DEV Community: Valena

Codeland 2019

Valena — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 20:40:45 +0000

My experience

I have to say that Codeland 2019 was amazing! This was my very first tech conference and I've had nothing but great things to say about my experience. Everyone I've met at the conference gave me great advice and a warm welcome to the tech community. I believe this is important, especially as a code newbie because this sort of energy makes people excited to attend more conferences and to really expand their network.

Talks

I've always said I'd get into podcasts and anything involving listening as a way of learning, but I haven't started at all. Having the chance to sit and listen to each of the speakers at this conference was great. Every project/idea presented were unique and creative! Some of them had me questioning myself, "What am I going to build that'll change lives or impact someone?". This is nothing but positive feedback though. I'd assume there's not enough being done if people aren't inspiring others to go out and do something great. One of my favorite talks from that day was from BJ Burns. He shared his experience through art and discussed ways to encourage yourself on the journey to becoming a software developer.

Workshops: Intro to Git, GitHub, CLI and more

I chose this workshop mainly because I have no clue how GitHub works. I found this lab very informative and it made me feel as if I were in a classroom but social setting. We learned about pull requests, cloning repositories, the importance of "ReadMe" being present, etc. I've always heard "Git" and "GitHub" but never knew the difference. From my understanding, GitHub is the social layer where people do the hosting, communicating and discussions, whereas Git is the version control system.
I look at it as Git being the tool and GitHub being the toolbox. Feel free to comment any better explanations of the two! 😀

Reflecting

One takeaway from this conference is that nothing has to be perfect in order to be sent out. You can always go back and make edits/ tweak things around. I felt like I needed to hear this mainly because it reflects how I should be with my work. I am a perfectionist at heart and will not put out anything unless it's on point. This doesn't mean you should not put effort into your work, but more so, do your best and be proud of that. We fear failure sometimes and the thought of making a mistake when that's what we need in order to grow! Failure isn't the end.

I look forward to attending CodelandNYC next year and I encourage anyone to attend in the future as well.

Why software engineering?

Valena — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 00:39:18 +0000

I've read a lot of pros and cons to being a software engineer. The good things being:

They make good money
Some have the option of working remotely
There's a high demand for software engineers

So, of course, I did my research and found ways to start my journey there. I felt and still feel that this is a journey I and anyone can embark. As long as patience, persistence and the drive to put in the work is there, I should be at a good start.

I went straight into learning some of the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript via free online courses. Not too long after, I figured why not apply to a couple of coding bootcamps where I can find some sort of structure with my learning, which I felt I needed. I've been hungry for a change in my focus of learning and software engineering snatched my attention immediately. From then on, I knew it had to be my next move.

My question for any developers out there reading this is, what made you want to become what you are today? How did you prepare for your journey?

[ If possible, can anyone provide tips for learning how to use GitHub? I feel very weird and out of place having my work pushed there and not knowing exactly how to make use of it! ]

1st week @ Flatiron School.

Valena — Sun, 16 Jun 2019 01:55:58 +0000

I'm beyond excited to say that I've gotten as far as being in a code boot camp!

Who am I?
My name is Valena and I'm on my way to becoming a full-stack web developer. A few months ago, I knew little- to nothing about coding. My boyfriend sent me a link to apply for a summer hackers program and I gave it some thought. I didn't get into the program, but it was that link that sort of opened my eyes to a whole new idea: learning to code. Since then, I've joined the Career Karma family and connected with so many people throughout the #21DayCkChallenge. The challenge helped me step out my introvert castle and actually get to know people. During the challenge, I started to learn the basics of Javascript, HTML, and CSS. I enjoyed learning to manipulate the DOM through the Flatiron pre-course so much that I still imagine the "Ada Lovelace" picture in my head. I thought I was so cool!

Fast forward to this week
Things started to get real for me once the first day of boot camp came around. I automatically got excited and really nervous. My mind instantly filled with positive snippets of the future (when I land a damn good job!), and doubts about whether or not I put too much dip on my chip. I'm a health science student. I know nothing about what I'm getting into besides what I'm researching and reading from pre-courses. I feel like it's more than feeling like I "don't belong".. I don't even feel that way. I feel as if all the odds are against me and the world is waiting for me to fail. This feeling is real! But I'm using it as a boost to prove those doubts to be wrong and to make myself proud.