hi everyone my name is christine and i'm
a front-end web developer
i actually just started programming six
months ago and i found my first
dev job about three months so now i've
been a web developer for about
three to four months now and i really
love it
so
this talk i'm just gonna give a little
background
about myself and my interest in coding
and also
how what i did to
land my first
job
so i graduated from the university of
oklahoma about four years ago with the
political science degree and i didn't
really know what exactly to do with a
political science degree i was confused
and lost
and
so
i decided that
i wanted to be a lawyer or
be a makeup artist be other different
things i had so many different hobbies
that i wanted to do
and i contemplated thought about it and
i realized that those are the type of
jobs that i might not be interested in
the long run
and so i got into
coding when i landed my first job in the
marketing
field and i worked with html templates
in wysiwyg and a lot of the stuff that i
did before was mainly just
coding uh the tables inside the wysiwyg
very simple stuff
and
i realized that i wanted to do more in
life i didn't want to stay at my old job
because
you know i just feel like i would
plateau quickly
so i looked around for different types
of classes i looked into getting a
computer science degree but i realized
that you don't really need a computer
science degree to do web development
and i really like web development
because i like art and design so i feel
like that would be something i'm good at
so i looked around online for some
classes
and a lot of the classes were really
expensive one class to learn javascript
was about two grand that i saw
and so i was like you know i feel like i
could find something else you know maybe
try different routes some other classes
that may be cheaper
and then i saw ok coders which is where
i met carson he was one of my
instructors at ok coders and had helped
me a lot throughout my journey so i just
want to say thank you carson very very
much
but uh so i found ok coders and it's
basically a six month
module or six modules six months long
bootcamp class every saturday
and you learn everything about web
development starting with beginning with
html css
you learn how to use your command line
you learn how to use your github where
you push all your files
and
into github and then also
javascript libraries which is really
really important if you're looking to be
a front-end developer
so yeah
i attended bootcamp for about six months
and a lot of the work i had to code i
have to practice coding every single day
and get better
the classes were only four hours long
every week and i knew
that you have to put
extra work
into
um
you have to put in the extra work
outside of class
so
you know i studied a lot i
read all my documentation that's
probably the most important thing is
reading your documentation starting out
and that's what i did i use all my
online resources i practice on
codeacademy udemy
lynda.com those are great if you want to
get into coding those are great online
resources to take and practice on
i also asked a lot of help from people i
joined teclahoma met a lot of the great
developers in the community
and just getting advice from people or
people who have experience in this type
of career really helped me
love being a developer even more
the excitement of
you know seeing people creating
so many cool
uh things
it's just sorry i got nervous but
creating a lot of cool things is just
amazing and and i think that's why we
all want to be developers is that we
want to create something and build
something of our own
and so um anyways i practice a lot and
then i was also looking for a job at the
same time knowing that i'm probably not
qualified
but i gave it a shot anyways i just kept
trying and
i attended job fairs
and brushed up my resume
i created a portfolio
i created a lot of side projects and
pushed everything to my github to show
that i put in a lot of work
even if i know my code wasn't that great
i just
pushed everything
into my github and then
finally got my first dev job
at a marketing company who's willing to
take this opportunity
opportunity on me even though they know
that i'm probably i'm still really new
and not
fully qualified um i got the job and
i was really excited
got a little
content and about two weeks ago i
actually almost lost my job
because i wasn't practicing
enough outside of work and that's the
most important things that i want to
tell you guys starting out as a
developer if you have not much or no
prior program experience you have to
practice even when you get the job you
have to practice outside work
and i just i got to continue i was too
happy and i relaxed and then
you know i was in a very tough spot
where they said that i need to improve
or it just won't work out
and i was given two weeks to show
improvement at my job
and i did it
and
it was
very
it was a lot of work um i just whatever
i did at work i showed them and i had
better communication with my senior
developers that's also one important
thing that you guys have to know is
communication with your fellow
developers
that was one thing that i didn't do very
well i i was the type of person that i
wanted to learn everything my front-end
