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How SheCodes helped Alena transition from Consultant to Junior Software Developer!
🙍♀️ Before SheCodes
Meet Alena 🇩🇪! Alena is an adventurous and active woman who enjoys balancing her time between technology and the outdoors. When she’s not working, she loves to travel, especially to Latin America, and stay active through sports. She has been practicing Judo since kindergarten, holds two black belts, and is now training to become a referee! 🥋 She also enjoys reading, caring for her many plants, and spending time in Vienna’s beautiful surroundings, especially swimming in the Danube during the summer. 🌿
Before starting her coding journey, Alena studied international and ecological economics and politics at university. She then worked as a Business Consultant and Sales professional in a tech company, followed by a role as an Innovation Consultant at a startup. Her work was focused on the business side of tech, filled with client meetings, presentations, and strategy discussions.
However, Alena wasn’t happy with her career. She felt stuck — she didn’t find the tasks interesting, wasn’t passionate about the topics, and didn’t connect with the work culture. Wanting a complete change, she decided to take a step back and explore different career paths with an open mind. That’s when she came across the SheCodes Basics Workshop through an Instagram ad.
“I didn't find the tasks appealing nor the topics I had to deal with, and neither my work culture. So I did a total break and tried to figure out what kind of tasks, jobs, industry, culture, and future would be interesting and a fit for my skills.”
Although she had never imagined herself in IT before, she decided to give it a try — and to her surprise, she found coding super interesting! She gave it a lot of thought and eventually decided to go all in and complete the full SheCodes Bootcamp. 🚀
What drew Alena to SheCodes was the flexibility of the online format, which allowed her to learn from anywhere at her own pace. She also appreciated that the workshops were more affordable than in-person courses. Most importantly, she loved how coding was explained in a clear, step-by-step way, making it easy for complete beginners like her to follow along. She never felt intimidated asking questions, which made learning much more enjoyable. ✨
“I really loved how Matt breaks down even the smallest issues into step-by-step explanations, so complete newbies like me could follow. And I never felt stupid asking questions, as I would have felt surrounded by mostly males.”
👩💻 Her SheCodes Experience
Alena’s experience with SheCodes was both exciting and eye-opening! One of her favorite parts was receiving emails that said, "Good job, your solution is valid" after completing her weekly homework. 🎉 These small moments gave her a huge confidence boost and reassured her that she was making progress.
She also loved discovering that programming isn’t some kind of “black magic” — when explained step by step, it’s actually quite accessible! Learning with SheCodes helped her see coding in a new light and made the whole process feel much less intimidating. 💡
A standout moment for Alena was experiencing "the flow"—being so immersed in coding that she completely lost track of time. ⏳ She hadn't felt that level of deep focus in a long time, and when she finally "snapped out of it" after hours of coding, she knew she had found something she truly enjoyed. That was the moment she decided to take coding seriously and apply for jobs in tech! 🚀
“Just experiencing 'the flow' which I hadn't done in a long while, totally getting into it and then suddenly 'waking up' a couple of hours later and not even having realised how much time had passed. This was what finally convinced me to give it a shot and apply to jobs in this industry.”
🙋 How SheCodes has Helped to Change Her Life
With SheCodes, Alena gained the skills and confidence to step into the tech industry. She is now working as a Junior Software Developer, balancing two part-time jobs where she gets to apply and expand her coding knowledge. 💻
In one of her roles, she focuses entirely on Front-End development, working with different tech stacks based on project and client requirements. In her other job, she takes on full-stack development, helping build an internal PHP tool for the company. Both roles challenged her in different ways, allowing her to learn and grow in various aspects of development. 🚀
SheCodes has been incredibly helpful in her new career, especially with VS Code tips and configurations, GitHub, live view, and external libraries. She also regularly uses the terminal for NPM and works with APIs — all skills she first encountered during the workshops. SheCodes helped her feel confident in her ability to keep growing as a developer.
“SheCodes played a crucial role in VS Code configurations and extensions, as well as the live view and GitHub explanations! Also, the use of external libraries and the use of the terminal, such as for NPM, for instance. APIs I also use widely.”
Alena’s journey is proof that with curiosity and determination, it’s possible to completely change careers and succeed in tech. We’re so proud of her! 🎉
👩💼 Advice to Future SheCodes Student
Alena’s advice for future SheCodes students is simple: trust the process! Learning to code can feel overwhelming at first, but staying curious and open to learning will help everything fall into place over time. 💡
“Just be curious about everything, even if you don't get the entire picture yet. This will come with time”.
She also encourages new students to connect with other developers as early as possible. The tech community is incredibly supportive, and meeting others can give you valuable tips for your career and help you tackle challenges along the way. Even if you don’t understand everything at first, keep going! 🚀
Beyond her new career, SheCodes gave Alena a fresh perspective on her future and helped her see new possibilities for herself. She still finds it unbelievable that she was able to completely switch careers — and that it actually worked! Her journey is proof that with determination and the right learning environment, anything is possible. 🎉
“It was all a lot of fun, and I still cannot believe I took this complete turn in careers, and it actually worked! Still surprises me like crazy.”
We are so proud of you, Alena! 🌟
Check out her Testimonials:
Check out her Testimonials:
“I never thought coding would be so much fun and an activity I really liked! Thank you, SheCodes, for making an easy and well-led introduction into the field and for giving me new opportunities!”
“I was especially curious about the responsive workshop, and creating my own portfolio webpage was incredibly motivating and fun! I feel like I can go on forever with styling details; therefore, I am also super happy with all the tips and tricks explained by the instructor and provided by SheCodes.”
“What a journey! I have just completed my very last workshop from SheCodes, and I won't get tired of recommending it to friends. There are so many hints, tips and advice I received throughout my studies I am really grateful for. Also, as I come to realize that this is just the start, and that there are so many more options in creating a webpage, this work is absolutely speaking to my creative half of the brain, and I am loving it!”
