Post-Hackbright Spring 2013

I've spent the last 2-3 years hemming and hawing about wanting to learn how to be a software engineer.  I'd say confidence was the biggest thing holding me back.  My original background was in graphic design and several years in front-end development  (design/html/css/js).  The excuses were "it's too hard, I couldn't possibly...", "I can't afford to take the time to...",  and just plain old lack of true motivation.  I was very, very fortunate that circumstances and opportunity collided to finally allow myself to make the leap.

Don't think that a 10-week program is going to make you an instant success.  It is a lot of hard work during and post-Hackbright Academy.  My first white boarding interview was at Facebook(!!!) and was a very humbling experience.  I was very thankful that my interviewers were very respectful and seemed genuinely rooting for me.  It was no surprise that I had still had a lot to learn.  I studied algorithms, practiced interviewing, even bought a mini-whiteboard and thin markers (for better screen resolution), kept coding and forced myself to apply to jobs and go on interviews.  I wanted to put a hold on interviewing and wait until I was "ready" but   I realized that unless I was willing to put myself in these uncomfortable situations I'd continue to hold myself back.

It was really embarrassing for me to not have a clue how to answer questions, to look at a blank white board and feel "dumb."  I began to realize though that interviewers pose these challenges to see how you react.  They are testing you and if you don't know the answer they WANT you to ask questions to see how you think and how it would be like to work with you.  They're evaluating you to see if you're someone they want to work with and to gauge your ability (junior, mid-level, senior).

It also wasn't a solo effort. In addition to the support from other students, instuctors, and family & friends, my mentors Julia and Carina gave me that extra push. About two months later I discovered what it meant to find a good fit and was offered a full-stack role at Trulia which I'm really excited about. I start in 2 weeks and it's dog-friendly :-).

Hackbright Week 2: The week my brain wouldn't shut off

I learned so much this week that when I was trying to fall asleep my mind would be swimming with thoughts about Object Oriented Programming (OOP), Markov chains, lists and dictionaries.

The teachers at Hackbright do an excellent job presenting the material in engaging and digestible chunks and often with a humorous slant.  Take for example, our lesson on Markov chains.  Christian lead us in an example of breaking down the patterns of dubstep (to paraphrase, "wawawaaaa tsssss woooomp") in order to generate the next possible segment of music.

The exercise in OOP had us making a game based on a python game engine.  My pair-partner, Lani, and I had fun moving our character around and devising the game play.

We also had a field trip to Google for DevFest.  Dee, a fellow student gave an informative talk about Chrome Developer Tools and Liz, one of our teachers spoke about Gay Marriage From a Database Perspective.

Needing a digital break my husband and I took a day trip to Tahoe.  Ahhhh.....

But the week wasn't over yet!  I scored the opportunity to attend Pycon for the day.  I met many recruiters at the job fair, leaving confident that there are plenty of jobs out there.  One of the more interesting sessions was Tavis Rudd's demonstration where he coded by voice.  After temporarily losing feeling in his hands, he was forced to find alternatives to the key board.  This lead to "duct-tape coding in Python and Emacs Lisp" to make the Dragon voice recognition software recognize his commands (often consisting of animal sounds and abbreviated words) to generate code and terminal commands.  Even though the feeling in his hands returned Travis says he still codes by voice 40-60% of the time.