skills weren't even that great and i
wanted to learn to do php and sql and
all the backend
and i took in work that i don't even
know what i was coding they gave me php
and sql and i'm just sitting here trying
to figure it out when i realized that
sometimes you have to say no when you're
not ready for something you have to say
no
and so i was honest to them and said hey
i'm i'm not ready for this yet
and i need to practice on my front-end
skills and that's what i did
so
when you get your new job when you get
your developer job make sure you are
fluent with all your languages before
jumping into something else
for me i just
i just wanted to learn everything i
couldn't say no because
i was scared to say no i wanted
i wanted to learn everything and be good
at everything and sometimes you know
it's you have to take it one step at a
time i thought being a developer means
you have to know you know react you have
to know angular even though at my job we
use jquery like i wanted to learn react
and angular i want to do all these
things but i know i have to take it one
step at a time and that's the important
thing
another thing is besides that
is getting feedback from your senior
devs and
you know just your fellow developers
that you're working with especially when
you're new getting feedback is great
knowing your work process like how
you're doing always ask them like how am
i doing do you think i'm doing okay
because i know everyone has their own
different techniques
so it's best to just have a good
communication and getting feedback
from your peers
and another one is never stop practicing
always keep learning i'm still in the
learning process right now i mean a
couple weeks ago i
was here trying to debug a bootstrap
carousel and i felt embarrassed
debugging a bootstrap carousel because
i'm like well this is so simple like why
can't i get it but i learned that it's
still a learning process for me i'm
still i'm still learning i'm still
continuing to grow and sometimes it's
okay to ask for help even something so
simple like bootstrap carousel or
learning how to use bootstrap it's
never embarrassing to ask questions
because you actually learn from asking
questions just don't ask the same
questions over and over ask and absorb
that's the most important thing
but yeah and then another thing is oh
yeah this is probably important too but
try to use the same ides as your fellow
developers i know we all have
you know a preference that we use like i
like visual studio code um that's just
my preference but i know like at my job
and stuff we use php storm or like adam
and stuff like that i just think it's
you don't you don't have to do it but i
think it helps with the workflow and the
process when you use the same ide as
your fellow peers
that usually helps a lot
and then another tip is
when you get your first project it's
always good to whiteboard it out draw a
map of how you're going to build your
website you know have an idea before you
actually start coding
that was my mistake too is i didn't
really have an idea
and so i kind of just start coding
random things when you have to wipe word
it out you have to talk to your boss
don't try to take initiative with
anything
not well don't try to take initiative
with everything
beside and not letting your fellow
developers know always always try to
wipe board it out
and then another thing is um biddle law
side projects
if you have anything you're interested
in building do it after work hours you
know take the weekend off don't go out
with your friends like if you have to
improve you have to just start
practicing more and more build something
cool like i want to eventually build an
app but i don't know what happened yet
but
um another thing is don't be afraid to
try new things um code something
different don't code the same thing over
and over
right now since i'm still pretty new i
am practicing on building my jquery maps
i built a couple maps before
and
but i'm still practicing i'm
not that great with the map i'm learning
how to style maps with javascript so
build something new try something new at
least every single week and you'll get
better and just learn that way
let's see what else
okay but yeah it's um so that's
all i really have with the tips and
advice
and my story is just really practicing
using your online resources
talk to your peers
also have good communication with your
boss
when finding a job push yourself out
there join organizations that's what i
did you know i joined teclahoma i joined
free code camp i talked with my
instructors that's the most important
thing it's just communicating with
fellow developers
that could give you really good advice
and also
don't take criticism
as an insult always take criticism as
something you can prove and learn from
and that's
the most important thing is um
and then
yeah getting
feedback positive side projects
draw a map
yeah that's
really all that i have i know it's kind
of short but if anyone has any questions
or yeah
well my interview was actually very
short
i didn't really take a test or anything
i know some companies require you to
take a test i actually
took a test a couple weeks before that
with an hr recruiter when i was trying
to find a job
just testing my javascript
and i did alright on that but they
didn't hire me on
