Nevertheless, Maddie Coded

#wecoded

I continue to code in 2019 because back in September 2015, I completely changed my life.

For over a decade, I was a professional musician, performing with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Milwaukee Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, and teaching both flute and piano. I have been a musician since age 8, and have an undergraduate degree and Masters in music performance. Right before I turned 40, I had had it with being underemployed, auditioning incessantly, constantly competing simply to make a living.

I do not have an "opportunistic" personality, nor a drive to step on someone to get ahead/get the gig. Because of this, I decided to pivot my life, and turn my skillset (focus, discipline, attention to detail, problem solving, etc) into a career as a coder. I went to a bootcamp, back in 2015, and have been working as a professional developer, first coding in Rails (Ruby) and JavaScript for 2 years at a startup, and now as a Python developer (with some SQL) for about a year, at a larger/more organized company.

Feel free to read more about my journey at https://madelenecampos.com/. Let my middle-aged self tell you that it is NEVER too late to learn how to code. Coding has brought options, opportunity, and stability into my life. I am forever grateful for this career and regret nothing!

This post was written as part of the "Nevertheless, She Coded" event. An event that amplifies of the journeys of women and non-binary people who code.