My Coding Origin Story

Story prompted by https://dev.to/kelly/whats-your-coding-origin-story-544m

From the time I first got a computer in 1996, I was digging through all the bits of the system I could find to see what kind of changes and customizations I could make. This did result in completely rendering the computer useless more than once, but I was able to learn some DOS commands to fiddle around enough to get the computer running normally again.

My early web development experience happened on Angelfire and Geocities. I learned some HTML to be able to build a site with some ugly repeated background images to show off MIDIs and photos I'd found around the Internet.

At this time in high school, I was greatly interested in music, with aspirations to become a producer. When I wasn't accepted into the music department in college, that dream went on the back burner and I went undeclared for a while. I always had in mind to do Computer Science as a minor. I was reluctant to make it a major because I didn't think I'd want to sit at a computer and write code all day.

One day as a sophomore, my counselor told me about one of the university's offerings: Instructional Technology and Telecommunications. The booklet highlighted a few of the required classes: Photography, Multimedia, Videography, plus some optional classes like web and gaming development. I pretty much signed up on the spot, wondering why this wasn't something everyone wanted to do!

I enjoyed nearly all the classes in both ITT and CS. Intro to Java was super easy for me. Though I struggled through the second Java class, I stuck with it and everything started to click in the third class. I did an emphasis on web development with my major.

After college, I was able to find a job as a junior developer. At that job, I was able to spend time learning CSS, which had not been covered in any of my college classes. I had to learn how to get styles working the same across all browsers, which were primarily IE6 and Firefox at the time. It was here that I also started learning Javascript, which was close enough to Java that I understood how it worked.

I was able to become proficient with front-end development, even after moving away and doing all my work remotely without much interaction with my coworkers. My husband encouraged me to find a new job in the area where I could possibly make more money, and I was hoping to find something with more variety. I took a job at a small start-up called Six Feet Up, and haven't looked back.

The new job introduced me to many new technologies, and fortunately I'm a fast learner. I'd never worked with content management systems, version control, or Python up to this point. I wasn't required to learn Python as a template developer, but I got plenty of exposure to it as I worked.

Eventually I decided to learn Python. When our senior developer left to work at another company, I suddenly got plenty more work writing Python. This allowed me to transition to being a back-end developer. Remember I mentioned in college that I didn't think I would enjoy writing code all day? It's what I do now, and I love it.