Kimberly Lowe-Williams

May 25, 2015

Sabbatical from Ruby

So we’ve taken a brief sabbatical from ruby coding to plunge into HTML and CSS. I completely understand this from having some frontend experience but there are always tips, trick, shortcuts, and things to learn. We are using Bootstrap and possibly even going to build using themes… I’m very interested to see how the professionals do this. There is someone in my class that has made a 20 year career as a frontend developer. I have struggled with themes in the past finding the right one that does not require me to keep hacking away at it can be a challenge and I’ve often wondered whether or not I should even bother using them. This part of the bootcamp is much more intuitive for me but I understand the value of being a full stack developer, this is what I am aiming for…

Which is why I am taking full advantage of this Memorial Day break to learn even more Ruby. I never completed my Connect Four game and am quite sad about that…. I get completely lost in the syntax. At the end of this bootcamp if I am not completely confident in back end skills I am sure I’ll have front end mastered…so there’s that!

front_v_back — Found here: http://blog.backand.com/frontend-backend-dev/

Found this image on another blog sometime ago… my biggest pet peeve is falling into stereotypes… notice that the frontend developer is a woman. It might also be noted that frontend developers are paid less and considered less technical. So that honestly might be some of my motivation! That being said, they both have their pros and cons. I’m happy to know that I will have the opportunity to be either at this point.

May 10, 2015

Week 3 – You’ll Have to Throw Me Out!

So things have gotten a bit…. challenging to say the least. The exercises from week 2 were EXHAUSTING! I could not have completed quite a few of them without the help of the TA’s… I still have a few to figure out to be honest so we’ll be chatting again soon. I was getting frustrated so to my blog I ran…

To be completely, completely honest some of the feedback I have gotten “professionally” has been discouraging. It seems that my “highly developed” interpersonal skills make me less than ideal as a developer… or so I’ve been told. The general feedback is that I should basically use what I got to advance in my career. I currently work supporting software that is created by really smart people and while I am more than competent at my job it is not the career I envisioned and it would seem that since I am such a capable customer support analyst I should stick with it, possibly go into managing it maybe possibly one day….

I am unapologetically not accepting this fate. Call me stubborn, headstrong, mule-headed or just plain stupid but my dream has always been to build, debug, develop… code and I’m not quite ready to give that up! Even in the midst of struggling to complete these exercises from week 2. I understand I have strong leadership skills, I was raised by a very strong business woman that made it very clear that the only way for us to move forward is if we own what we know. Not to mention a father who thinks I am a computer genius! Being able to code provides me with that freedom of ownership.. owing the knowledge and skills that will follow me for the rest of my life. It is an empowering skill… that coupled with my “interpersonal” and “leadership” skills would provide me with career security. Plus, I’d feel like a BOSS!

I have received so many backhanded compliments I don’t know what it feels like to get a real one anymore.

“Oh, but you’re so good at answering phones and customers emails.”
“You don’t really want to be developer, look how they act you have so much more class.”
“It would take years to learn all that stuff… not everyone can learn to code.”
“You’ve got a good thing going. Why rock the boat?”

Although, my confidence wavers… I am at the point that IF I can make this final payment for the ACLTC bootcamp… YOU’LL HAVE TO THROW ME OUT!! I can always go back to answering emails and phone calls if ultimately I fail, right?

May 7, 2015

Perserverance

I know this word all too well. Although programming/developing has been a passion of mine since I was first exposed to the idea of it almost 20 years ago, I have encountered numerous obstacles in my path. I am very grateful for the opportunity to immerse myself in this field with the help of skilled and patient instructors. The positive encouragement and support means the world to me. It is wonderful to have people encouraging me to do something challenging as well as rewarding. I will focus on this positive energy as I complete this bootcamp. I will let the narrow mindedness of others propel me to grow technically and be the best web developer I can be. I will not compare myself to others in this field but to myself… my own growth. I may not be the best in the industry but I will be the best I can be and that will just have to be good enough.

Perserverance….