Hello Dev World!

#beginners #womenintech #codenewbie #career

Hi everyone!

With this first post i'd like to elaborate a bit on how I got into coding and get to know the community a bit better 😄. I'm looking forward to being inspired and I strive to inspire others!

The start of my working-life

When I finished my education 'Facility Management'(BBA) the job market was in crisis. So instead of looking for a job in my field, I started looking for a job on my 'education level'. With this broader search I got my first job as a Content Analyst at a software company (which builds chatbot software). It was my task to analyze the questions people asked the client's chatbots and improve recognition for them. This was my first step towards the Tech community and I am very grateful for this.

After a few years of experience I became an internal trainer in the software (for new employees). Eventually I noticed I drifted away a bit from actually working with the software on a daily basis. So I decided it was time for a new challenge. So I ended up as a Support Specialist at my current employer. Here I was able to gain some more technical skills, like SQL and working with databases. I also had a lot of freedom in setting up the support process since I am the only one in that role.

Working closer to a development team

In my first job I worked with developers now and then, when I needed to troubleshoot issues, but not in such a way I was close enough to experience their working process. This all changed once I was hired at my current employer. This was my first time working in an Agile environment and I have to admit it was quite the change for me. At the beginning it felt like all my current knowledge of working processes was worthless (or even taboo). However, I managed to smooth into it eventually! Looking back, I now see my experience in both worlds (Agile and non-agile) as an advantage. And in the end you see that there's a common denominator in all ways of working: good communication.

Falling in love with coding

The first time I got acquainted with coding (besides knowing some really basic HTML) was through a Beginner Python workshop, which a colleague facilitated at the time. This inspired me to follow a YouTube course on Python and start doing some assignments by myself.

Even though I am a real beginner when it comes to coding, I notice it sparks my enthusiasm every time. If someone would ask me why? I'd say because there are endless opportunities of creation within your reach (as long as you give yourself time to learn it).

To give some context of what I mean: I have always loved computer games that you 'cannot finish'. This gives me a feeling of creativity and freedom. I can basically do whatever I want in that digital world. If I want to build a train track around the entire island in this fictional world, then I can (and I did). Do I want to level up fast or do side-quests? That's up to me. I'm not quickly bored in these type of games since I found there's always something to do next (at least in my mind). The coding assignments/projects I did so far gave me the same feeling and that's what makes it awesome in my eyes.

Next to this my support work also helped me decide I love creating/troubleshooting stuff myself more than coordinating others to do it for me.

What's up next?

I'm blessed with my current employer, since they opened up the opportunity for me to transform my enthusiasm to an actual developer role in a team!

I'm currently learning C#, since that's the language the teams at my current employer work a lot with. And to apply what I have learned so far I started building a CLI Tamagotchi (which is nearly finished, whoohoo! ❤️).

After I gain some more C# experience. I would like to take a look at JavaScript/TypeScript too. At least to familiarize myself with the fundamentals.

I realize there is still a looooot to learn for me to get up and running as a (junior) Developer, but I'm very excited to take on this challenge.

I'm curious about your stories 😄 How did you get into coding? And why?