When it started

My journey began in 2010, I attended a college in Islamabad where I studied computer science, physics, and maths. Before college, I did not know coding so of course, I had no prior experience in this field. As I began to attend classes, my love for coding grew, so much that I have not stopped coding ever since.

In Univeristy

After college, I went on to study Masters in Computer Science at University, At this point, I decided to make this my profession. When I applied, my family was concerned; They were worried I may not succeed, but in my semesters' exams I achieved the highest marks in my programming classes. This gave me a lot of confidence, I used this to motivate myself further and continue to keep working hard.

In Industry

My professional career life started in 2017. However, I was completely surprised by how the industry works, it was different from what I'm familiar with. With any technology-based industries, you may know that technology is always changing and new systems and software are implemented into the industry, so I had to learn a lot when I got my first job as it was not taught when I was studying at university.

But I made it, I manage. and I learned so much from this experience and I am still learning to this day. I am developing and designing UIs for mobile and web platforms using JavaScript frameworks like React, React Native and HTML/CSS. I love development.
For now, I am creating a portfolio as a side project.

How I did it...

• I took motivation from "Girls do better in SQA (Software Quality Assurance) field because they are not good in coding" and I worked harder.

• I spent my time doing research, looking at tutorials and articles, I use everything at my disposal to help me achieve what I need.

• The criticism I received helped me progress so much, without it I'm not sure I will be as good as I am today.

• Lastly, I didn't stop writing code, nothing stopped me. My colleague gave me strength in this. She motivated me by saying if you fail, it doesn't mean you should give up it means you should learn from them, making you progress towards a solution and learning something new, making future problems easier to solve.

I want to say thanks to all my colleagues who have supported me and believed in me. Special thanks to my mentors; Shermeen and Umar.

My advice for allies to support self-identifying women and non-binary folks who code is

If you fail the first time, DO NOT GIVE UP, try, try again. My belief is anyone can code, it doesn't depend on your gender or age.