CatIt's been almost 4 years since I've graduated from college. I studied web design and development -- and I gotta tell you -- I didn't learn sh_t.
I wasn't confident enough to interview as a developer. I was intimidated by the prospect of having to whiteboard code and solve algorithmic problems (I'm terrible at math). I had no idea what the hell "Big O notation" was or even how to properly articulate and explain that infamous "fizz" "buzz" problem.
To tell you the truth, I still don't.
About 1.5 years after I graduated, I finally got my foot in the tech door as a contractor for a big, BIG household-name company. I was so proud of myself; I thought I had made it. SPOILERS: I actually didn't.
Little did I know that contractors were at the bottom-rung of the barrel. Hell, my manager told me to just make up my title (I chose "UX/UI Specialist"--not quite designer, not quite developer, but I knew a thing or two about both). My job was to audit the UI and UX of the product, tell engineers and designers where everything fell apart across all platforms. I had to pinpoint where in the code-- in various programming languages-- why the hell does this timestamp render differently on each iteration of the product (why are "am" and "pm" capitalized on one platform, and why is it rendering only in military time on the other??? WHO DID THIS? WHO SAID THIS WAS OKAY?)
I digress-- it was a great experience, despite the frustration that came with attempting to decipher the spaghetti that was this product. This lead to a massive overhaul of how this particular team will coordinate building and modifying the product.
However, I wasn't legally supposed to receive any recognition. I wasn't even supposed to say I worked for the company, but instead, through the contracting place.
It was bullsh_t.
I decided I needed to step up. The path I chose, though, is an expensive one: I enrolled in a software engineering immersive at General Assembly. Thankfully I received a scholarship which took off a good chunk of tuition.
I already finished the 60 hours of pre-work, which included reviewing the basics of HTML, CSS, and JS. To kill more time, I'm currently running through the Javascript Algorithms and Data Certification course on freecodecamp.
Essentially, I'm starting over, but I have a good feeling about this. Maybe this time, the basics will stick and I'll finally have the guts to apply to jobs as a developer.
Wish me luck!