another company
saw that i was very motivated to learn
and try new things and also they liked
the fact that at my previous job i wore
many hats like i did all the digital
content at my job and
i was lucky enough because the company i
work for really needed someone
and so i got the job as a web developer
yeah
and that's
i just told them my experience and
everything gave him my portfolio
and then yeah
from there
the most useful thing that i did was
mainly
reading my documentation
in the beginning
i can't i can't say this enough but
reading your documentation is so so
important that's what i spent my time
doing
outside of work now is just reading
through everything carefully and even
though i was in boot camp class i missed
like the little things here and there
because i was trying to
code out my portfolio but even when i
coded out it still wasn't it wasn't good
i did a lot of
what i did
was i would always inspect right click
inspect in my console and then just go
in there in a debug but when you
actually read your documentation clearly
and thoroughly it really helps you to
understand
what you're doing a lot more so i can
just code it out now fluently rather
than having to inspect all the time
and so i did that and then
just practice a lot online outside of
work
that was probably the most useful things
that i did as a developer
yes
well it's like so like on bootstrap
saying
you know it gives you all the elements
and stuff so they have um your columns
how to build bootstrap columns um how to
do responsive media queries and stuff
like that when you really read it
through it helps you understand how to
build
your columns on your web page when i
started out i didn't know that
in every div container there are 12
columns
and
reading that part made me understand
that now instead of having to inspect my
element every time i know that if i were
to build two comps it's just
automatically column md6 column md6
and so forth so it's like reading your
documentation really helps you
understand that and also
once you get your html css and
those skills down it'll help you
understand javascript more because
you'll learn how to use dom elements and
that's the key thing
so yeah really read your documentation
man
anybody else
yeah well now eight months
because i've been in my job for about
three and a half months now
but i got actually got my first job at
my last module
coders bootcamp class so
yeah
yes
you just have to show
oh
i'm sorry sorry can you say it
oh okay
sorry
okay so he said that when you're a new
developer what does your company expect
out of you when you first started versus
three months in
so when you first started they want you
to get to get familiar with their
process of working
and also how they you know just really
focus on their software um i'm not sure
how other jobs are but i know my company
we use a software where we import all
our code codes in and the software was
built by our
lead senior developer
and so that's the main thing is when you
first started out is learning how to use
the software where to place your header
code where to place the footer where do
you place your link tags and everything
in that where do you place your
javascript that's the most important
thing and then further down the line
progress is
you know they expect to see progress
from you you know stop
putting in-line styles in your html
start using css morse start writing
multiple css to make the codes short and
clean
and so from it's just really
building more and more experience seeing
um not more experience i'm sorry uh just
seeing progress
yeah
yes
uh someone from twitch said what
frameworks in javascript you would like
to use um so i'm really into react um i
want to get to learn react more
that's something i want to eventually do
but hopefully react in angular something
i'm interested
once i get my jquery down
yeah
thanks
anybody else
oh okay yes
he said what skill set did i learn from
star space 40
teclahoma star space 46 is the
organization that i could apply to my
job um honestly it's how to start out
and find a job like how to connect i got
a lot of advice from kimberly too she's
great she's great
i got a lot of advice from her on how to
build my resume she gave me a lot of
tips and then another person i like to
mention is carmen she's helped me a lot
too
and building my resume always link your
github you know your portfolio on top of
your resume so that people can see that
the first thing that was something i did
that on my resume but i linked my
portfolio in the back and you don't want
to do that smart to do in the front so
that everybody could see
um and a lot is just like you know help
like debug learning how to use my
console that's what i learned
and yeah
anybody else
yes
uh
currently i am building my friend's
wedding website right now
it's good i like it
it's not the best but i like it and
that and then i coded out a tic-tac-toe
game
yeah nothing too advanced but
hey i'll get there you know you'll get
there i don't know if you're new but
anyway
anybody else
no okay
well thank you so much everyone thank
you kimberly and teklahoma and everybody
um having me here today
i hope i could shed some light
in
anybody that who wants to be a developer
make sure to practice
practice a lot
read your documentation
yeah
okay