September 5, 2018
One thing that I can proudly say after this whole Codeup process is that I survived (and thrived) as an independent woman, although not without serious help from others! This is my opportunity to thank those who have helped, including Codeup for generously offering me their Women in Tech Scholarship.
Before Codeup, I was working full-time in another industry with a low salary. I lived alone and was paying for all my rent and bills on my own, with no partner or parents for financial support. In my field at the time, I struggled for years seeking advancement and growth opportunities from an industry that did not seem to value my skill set.Even given that stressful mindset, the idea of forfeiting my only source of income for several months to attend Codeup was extremely scary. To justify this, I spent a lot of time researching, including attending Codeup sponsored events, and reaching out to Codeup alumni and friends in the tech industry for their opinion. Still, with all the encouragement in the world, my objections were:
Let me just go ahead and assure you that everything worked out – very well, in fact! I made the leap of faith and decided to join the Redwood cohort. Here is my first person to thank: a male friend of mine who has been a programmer for years, who strongly encouraged me that this was a great direction for me to take to secure fulfillment and my continued independence. I struggled to find statistics on this, but I have heard many similar stories from women about the men in their lives (friends, family, boyfriends, husbands) who work in the tech industry and encouraged them to learn to code.On the first day of class, I counted: 6 women out of 23 total students. Not bad! Despite the fact that these women were of different ages, marital statuses, careers, and stages of life, we all quickly bonded. Within the first few weeks, we even planned our own Girls Night Out at a bar across the street from campus (that the guys from our cohort crashed, and I don’t think anyone was upset about that)! We also all participated in Codeup’s weekly women’s lunches, with featured female speakers who were alumnae or from the tech industry. Throughout the entire 18 strenuous weeks, these women and I supported and checked in with each other. Luckily, everyone in our cohort did the same, no matter the gender. Thank you for this, Redwood women and men!To make a long story short, I was hired as a full stack developer a month before my graduation, with a decent pay bump from my previous career, and am now working in my second job in the field (yet another pay bump!) where I feel personally valued on a daily basis. All of this, less than a year since starting Codeup! As my final thank you, I am extremely grateful to Codeup for awarding me their Women in Tech scholarship, because it significantly reduced the loan amount I needed to attend, helped relieve a little bit of the anxiety of paying for Codeup, gave me more incentive to attend, and confirmed that I indeed was exactly what Codeup and employers were looking for in students and coders.If you’re a woman who desires independence and self-fulfillment, Codeup is worth it! Make sure to apply to the scholarship during your admissions process and feel free to reach out to me or other female alumnae if you want to hear more about our experiences before, during, and after Codeup.—Amy is very proud to say she is currently the only female developer employee working on Whataburger’s first ever online ordering platform. She has a Master’s degree in Music Theory and keeps that knowledge fresh by analyzing music on the radio during her daily commute. Since learning to code, what she enjoys the most is mentoring new developers.
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