#railsbridge

We have limited spots for students, so register now to reserve your place in this April’s free introductory Ruby on Rails workshop!

I recently recieved an inquiry about my move from liberal arts grad to software developer. Here is that story, related advice, and some stray opinions about programming.

My Special Snowflake Backstory

In college, I studied classical singing and art history. I learned to write, to collaborate, to think critically, and that I didn't want to be an opera singer or an academic. For a few years after graduation, I paid the rent with admin jobs that were variously boring and horrifying.

I ended up in a customer support position at a tech company, and leveraged the Ruby I'd been learning in my free time into a Sales Engineer position, helping people who used my company's API. After doing that for a while, I quit, did Dev Bootcamp, got a paid engineering internship at Omada Health, then got hired as a full-time software engineer when the internship ended.

So that's how I got to be a programmer. Here are some of the things that helped me get here:

One Billion Buckets of Privilege

The circumstances that made my career switch possible include being a cis, currently able-bodied, rich, white person. I had the money to get a skills assessment that challenged my assumptions that I couldn't program computers. My tech support gig left me with enough energy to learn Ruby after work. Hugely, I borrowed money from my now-husband to pay for Dev Bootcamp, and he covered my rent while I didn't have an income. I have a degree from a fancy college. The intersections of my privilege are numerous and I have benefitted from them immeasurably.

(First time thinking about privilege? Read this.)

So there are a lot of things that I didn't have to do at all that helped me get a job.

There are also a few things that I would recommend doing if you can, most of which do require the privilege of time and energy.

A few hopefully-actionable recommendations

Join a community

There are a lot of great communities for programmers. Look for the local user group for your language of choice, or for an organization that has a common technology and goal. For me, attending RailsBridge was a life-changing choice, and the RailsBridge community was integral in my career as a developer.

(This also means picking a language that you can find a community around. If your town has a more active Python user group than Ruby user group, or you have a few friends who know JavaScript, pick the one your friends are learning.)

Take on a project in that community, stat

After attending my first workshop, I volunteered to help overhaul the RailsBridge website, then organized a workshop, and later became a leader of the SF chapter of RailsBridge. Most of this work was totally unrelated to learning Ruby or Rails, but it allowed me to meet a lot of people currently working with Rails, and gave me opportunities to prove myself and my work ethic outside of the context of a job interview.

There are skills you have that can make the community you've joined stronger, better, more exciting, or more functional. You can learn to organize events, or write blog posts, or work on documentation for new people. Brainstorm with other people what would make your community more awesome, and do it.

Maybe go to a bootcamp??

I have a friend who got a paid Ruby internship without going to Bootcamp. So: you can totally get a programming job without doing a bootcamp! That being said, attending a good bootcamp does jumpstart your programming education. I already knew a lot of the things we covered at Dev Bootcamp, but having that nine weeks to ONLY THINK ABOUT PROGRAMMING was really useful.

But bootcamps aren't guaranteed jobs, and the actually-getting-hired thing is a real challenge, especially as bootcamps and their grads have proliferated. But since you've already joined a community and gotten involved, you've hopefully made connections and established how awesome you are with several people who can help you land the right position.

Don't give up (unless you for real hate debugging after getting pretty comfy with your language of choice)

Early on in learning to program, my now-husband would get frustrated with me because when I was having a hard time with a coding problem, I would get verrrrrry sleepy and close the computer for a nap. One might have thought that this would mean I would fail at becoming a programmer, but look at me now! If you get tired or frustrated or sad while you're learning to program, it does not mean that you are going to fail. This shit is tough.

But, programming is mostly figuring out what's broken. So if after you've been learning for a while, if you get no joy from fixing a busted program, this career might not be for you, and that's totally fine!!! (You have to learn to debug before you can properly know if you hate it, though, so don't give up too quickly.)

Some Other Recommendations

If you're beginning to learn Ruby, buy the second edition of Chris Pine's Learn to Program. Now read it and do every single one of the end-of-chapter exercises.

Join codenewbie.org for an online community of learners who are not jerks, especially if you are having trouble finding a local community.

From last December's free Ruby on Rails for Women workshop (hosted by Brad's Deals)!

Railsbridge Boston was this weekend - Friday and Saturday - and it was a blast. There were about 40 women, all super happy and sweet and interesting and all there to learn how to make web apps. Everyone was amazing, especially the TA's, and I had a phenomenal time being part of the event as a TA and hope to participate in it for the foreseeable future forever.

I presented there on Models, Migrations and Scaffolding. I did a great job! So... go me! 

I'm pretty excited for #HIGrowth Entrepreneur's Day at the Hawaii State Capitol Building Wednesday, March 5, 2014 from 10am-2pm.  3 floors of entrepreneurs, support agencies and private organizations demonstrating their importance to Hawaii's present and future economic well being.

Some of the usual startup suspects will be there like Blue Startups, Startup Weekend Honolulu, Energy Excelerator, and Box Jelly, and it looks like they've tried to group tables by industry, or support service.  People even just thinking about starting a business would benefit greatly from this event.