Why do I want to be a Web Developer? A very pointed question indeed! I would say there are several reasons. For one, it is an exciting and rewarding career where one will always continue to learn and grow. Where one gets to work on new innovations that are changing how people live their lives. It is also one of the most in demand jobs on the planet. But, before getting into too much detail on that, I think it is important to talk about how I got here in the first place.
I currently live in the San Francisco Bay, one of the primary global innovation centers, and I have always been fascinated with new technologies. I even started my career at one of the leading global tech companies on the east coast and loved it. But a series of life events brought me to the Bay Area and, interestingly enough, to the investment industry. Now don’t shed any tears for me. The investment industry is fascinating and filled with a lot of smart and interesting people and I was lucky enough to have worked for some of the most well know investment companies in the world. But in the back of my mind I have always found the work stale, and I longed for the days of working on new innovations. I realize it may sound corny but I want to help build things and work on solving big problems.
So it was time to make a change. Where would I look? What would I do? What types of jobs are there? The more I researched the more I learned. Backend languages, frontend languages, functional programming, MVC, data structures and algorithms…there is so much to research and there are endless resources to find information! I began self-study through reading articles, watching tutorials and doing code challenges. I also took an Intro to Web Development program on Coursera, which taught the basics and allowed me to build my first web applications in PHP, SQL and JavaScript. I was hooked! This is what I wanted to do. Actually working on the teams that create and build the new programs and applications!
While I had learned a ton at this point I felt like I was only scratching the surface and decided I needed a more formal, structured way to learn all of this. I contemplated getting a CS degree, but going back to school for a second bachelors degree seemed unrealistic. I had heard about coding schools as an option but found there were many, many, many of them displaying mixed results. After a lot of fact-finding and analysis I found the Flatiron School through the company I worked for. This company had hired Flatiron graduates who, after speaking with them, all gave positive reviews. After doing thorough investigation on the program I was most attracted to Flatiron’s philosophy of not just teaching their students one or two programming languages in a few months, but to teach them how to think like a programmer and to be able to “learn how to learn” a new language no matter which one it is. From there I completed Flatiron’s Coding Prep course and decided this is the one!
So hear I am…taking the first step of many! And with that, I’m really excited to see where this takes me!
Happy coding!