More Meet-ups and A Scholarship Application

Okay, so hanging out with women coders is pretty dang awesome! But at some point I feel that to succeed I have to able to talk with all sorts of people to get ideas and suggestions.

It was at a RailsBridge workshop with Women Who Code that I was reminded that us women might be missing out on help from the nice guys in IT. That's when I decided it was time to expand the list of meetups that I go to.

I've now been to a few Phoenix JavaScript meet-ups, two AGIA Arizona meet-ups, and a Phoenix Versioning meet-up

Some of the information was way over my head, however sometimes it's good to be able to learn what's out there that you don't know about. Generally during these meet-ups I write a lot of notes that include "look up the term..." and that, my friend, is quite okay. It's quite interesting to see how much I don't know and then learn about it.

I have also been to one Rockit Bootcamp meet-up. I didn't learn too much, but I did get to see the teaching styles of one of the one of the instructors, which is a good thing since I've applied for a scholarship with Rockit Bootcamp. If you'd like to see my "pro" application video essay click on this link and be prepared to laugh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IrFPVHOABE

I'll find out if I got the scholarship on July 21st, but I sure did spend a lot of time on the 7 essays, video essay, and reading the fine print in the Terms & Conditions so it seems right that they take just as long to decide who to give the scholarship to, right?

I'll provide some more in-depth details about what I'm learning in my next post... see you there. In the meanwhile, here's a wonderful TED Talk I watched while at the gym the other day.

Code Academy, Girl Develop It, and Women Who Code

So far with Code Academy I've completed their modules on HTML & CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, AngularJS, and "Make a Website". It's been fun and interesting, but I don't really feel that I've mastered those skills quite yet. Although, I'm not sure I need to master those skills anyhow. What I do know is that I want to feel better about them. I also want to understand Web Development best practices, and how to set-up a real working environment. That's not something I can get through Code Academy.

One day a few months ago while I was visiting my former place of employment, the Desert Botanical Garden, I ran into the wonderful GIS Speicalist there. She wanted to know what I had been doing since I got back to Phoenix. I made mention about how my husband was giving me the opportunity to pursue my interest in technology, and that I was really hoping to learn how to do something with coding. I couldn't believe how excited she got about it. Apparently there really is a lack of women in the technology industry! She told me about a meet-up group called Girl Develop It. It's a group that supports women learning about coding and web development. Since I was looking for some real world experience she thought it would be perfect for me.

http://www.meetup.com/Girl-Develop-It-Phoenix/

I really need to tell her how right she was! To help me better understand what the daily life of a developer actually is, I needed a group where I could ask questions and learn!


With Girl Develop It, I've gone to demos on GitHub, JavaScript, jQuery, attended classes on development concepts, and CSS, and I've made a number of supportive techie friends. It's pretty cool!

Through Girl Develop It, I also learned about Women Who Code. This is yet another group that offers support and workshops. With Women Who Code, I've done a Ruby on Rails Workshop and gone to a mentor match-up event. Both events were really great. Once again I learned a whole lot, and met great people!

http://www.meetup.com/Women-Who-Code-Phoenix/

However, I think there is a least one flaw in just going to the meet-ups put on by these two groups; you don't really get to meet the men in the industry and see what it's like with them in the mix.

Since this realization, I've explored other opportunities. I'll talk about that next time.