Tag: self-taught programmer

“Just” An Average Developer

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Last week we had a visitor in class who was sharing her perspective as a woman developer. One point struck me pretty deep when she was talking about how a professor in college told her she was “just” an average programmer, that he didn’t think she shouldn’t pursue this interest, but instead pursue one she was better at.

As women, we tend to justify ourselves a lot in our language, with our performances, and all around can find ourselves tending to strive toward perfection. If we aren’t perfect, we aren’t good.

Because of her professor’s comment, she didn’t pursue programming at the time, but she did circle around back into it.

It resonated with many of the women in our class. I, myself, have circled back around to programming several times now, and have kept myself from advancing because I’m “just” an average developer.

Hearing the same tale from someone else got me thinking: What is wrong with being “just” an average programmer? Is the world not full of professional average programmers? Is there some disadvantage to being average? Would being an elaborate, clever, and top-notch developer help in the long run?

I don’t know. Depends on your goals, perhaps. If you’re working by yourself, sure, be as clever as you want. If you live for bragging rights, go for it. If you’re a perfectly average programmer, your team is going to be able to read and work with the code you’ve written without wasting a ton of time trying to figure out what you’ve done. Even if you’re only working with yourself, are you going to appreciate your cleverness as much in three years when you have to rework that codebase and try to figure out what you’ve done?

Again, I don’t know the answers, but I’m going to say being “just” an average programmer has a lot of benefits that society isn’t necessarily going to throw a party over. And that’s okay. If you remember that being average means you can be successful and happy, and you don’t let it hold you back or let your imposter syndrome worsen, revel in the fact that you’re average. Know that your drive, your personality, and the very essence of characteristics that make you, you, is what people really want to work with above whether you’re clever or The Greatest Programmer Ever.

NightMares

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The very first project I worked on outside of coursework was a website for my dad’s company. I was really proud of what I came up with, but then he decided to abandon my design because he thought a WordPress theme looked stellar. What can ya do?

I got another chance at a website for my husband’s friend, who has an audio book of 12 short horror stories. I had humongous plans for this site!

However, realistically, I can’t implement all of them right now. First, I need to coordinate with the last person who hosted his site. Second, I need to do more research to make sure my ideas aren’t going to cost a ton of precious load time.

In the meantime, I created a one-page site design I’m pretty proud of. I didn’t get fancy with javascript or anything (yet), keeping it strictly HMTL/CSS based. I have a good grasp on flexbox, but have not used CSS Grid yet, so I thought, “Why not learn now?”

Honestly, I don’t know why I was so hesitant to learn Grid. It’s great! I still have media queries, but they aren’t the headache of earlier days.

Another new-for-me item I incorporated was the HTML5 audio tag. I have plans to style them more uniform with JavaScript instead of relying on the default control of the browser.

This was an enjoyable project, and my client loves it. He can’t wait for it to launch. I have plans to look into SEO to really round out his launch.

Until it’s live, you can check it out on github.

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.

Who Is Katrinka?

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Hey.

I’m Katrinka. Nice to meet you.

Besides trying to throw you off from the get-go with an extra k in my name, and then an e instead of an a in my last name, I promise, I really am easy-going.

I’ve been teaching myself how to code since I was about 12. Since I like icebreakers that embarrass, and I do realize I’m dating myself with this confession, I’ll tell you my interest began creating pet pages with Neopets. Anyone remember that? Come on, raise your hand. I’ll keep your secret. I know I can’t be the only one.

Anyway, moving on. My road to code has been filled with many detours, u-turns, and sometimes full on stops. I attended a tech-focused magnet program my freshmen year of high school, but then transferred to a collegiate program the year after. Being the head-strong and know-it-all teenager I was, I decided I had a great grip on the world and changed tracks to focus on a degree in journalism.

In no way do I regret that. Writing is my very first love. Some of my earliest memories are of me creating elaborate stories and books from construction paper. I loved to create my own poems for greeting cards. I have self-published a book about zombie dinosaurs and have about 15 unfinished or unpolished novels collecting digital dust that I swear I will get back to one day.

