wow I did that that was me that is going to be you whoever is watching this I'll tell you something
I've never told anyone before never on the internet before that's for sure I can't believe
I'm saying this I've never told anyone this I don't even think my fiance Paul knows this and
being like wow Tiff this is not a good sign your future is not looking bright I felt so such like
a fish out of water I think I spent equally as much time in the classroom as I did crying in the
bathroom because I just hello world I felt think that was fitting considering we're talking about
coding and my coding Journey uh and today that's exactly what we're doing we're going to have a
very candid conversation very real authentic I'm just going to spill all the beans for you
about my journey how I learned to code to really transitioning from fashion and modeling into a
software developer role doing that for many years still doing it today to moving into developer
relations to founding my own tech company which is kind of funny because as I'm speaking speaking
about that last part the tech company it hasn't launched yet but I believe by the time this airs
it will have just launched which I'm so excited about but that's not why we're here today we'll
get we touch on a little bit anyways I want to share with you my really honest Journey with
coding because a lot of times it can feel really overwhelming when you are going through learning
something like coding which to many of us feels very strange or different from anything else we've
learned before and honestly a lot of the time when I was learning to code I felt very alone
and very very I questioned it a lot as if it was for me am I smart enough I had a lot of impostor
syndrome in self-doubt we going to cover all that today all right I need a sip of my water let's get
into it all right let's just jump into [Music] it I'm going to give you a bit of a backstory and I
know some of you might have heard this before but I hope if you are someone who's been following
me for many years or recently started following me that you'll find Value in this regardless of
where you're at in your coding Journey or learning something new Journey because it's always nice to
hear others others perspectives and Journeys and I don't think I've ever felt as comfortable sharing
my full story as I do now so let's just get into the meat I remember when I first heard about
coding it was not until I was in university I think I heard about it in the sense of movies and
different things like that but I was late to the game when it came to coding I didn't go to a high
school where there was computer classes required or I got to build anything even on a computer I
grew up in a very small town and that wasn't an option so naturally what I focused on was I loved
building different things loved working with people so I gravitated towards fashion because
that to me was what that equated to and from going into fashion I I had the opportunity to
go model overseas in Hong Kong and throughout China so I thought this is great this is an
amazing experience to go meet other people travel and you know get paid to do so doing modeling um
and that was a whole an incredible experience I met so many amazing people but even I hear this so
often from others as well even if that's not your journey that's a very specific Journey but I hear
about you know you're taking one path but there's something missing I felt very lost at times still
or confused as where is my future going what am I really doing from there I thought okay I need to
take a step back and move back to Canada where I live now and or where I'm from and live now
and just pick the biggest city on the map because at the time I didn't want to go back to my small
town that I grew up in and so I said let's go to Toronto check out Toronto don't know anyone there
never have been there but we're going to move there moved to Toronto and at that point when I
moved to Toronto I was really craving more formal education I wanted to go back to school to get a
university okay we keep on getting cut off but that is okay we are back uh now I have my phone
on silent how rude of me no so where was I at I was at coming back to Toronto starting University
and so for me coming from a fashion background I thought okay naturally makes sense let's go
to university for something fashion related and I remember I'll tell you something I've never told
anyone before never on the internet before that's for sure I applied when I applied to University I
applied to two programs I applied to business like a business major and I also applied for a graphic
Communications major and I can't believe I'm saying this I've never told anyone this I don't
even think my fiance Paul knows this um which is funny anyways because why are we so embarrassed
about things like this but I applied to those two programs I got rejected from the business
program they said nope you're not good enough I think it was my math grades from high school
that weren't good enough which is so funny looking back on it was like such a blessing I didn't get
accepted into that program because the rest just completely went in the right direction but it's
one of those moments where I remember receiving that rejection letter for business like I feel
like everyone gets into business and being like wow Tiff this is not a good sign your future is
not looking bright and then I got the the letter in the mail from the graphic design program it was
graphic Communications management and I said okay they accepted me let's go see what this
is about I think it was a smaller program at the time and that's why if I'm being totally honest
I don't really know at the time what I thought I was signing up for I think I just thought going
back to school and we'll figure it out and I was really excited to do to do just that but
I remember feeling so nervous and I I don't even know how I had the courage to go on the first day
like I thought I felt so such like a fish out of water fast forward to 4 years because in Canada
here University programs are all four years and well typically not always and I I remember
my fourth year it was required to take a very basic coding course and I wouldn't have taken
it otherwise it was so basic it's I mean it was literally just markup it was HTML CSS building
I forget what we were building with at the time I don't know it was an editor though but I remember
feeling those feelings of wow seeing things come up on screen building things that I had in my
head and now they're on the screen like that is so cool and I still get so excited about that today
and that is really when it all happened for me when I realized that I want to become a software
developer the next challenge I faced was I don't want to go back to school for another four years
