Hi!!! My name is Jaime, but everyone calls me Dex. Although I don't mind the first, you'll tend to see me use Dex more often. So a little about me, I'm an entry-level software developer, living in world-famous New York. My family consists of a little black cat named Levi and my awesome boyfriend. Although I may not look it, I'm quite the nerd. Anime and video games are my top 2 favorite hobbies, and let's just say I'm 100% certain I was a ninja in my past life. But alright, enough of the pleasantries, why am I here, you may ask.
I won't bore you with the typical story about needing a change in my life, I think at this point that's universal. Feeling like you're stuck in an unpleasant reality can really mess with your mental state, and that's where I was. One morning, I came across an MSNBC Money Talks segment about a young black woman who landed a lucrative software engineering gig and was earning $210k a year. Sidenote: she has a dope Youtube Channel where she meets other black engineers and they discuss the industry and what inspired them to get into tech. I'll link her channel below. The segment revealed how she spends her robust salary monthly..but believe it or not, her salary wasn't what inspired me, but her profession and her journey to her new career. After checking her channel out on Youtube, I thought to myself...
Wait... I can be a software engineer? What even is that?!?!
After doing some googles, the rest was history folks.
There are resources everywhere.. and tons of them are FREE! I'm talking The Odin Project, FreeCodeCamp, tons of programmers posting hours and hours of content on Youtube, that anyone could gobble up for $Free.99. Where I landed, was in a free Bootcamp cohort named 100Devs, founded by a fellow person of color, dedicated to assisting disenfranchised individuals in making their career debut in tech! Okay, so free, a person of color...andddd I get to follow my dreams and be the computer wiz I've always imagined myself to be?! Sign me up!
Fast forward 10 weeks later and we're deep into Javascript after conquering HTML and CSS. Say what you want about Javascript, I know she's a tough cookie.. but Javascript is my girl! Obviously, she can tend to be a little feisty but, given time and dedication, she can be the key to opening all doors in Programming.
I think my favorite aspect in discovering the world that is software development is the community. Aside from the gatekeepers, of course, there are a plethora of folks that want to help you! Being in a cohort allows me to share my struggles as they happen, learn material not covered in class and make new friends because, duh..friends are awesome and you need them.
In future articles, I will blog about cool concepts I've stumbled upon, awesome resources new developers should use, and much more. All in all, I'm super stoked I've finally discovered my passion, and I cannot WAIT for what Dex The Developer has in store for you all!
Here's Bukola's Youtube page ===> Bukola