Who knew that I would find the door to a new career by perusing the Internet at 2 AM on my smartphone? See, I have been on an unclear career path for the past few years and having had my own personal “Jerry Maguire” moment earlier this year, I’ve been wondering what career path am I supposed to be on. Well, the Tech Talent South Code Immersion program has answered that question for me. After applying for entrance into the program and meeting with Andrew, a wonderful representative of Tech Talent South, I knew that I was headed in the right direction.
I have a business background mainly in the health insurance industry, so I have had no computer programming experience at all. The closest experience I have to coding is building and maintaining my previous small business websites and blog, using templates, so I knew this class would be challenging. I have completed the second week of the Code Immersion program and it was everything I thought it would be. In true boot camp fashion, this program has been fast paced and full of information. When they say you will learn a lot, they are not exaggerating, you learn A LOT and fast!
These two weeks have literally been spent learning a new language and applying logic to solving problems and creating programs in that new language. With learning any foreign language, there was a bit of difficulty, but I am happy with what I have learned and the programs I have created thus far. We had an opportunity to hear our first guest speaker and we participated in two company tours that provided insight on what is happening professionally in our local tech community. Our instructors have been knowledgeable and extremely patient. I will repeat again, very patient. ☺ They are so encouraging and take their job of educating us very seriously.
I have been so excited about the new opportunities this education will create for me and have been inspired to connect with other coding students, industry leaders and recruiters via twitter. Hopefully, by keeping a pulse on the local and national tech industry will aide me when it is time for me to begin to seek an internship or junior developer role when I have completed this course.
On my first day of class, my husband asked, “how was it?” I replied, “that it was challenging and I loved every minute of it.” It’s funny how you don’t know you’re meant to do something until you actually begin. Well, my seven and ten year old is so impressed with what I’ve learned, so I will definitely count these two weeks as a success. If you can impress kids, you must be doing something right. ☺
If you would like to connect with me to ask me questions from a student perspective or just want to be tech friends, you can email me at sjbutts@gmail.com or just follow me on twitter @shanikajb.
