From Server to Software Engineer

Serving / lifeguarding

I had coded in college a little, for applied econometrics, and thought it might be a good fit.

I graduated with a degree in Economics. When I went to look for jobs in Data Analytics, many of the jobs required experience in a few softwares, frameworks, etc. I was serving and lifeguarding to support myself while searching for a job. I knew I didn’t want to stay in my customer service jobs, and my options became grad school and coding school. Funny enough, after speaking with admissions counselors at grad schools, I didn’t have enough experience for that either. Having the route I wanted to take so clear, I quit my job and supported myself off my savings for coding school.

I believe the most challenging part was not any specific topic itself, but the coding experience itself. There are many times when you face imposter syndrome due to the simple fact that what you are doing is hard, but you are doing it! I spoke with my classmates to validate my feelings, and Coding Temple sometimes provided workshops with how to deal Imposter Syndrome.

The most valuable lesson I learned was “how to learn.” I often speak to bootcamp grads that all say this was the most predominant lesson. Life as a software engineer is is perpetually learning. They are always updating frameworks, requiring different skills for different projects, and even coming out with new languages (ie. Swift). I sometimes feel that the tech industry is “gatekept”, in the sense that tutorials are either over simplified or assume too much baseline knowledge of concepts. Coding school allowed me to establish a baseline of knowledge that empowered me to continue learning on my own.

I loved having access to fellow students in the Slack channel in addition to some quality time with my TA and Teacher when I struggled with material or wanted to clarify.

For me, the job search process was very short and simple. I sent out a few applications on the website Angel.co. I treated applying to companies like applying to colleges; pick a few that are “safety”, a few that are on-par, and a few that are out of reach. I ended up working for one of my safety picks for a much better salary and position than. As Marlene always says, don’t let others tell you how qualified you are. Often a willingness and drive to learn outweigh any qualifications you could be missing. My employer shared that she found several other applicants (quite literally 60) who were more qualified short-term but were not someone that she would want to work with and build the company with.

Since I work with a start-up, I was hired as a lead-software engineer about a month after completing coding bootcamp. I was then promoted to CTO. We aim to grow the company, and then eventually I would like to work for a larger company like Apple or start my own.

Coding Temple exceeded my expectations. I was surprised by the comprehensiveness of the course work in such a short period of time as well as the large community that they have created. I am a very social person, so being in such close contact with my peers and teachers (even though remotely) was huge for me! Also the job searching/ interviewing assistance in the Alumni slack challenge was super helpful.

Coding bootcamp is what you put into it. You can complete the bare minimum amount of work and complete the course just fine. However, if you go above and beyond on each project and assignment, you will come out with such a better understanding of code, what you like and don’t like, and how to research on your own. My biggest regret in college was not utilising the resource given to me and feeling lost after graduation. I refused to make that same mistake with Coding Temple.