projects to beginners to help the learning process, which is great 👍🏾. However, something to ask yourself is what is their version of beginner vs your version?

Example:
A community I'm a member of is playing with the idea of having a beginner-friendly member-built project, where newbies would feel comfortable contributing to help them learn and gain experience. The group host specifically emphasised that if the project gets the green light, it would be HTML, CSS and (plain) JavaScript based.

Care to guess what happened❓

Someone jumps in with "Well React would be easier because..." Needless to say I was immediately turned off.

Something that's so common in the developer space is many forget they were once newbies and what that was like. On top of that, everyone does not learn at the same pace. Development isn't learned in a day, week, month, or year for that matter. What do all your favourite developers say? It's lifelong learning 💻📚.

📌 Lest I ask again: What is their version of beginner vs your version?

Ironically, many experienced devs emphasise the importance of understanding the foundations of front end (HTML, CSS, JS), and not rushing through them for the sake of frameworks. In their words, "Frameworks will constantly change, but the basics are most important."

I've even seen some seasoned developers say how CSS frustrates them. Then there are others who are amazing with their creations 😍. CSS Art & Animation you'll be seeing me 😉.

Of course the enthusiasm of learning the things that build the web we use daily is the excitement of every newbie, but pushing loads of things not understood yet doesn't work. It will cause new developers to give up because there's so much to learn, or gatekeepers kill their dreams because they're not at that level yet 👎🏾.

Something I've been more intentional about is not consuming content about something I haven't learned yet or goes over my head. If it's something I know I need to learn for front end, I bookmark it in a specified folder for later. Otherwise, I keep scrolling. This could be especially helpful for you if you're following a structured tutorial or bootcamp, as most likely you'll be guided on how to do 'what' and 'when'. Trying to submit a pull request without first understanding the basics of how to make something display on a page, Git and GitHub just adds more confusion.

I'll keep walking along building foundational knowledge with learning HTML and CSS. Don't think I'm not looking forward to learning JavaScript when the time comes...or scared to from all the confusion, tears and frustration I've seen 😬.

Go at your own pace and learn just in time.

Navigating the World of Web Development

Debra-Kaye Elliott — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 15:00:25 +0000

Near the end of 2019 after a discovery glimpse on Twitter, I decided to explore the tech world 👩🏾‍💻. Like any curious person does, I went down the rabbit hole of research. I DMed people and asked for advice on what direction to take.

Thankfully they were kind enough to respond 🙏🏾, and I continued down my research rabbit hole. Now mind you, I studied Information Technology at university, but programming just never stuck and I never got in the tech field as intended. Anywho, the more I researched, I discovered "Tech Twitter", along with numerous blogs and YouTube videos on how to get into web development.

Needless to say, I read everything. What I didn't immediately read was bookmarked 🔖 for later. Then comes the "I'm going to do EVERY course 😁" excitement. Insert 'signed up for several Udemy courses' and 'bookmarked every course/learning resource' here.

Care to guess what happened next❓

If you guessed information overload, overwhelm and analysis paralysis - yep, that's right. Then I started to feel discouraged with all the things I'd have to learn 😞. It's a lot! Yet every time I read someone's story through a tweet or blog, every time I watched a video, I'd be inspired to get into this industry too 😌. I decided I would be on this journey for the long haul, struggles and all.

Then I jumped into 2 different courses, tried to do 100 Days of Code twice, fell off and gave up. Add feeling discouraged because other developers who call themselves "newbies" are way ahead of you to that, and you get "Can I even do this?" Their version of newbie and my version of just starting newbie are two different things 😩.

The developers I follow and admire are at minimum 1-3 years into their career. Plus, as a dev, you know many concepts aren't easy to understand and sometimes take a while to click in your head. I felt like giving up, though I never shared it. Seeing tweets from experienced developers encouraging beginners to "Keep going" and "It'll click, don't worry, just don't stop" became something I looked forward to daily 🙏🏾.

So far I've been staying on the learning journey, but also realise I wish I had an accountability partner who could relate to where I am on the path. What is refreshing though, is that the tech community is welcoming and supportive 💙. I'm learning to lurk less, not be afraid of being a beginner, find a non-judgemental community and learn in public.

Thanks for reading! Until next time 👋🏾.