and get a computer science degree I don't have the money to do that I don't have the time to
do that so from there I went to a postgrad school where it was focused on coding it was 3 months in
length and it was one of those intensive programs and that I think I spent equally as much time in
the classroom as I did crying in the bathroom because I just once again felt so out of my
comfort zone out of my element and it was during that time though where I started realizing if I
wanted to succeed in this I needed to do so on my own time as well I couldn't rely on solely others
so I started taking classes I remember one of my favorite which it still is today resources
that I really leaned on was code academy they had so many different courses to take actually
on that note one of my first courses that I took on code academy was their full stack engineering
course and I remember when I took it I had mostly front-end experience but I really wanted to gain a
better understanding for the backend I felt with their lessons they were super easy to understand
I wasn't someone who was coming from a technical background so I needed a place where I could go
and have these technical Concepts explained in a way where I was like yes I get it now and that
really goes into you don't need prior experience to go sign up on code cademy and start building so
you can see on screen here this is a bit of their syllabus uh from overview of web development and
then starting with the fundamentals and I think that is so key starting with the fundamentals I
think to in today's world or whatever you want to call it can feel like oh is this
really needed I want to get ahead I want to get so done this so fast but the fundamentals are
what will really separate you from everyone else so it's super key also too when you're starting
out you don't necessarily want to start with this you know in Crazy setup from downloading
different virtual environments or idees and one thing about code academy is they have an
interactive coding environment so you don't have to download anything you can just learn by doing
which is key because yes having a proper setup when you are a developer is important but when
you are learning you want to be able to put your time and energy into actually learning versus the
set up portion of it and last thing I'll say is it is free to start on code academy it literally
if you do the math cost less than $1 a day which gives you access to all programming languages and
courses and also too don't worry I got you covered you can use my code here Tiff in Tech which will
give you one month free to code academy Pro for the first people who sign up so use the link I
linked it down below after I graduated from that program I my first job was not a developer it was
in QA quality assurance because I couldn't land a job as a developer right away and that's because
my portfolio was probably not where it should have been or maybe I just gave up too quickly
on looking I don't know but I just felt like this is a great window a great opportunity to get into
a tech company working at a startup and then I'll I'll tell them in a few months that I need to be
a developer that's what I did I started really getting in their code base and getting familiar
with bugs picking them up on my own time this was at a very small company a bigger company I
probably wouldn't have been able to or allowed to do that so it worked out really good it's another
a little tip startups are very key when you are starting out fast forward I worked for a year
two years there as developer moved to IBM where I worked uh on the de as a software developer
grew quickly into a senior software developer was working on leading a team of developers and
it was such an incredible experience building things working together I don't know I I really
even to this day I still love coding and I love the developer experience I think something that
a lot of people forget is they think oh it's very isolating or you're very alone throughout
it all for me I think if you are interested in that community and seeking it out there's so
many people who will connect with you and I just remember feeling this community was so supportive
I had a tutor I would meet with once a week this is before IBM and I just look back and the amount
of people that supported me along this journey is probably another big piece of advice that I
would really recommend with you is lean on these communities whether it be online in person but
just find seek out for that support and you will find it then from there TR fast forward a little
bit even more I uh moved to I wanted to get into Deval and the reason for that was because I loved
the coding building technical side of things but I also love education creating content connecting
with others like you I thought there's a job out there that I can do both this sounds perfect so I
moved into devil at another startup going back to my startup routes I had the best time there
I absolutely loved it and still doing Deval work work now today at another company which is great
and on the side on the side doing Tiff and Tech and now launching my own business takeoff which
more will be coming soon on that so stay tuned I will make a entire video dedicated to what exactly
that business is about and uh how it's going to help support you but in the meantime that
is my coding journey in a nutshell and the most exciting part is it's not over it never will be
and that's because I think it's so important to continue to always learn and grow and going back
to using resources like code academy the internet is at your fingertips or your fingertips are at
the internet whatever that saying is you can literally learn so many amazing things online
that you just need to really identify what you're passionate about or what you're not passionate
about which is equally as important and then start building but make sure most importantly you have
that Community I really hope you found this video helpful and insightful I know it's me sharing my
story but for me when I hear other stories I feel like I always there's always a lot I can
take away and Gain and just learning that when you're going through these highs and lows you're
not alone others have gone through them too and I can tell you as someone who has done it the other
side feels so good you know you put in all this work to learn how to code and grow a career and
once you get to that point where you can look back and really be like wow I did that that was
me that is going to be you whoever is watching this and I'm sure for many of you it already is
you so anyways I just wanted to sit down and have a a very candid conversation with you cuz I feel
like we haven't had one of these in a while leave any questions that you have about my journey or
any questions you have about your own Journey Down Below and I will see you all soon thanks
[Music] everyone