What comes to mind when you hear the word mentor? If you’re a Star Wars fan like me, you might think of Yoda. Or maybe you’re thinking of that special person who’s guided all your big career decisions in life. Maybe having a mentor is a concept that’s still intangible. They might be an all-knowing, super helpful person who could solve all your job issues with a silver bullet if only you could find them. After years of doing mentorship while working at companies like Amazon, Groupon and HotelTonight and
I decided to write a blog post on 4 things I have learned in my 7 months as a junior data engineer to document my learning and in the attempt to help others. These points are in no particular order and can be applied across engineering roles. When you have an idea, build it! There was a time when I raised my idea for a project, then waited for validation before I built it. I was told my idea was okay, and it remained in the backlog of tickets to do
I’ve been working on the CodeNewbie Challenge (aka #CNC2018) for months. It’s a project to help coders do one of four things: start coding, code more, blog more, or get a job. You pick a challenge, and over the course of 5, 7, or 9 weeks, you get a weekly mission with reading, research, and a homework assignment to help you reach your goal. It’s based on powerful questions, guided research, and curated resources to help point you in the right direction. You can learn more and sign up here
I know that sounds strange. The thing is, there are so many resources for learning to code that it can get easy to feel lost and overwhelmed. But approaching your coding education as if you were learning a different language will give you a helpful framework to operate from. Using a framework to will allow you to structure your learning progress. This will provide you with direction, milestones along your path, and a destination at the end. One of the main advantages of this technique is that it divides up
What makes up the ideal programmer, in your mind? Is it a computer whiz who has been coding since they were seven years old and making million dollar apps? Is it an experienced developer with 10 or 20 years in the biz, who knows every language (but only the good ones, of course) and can build a website in the time it would take you to get another cup of coffee? Is it a code artiste who can write code so beautiful that it makes everyone simultaneously weep in awe
Imagine yourself sitting in a room. People are around you, in a circle. Each person is talking at the same volume. Your eyes close, trying to focus in on what’s in front of you, or at least one voice. One person is assigned to give you a task. Half the people stop talking. You try to zoom into what that person in front of you is saying. The task at hand seems simple, but then someone else approaches near you and starts talking. They may not be talking to you,
What does it take to be a really good web developer? If you’re working at your first programming job, you probably found out quickly that it’s not easy. It’s one thing to watch coding tutorials, read programming books, and make portfolio sites. It’s quite another to have to build websites from the spec, to meet deadlines, and most importantly, to make sure that your bosses and clients are happy! On top of all that, technology changes fast. You may feel like you have to stay on top of trends or risk
A few months ago, I received an email that often appears in my inbox. Its usually along the lines of “I’m a college student very interested in getting into tech, but I don’t study computer science, what do I do?”. I don’t consider myself the vanguard of all the necessary knowledge to answer such questions, but I do my best to answer based on my limited experience. Such is the frequency of these emails; I thought it would be smart just to make it into a blog post. That way I can
I am a Black, queer transmasculine person seeking to pursue a career in web development. I want to be able to build platforms to bring people together and make resources more accessible, especially for marginalized communities. I’ve spent most of my working life at non-profit organizations that empower girls and women; advocate for homeless and at-opportunity LGBTQIA youth; and create safer, more inclusive spaces. Three years ago, I stumbled into the tech world through a gig economy platform; one of my jobs was assembling product for an IoT startup. I
We’re hearing of Mark Zuckerberg’s possible interest in running for president. We refer to Elon by his first name. Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. And every college kid dreams of becoming a tech billionaire. There’s a certain ‘hollywoodization’ of entrepreneurship. It’s also much easier to start a business. Throw up a website using one of the many templates out there, host it on Amazon Web Services or GoDaddy, find a pain you think exists and go about trying to solve it. In some cases, folk even
