From Foodie to Techie, Nutrition and Coding

A Nutritionist Coder: Getting from Newbie to FoodTechie
This year, as a nutritionist I was looking to enrich my resume, expand my skills set, and fuel my passion for technology. In the nutrition field, I keep encountering challenges dealing with food quality and food distribution. So, I seek out ways of creating solutions and one of the interests is using technology. I started Android Development as a challenge whereby I wanted to see if I can learn coding and try out one of my ideas.
As a beginner with no prior knowledge in coding, I began how most novices start: by searching online content and following video tutorials on YouTube. The issue with this method was that I kept 'jumping' from one page to the other with not definite outline. In addition, whenever I encountered problems in my code, I didn’t have anyone to ask or, as I learnt later, to help me with the debugging process. The result was that I had several unfinished projects on Android Studio and my motivation took a nose dive.
This trend wasn’t helping me very much and so I started looking for more curated content. I also realized that I learn best on a predetermined schedule. So after getting a simple outline on Java and Android Studio, I set a timetable and plan to get something done.
This worked for a while but then I realized I need a higher level of motivation. At around May, I got to know of the Google Associate Android Developer Scholarship with Andela Kenya and I applied for it. And I got accepted! The timeline was a bit tricky and I was able to follow the curated course content during commute to and from my attachment place. I attended the physical meet ups at Andela Learning Center religiously and engaged with fellow coders who offered guidance and helped me to debug faster.
Needless to say, over the last few months I have gotten from a novice in coding to a proficient level, from zooming out during conversations filled with 'code' lingo to actually participating in those conversations.
Currently, am looking forward to doing a capstone project on PluralSight which will prepare me for the Google Associate Android Certification exam. Am also engaging on team challenges and learning best practices in code. I have also started learning Kotlin language by participating in the Kotlin Everywhere meetups in Nairobi.
One thing for sure is that at the end of the year, I will have added a new skill to my CV, made lots of new connections and be a fulfilled and happy lady. My gratitude goes out to everyone who has helped me get from zero in coding to the level am currently at.