Finally! I’m over the paralysis of writing my first blog post, thanks to my fellow Firehose Project classmates. While reading their blog posts, I realized that mine needn’t be a thesis-level exposition lol! So, having relaxed and taken a deep breath…
My Journey Into Web Development
- Pre-med biology major
- Dropped pre-med; kept Bio; dabbled in Wordpress
- Public Health analyst; small Wordpress side-hustle
- Married & a baby in the same year 💒 👶🏽 😩
- Let go from Analyst job
- Several short-term work contracts, and Wordpress freelancing
- Baby #2! 🍼
- Self-learning HTML & CSS 👩🏽💻
- Completed several web-dev mini-bootcamps
- Decided on and began The Firehose Project
That’s my story, in a nutshell :) The moments I consider significant appear in bold italics. Non-linear to be sure, and terrifying at times. I’m a career-switching mother-of-two in the process of becoming a developer.
Stay tuned!
Top comments (15)
Congrats !
You have nice journey.
Something I have learned is to look at my past achievements, see the way they are correlated (what Steve Jobs call connecting the dots ) and check how can take advantages from them.
According to your past achievements, I'd say that you should give a look at Data Visualization tools.
If you have a background as Public-health researcher, that means that statistics is familiar to you.
Your other achievements show skills to present the content, and you have already learned and applied some web standards.
That's not in conflict with your passion:
because "defining a problem is half of the solution" . Well presented data insights can show the business the problems that they don't even think they have. This can also show them process optimizations that can save them millions or duplicate the amount of sales.
Thanks so much for this input 💖
Great job Arit. I have two kids too. It is more challenging to have free time to learn new stuff. I guess it is even harder if you are switching a career.
Good luck, be persistant, always have in your mind long term goals.
Thank you so much!
One heck of a journey, congrats on making it this far!
Very impressed that you’re into TDD, it’s a great approach which takes discipline. Were you taught that in boot camp?
Thank you Ben! Yes we were taught RSpec and I havent looked back - its so awesome being able to test apps without interacting with them lol. I just graduated the bootcamp in July so I'm seeking my first dev role. I'm so hungry for that first foot-in-the-door 😄 Thanks so much for commenting - it encourages me a lot 💖
That’s great!
I echo what @yucer said. Data is king in this industry! Visuaizing data, coupled with the ability to setup and execute an experiment (Agile) to make the data actionable will take you far. Understanding the new wave of technology is essential.
I had never heard of The Firehose Project before, but it seems really interesting. How are you liking it so far?
Oh I shall be blogging about the FHP soon 😘
You go girl!
Thanks mama!
I can totally relate to paralysis about writing, and I’m so glad you were able to let go of it! Looking forward to reading more from your journey! 💖
What do you do as a wordpress freelancer?
I use the WP platform to help small biz and nonprofits be more efficient and effective. I implement productivity and workflow solutions.