Tag: reentering workforce

LaunchCode CodeCamp

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It’s been a few months since I’ve updated on what’s going on. Moving was tough. We’re still not unpacked, not even a quarter unpacked. We’ve had so many projects just to get our home functional, that it’s been truly exhausting navigating the work around two young kids.

After the initial move, I started a preliminary job search. Mostly to see what was available in the area and the knowledge/skill expectations. I’m close, and maybe I could get a job, but I would have to be very, very lucky.

In my search, I stumbled upon LaunchCode. They have an apprenticeship to place talent without traditional CS backgrounds in dev positions. I applied for that, had my interview, and during it was recommended that I apply for their women only CodeCamp.

I applied, I got accepted, and I am in the throes of the second week. I’m so excited to be learning python, refreshing on JS, and diving deeper into Java over the next couple months.

Right when I was starting to doubt myself, this basically fell into my lap with nearly perfect timing. I scrambled to get my kids in daycare to make this work. You can bet I am working my butt off to get the most out of the content. I want to create some projects with some wow factor. But mostly I want to impress myself, that I am worthy of the dev role I will get.

Every day I walk into class, I am floored that LaunchCode puts these boot camps on for free to give opportunities to better the lives of people like me. I’ve been on this journey forever, feeling like I’m floundering, but now thanks to LaunchCode, I feel grounded. I feel like possibilities are within my grasp, and I won’t let them slip me by.

Making the step to a professional dev is going to vastly change my family’s lives for the better, allowing all of us to reach or dreams in so many ways that weren’t possible before.

My goal is to be placed in an internship by March. That gives me a full two months after the camp ends to really buckle down and find something. Ideally, it won’t take two months, but I also want to find the right fit where I can continue to grow and learn.

Keep an eye out here. I’ll be updating on my progress and projects. 😉

3 Reasons It’s In Your Best Interest to Hire a Stay At Home Mom

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My position isn’t unique. I’m not the first stay at home mom who is ready to jump feet first back into the workforce. I’m not even the first who has worked hard to gain new skills to jump into a better career than the one I had before kids.

Over the several years I have been home raising carbon copies of myself, I have been learning how to code. It started with refresher courses in HTML and CSS to get my motivation and ego primed. Then the hour JavaScript crash courses to learn the basics. I discovered freecodecamp and went through their lessons. I took a 24-hour JavaScript course and got certified. Then, finally, took a full frontend course through Udacity.

From where I started, I feel an incredible sense of pride that I have enough knowledge I could hold my own in a junior dev position.

Getting that first dev job, as anyone trying to break into the industry knows, it is not going to be easy. Competition is fierce, I don’t have a Computer Science degree, and, as of writing this, I have only two freelance sites under my belt.

But what else do I have? What sets me apart from the competition? My soft skills.

In the midst of surviving early parenthood, I have been honing many desirable soft skills for years. What do SAHMs have to offer? A ton!

1. Problem Solvers/Creative Thinkers

SAHMs are faced with hundreds of problems a day. They are hit with unreasonable demands by tenacious negotiators hourly. We’re quick on our feet, can come up with dozens of solutions in minutes, and are resilient in our quest to find the right answer to make all happy. It can get incredibly stressful amidst the screams, tantrums, and even meltdowns, but we meet every challenge with compassion, kindness, and endless patience.

2. Time Management

No one can deny that SAHMs are incredible jugglers. Our to-do list is constantly growing, but we never let it defeat us. We know how to prioritize, multitask, and change tactics for maximum efficiency when needed. We have learned how to see three steps ahead, and we act accordingly.

3. Organization

Even if we live amongst chaos and disorder, our minds are steel traps of order. Lists, notes, schedules, names, appointments, etc. We’ve got it all covered. We have our own systems, honed with experience and time, that make us, in my incredibly humble opinion, basically superhumans.

There are so many more qualities we possess, but these blanket the main assets we’d provide to any company.

As SAHMs, we make tough decisions, perform under pressure, and have incredible inner strength to keep calm and cool. We know how to get things done fast and efficiently. The gap of work on our resumes in no way means that we haven’t been working.