Through a need to eat in a down economy post-graduation, about 10 moves in seven years, and taking care of my family, I have been studying code on and off a little at a time.

A few years ago, I got the opportunity through a grant to study JavaScript and a beginner Java course. I spent months studying. I didn’t pass the Java certification test by 6%, and I was devastated. I called my dad to tell him the results, and he said, “I can’t believe it. That’s not like you at all.”

I took a break, decided to focus more on JavaScript instead of Java. Get more acquainted with Object Oriented Programming and then go back to the certification exam. I was stretching myself too thin while trying to take care of my daughter, and pregnant with my second daughter. Mom brain is really real, okay?

That’s when I found out about the Grow with Google Scholarship through Udacity. A chance at their Frontend Web Development Nanodegree? You bet your tuchus I wanted that opportunity! I was about to have two daughters who needed to see that their mom could do absolutely anything if she put her mind to it. And I needed to get back to being a person, something separate from my sole identity of “Mom”.

It had been a couple months after I applied, and yet another move (my husband is a contractor. We move a lot), so it took me by complete surprise when I opened an email one morning saying I was awarded the scholarship.

A fire was lit inside of me, and I knew this was a sign that I was on the right path. Something I have been going back to again and again for over a decade, and someone out there believed in me enough through my application to award me a scholarship.

I flew through the course as it was mostly HTML and CSS, which I love, (I wanted to complete it before my child was born because I could not imagine doing this with a newborn), struggled on the final project (a pixel art maker made with JavaScript), but ultimately came out feeling like a champ. I. Coded. That! ME! Someone could actually use this to make art!

The first part of the program ended. Only 10% of the initial recipients would move on to phase two — the full nanodegree. I wasn’t sure I had done enough. I wasn’t sure how I could have done more. I truly gave it my all.

Well, I already spoiled it for you, but I was selected for the full nanodegree! I am constantly working on believing in myself more, and this was yet another lesson along that vein.

Here I was with a newborn and a toddler, my husband working close to 80 hours a week, no family or friends around to help me with childcare, and six months to complete this massive program where almost everything was going to be brand new to me.

I was in shock. And terrified. How on earth would it be possible for me to complete this?! 12 hours a week was the suggested dedicated time to complete the course. 12 hours?! A week?! I was struggling to find 15 minutes to shower.

I’ll spare you more theatrics, but through persistence, baby wearing, incredibly late nights, gallons of coffee, many tears and hours of frustration, and one great friend (who is worlds smarter than me. Seriously. Basically a literal rocket scientist) I met nearby who was also in the program, I did it! I completed the program with one day to spare!

Mentally exhausted, I took a break. The holidays were upon us. We took a vacation to Seattle to visit my best friend. Her husband works for Microsoft, and over the course of the week, he gave me the best pep talks anyone could ask for. I did know enough to pursue this as a career. I needed to stop letting imposter syndrome get the best of me, because, being honest, it’ll probably always exist. And I needed to keep learning. Keep coding. Keep practicing.

I extended my development break for a bit longer. My husband got a contract in another state, but only for a few months. Full-time parenting with two littles completely dependent on me didn’t make for the best environment to learn new techniques.

There are definitely parents and moms out there who could tackle that. I am not one of them. No amount of motivational quotes in the world could get me to try to complete projects when I literally could never get a break.

Things are still as busy and hectic as ever, but at least I have my husband back, if only on the weekends, and I can scrape together an hour or two to get some work done.

This is going to be my little corner of the internet where I put my ramblings, my breakthroughs, my projects. It’s to document my journey, so I have something to look back on and actually see how far I have come.

So, who is Katrinka? It’s me. This is one snippet of who I am, but the part of me I want to focus on. I’m truly always happy to hear from you, so by all means, feel free to reach out to me about anything, anytime.

Love,

Katrinka Joy