Dev Retro 2022: How I overcame imposter syndrome and found my way into coding

If I had to pick a quote that describes my coding journey, it would be the famous saying, You wont know until you try. Im not going to lie to you, starting a coding journey can be a daunting and intimidating experience, especially for women since these spaces are dominated by men. To all of the women who want to learn how to code but feel like theres no place for them, no judgment here. I had those feelings once too. Heres my story on how I overcame them.

My background and how I got into coding

Im an Instructional Designer. This job title has many definitions but to simplify it (and to save you from being bored with long explanations 😉), I create engaging content that helps solve an issue in an organization. One day, I was being interviewed for an Instructional Designer position for an EdTech company. Everything went pretty smoothly until I was asked if I had a basic knowledge of HTML.

Yes, I was an idiot for not taking that skill preference seriously! Stop reminding me Ariel! 😣

After screaming on the inside for a few minutes, I took a deep breath, and told the interviewer No. A couple of days later, I received the classic We went with someone else email. My feelings of dejection grew as I saw more & more Instructional Design job postings requesting people with coding knowledge. So from that day forward, I decided to learn how to code.

Overcoming impostor syndrome and self-doubt

When I was searching for courses, I, like most coding newbies, went with FreecodeCamps Responsive Web Design Curriculum. Unfortunately, I found the content too difficult to understand, so I switched to the HTML courses that were offered on LinkedIn, but I found the content to be too long and boring(sorry LinkedIn!), so I stopped there. Experiencing these bumps and not seeing that many women, especially those who come from non-tech backgrounds in coding spaces made me feel that learning how to code was not possible for someone like me.

Fortunately, those feelings changed when a colleague of mine introduced me to SheCodes(well, more like constantly asking me Did you start yet?, but you get the idea), a wonderful organization that is dedicated to helping women learn how to code and start their tech careers.

Through taking their Basics course, I found the following methods helpful in overcoming my self-doubt:

1. Interact with other students

Whenever I was struggling with an assignment and struggled with understanding the instructors lesson, I would go to SheCodes Slack community and ask for tips. Id also go on there to help other students who were having similar issues. It was wonderful seeing their receptiveness to my advice as well as their excitement when I or another student shared an achievement. Its just an indescribable feeling that you get when youre surrounded by other women who are learning the same topics as you.

2. Finding more communities to join

When I finished the Basics course, a few of the students that I befriended suggested that I join other communities to further my knowledge of coding. Heres a list of online coding communities that have helped me:

1. SheSharp

2. Women Who Code

3. WomenTech Network

4. Scrimba

It takes a village to raise a coder, so dont hesitate to join other groups.

3. Building my own path in the world of coding

After I finished SheCodes Basics course and joined Scrimbas Discord community, I was not sure what aspect of coding piqued my interest. Initially, I picked frontend development due to being interested in doing better at HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; but then, one of the code reviewers told me about Open Source projects. I fell into that rabbit hole and never left.

Conclusion

Overall, learning how to code has been a challenging but incredibly rewarding journey. Ive met great people and developed great skills. I dont know where my coding journey will take me, but wherever it goes, I know it will be somewhere exciting.

Thanks for reading my story. I hope it inspires to you to start learning how to code. If you want to stay updated on my journey, follow me on Hashnode. Also, please like and share it amongst other women who want to learn how to code.

Credits

Online illustrations by Storyset

Rainbow Road by GIF

The Little Mermaid Facepalm by GIF