How SheCodes helped Katy transition from UI/UX Designer to Front-End Developer!
πββοΈ Before SheCodes
Meet Katy πΈπͺ! Living in Stockholm County, Sweden, Katy is a creative and active person who loves spending her free time doing sports like skiing and kayaking. β·οΈ
Before SheCodes, Katy worked as a UX/UI Designer. Her role focused on creating intuitive and visually appealing user interfaces, ensuring a seamless user experience. She was responsible for designing wireframes, clickable prototypes for user testing, and keeping design components up to date. While she enjoyed her work, she often worked closely with front-end developers, which sparked her curiosity about coding.
βAs a Designer, I always have to work closely with Developers. Especially Front-end, there's where it got started, I need to understand what is doable within the scope given. Thus, I decided to learn how to code.β
Katy wanted to better understand what was possible within the scope of her designs, so she decided to start learning how to code. In 2021, during Black Friday week, she discovered SheCodes. She was drawn to Mattβs videos, where coding was explained in a clear and approachable way. She also loved the small, manageable assignments and the Slack community, which provided support and answered her technical questions. π‘
βIt was the videos by Matt, he explained things very well. The assignments are divided into small tasks and understanding coding. The Slack that allows me to ask any technical questions also helps a lot. I was never alone.β
π©βπ» Her SheCodes Experience
Katyβs experience with SheCodes was both rewarding and encouraging. She loved the supportive community, which kept her motivated throughout the courses. It was also a place where she made incredible friends who shared her journey. β¨
βThe Slack channel is a community that encouraged me throughout the whole workshops. I made really amazing friends through SheCodes Slack.β
One of her favorite parts of SheCodes was seeing the projects she built from scratch, like the weather app and the dictionary app. These projects gave her a great sense of accomplishment and allowed her to put her new skills into practice.
A memorable moment for Katy was creating the weather app in React. Through this project, she gained a deeper understanding of what React can do and how to work with APIs like OpenWeather. She even incorporated fun weather illustrations, which made the project even more exciting and creative! π»
π How SheCodes has Helped to Change Her Life
With SheCodes, Katy gained the foundation she needed to transition into a Front-End Developer role. She now works at VirkesbΓΆrsen, a digital marketplace, where she improves UX/UI designs and implements them using React, JavaScript, and Python with Django. Her role mostly focuses on the front-end, and she also formats data from the server so it can display properly on the client side.
βIβm so happy that SheCodes started from learning the fundamentals of JavaScript, then moving on to the framework: React.β
Katy credits SheCodes for playing a crucial role in her career development. This step-by-step approach helped her feel confident in applying React in her current role, making her work smoother and more enjoyable. π
βI can't express enough how pivotal shecodes.io has been in my transformation. The quality of instruction, the accessible nature of the content, and the unwavering support of the SheCodes community have all contributed to this profound change in my professional life.β
π©βπΌ Advice to Future SheCodes Student
Katyβs advice to future SheCodes students is to enjoy the journey, even if it feels tough in the beginning. She encourages new students to stay motivated by reading success stories and, most importantly, to keep coding! π»
She believes the best way to learn is by creating projects. During SheCodes, she built many React projects, and she continues to create new ones using different frameworks like React and Angular. Katy also highlights the value of learning both front-end and back-end development. Understanding the full stack has given her a better perspective on how the web works and has been a key part of her growth.
In addition to her career, Katy started her own coding blog, codewithkatyrosli.com, where she shares what she has learned. This full-stack project, built from scratch with TypeScript, Next.js, Tailwind, Strapi, and AWS, reflects her coding journey and helps her stay connected to the tech community. β¨
βMy blog is about my coding journey, I'm sharing what I have learned. My blog is a full-stack project. I created it from scratchβ
Her message to future students is clear: keep creating, keep learning, and donβt be afraid to share your journey! π
π Katyβs SheCodes Basics Testimonial:
βI highly recommend this course to anyone who is curious about coding and wants to learn how to code! I can't believe that coding is something that I enjoy doing. As a product designer myself, I now have a better understanding of the implementation stage:). Love this course!β
π Katyβs SheCodes Plus Testimonial:
βMatt's tutorial video is very logical and systematic thus, easy to understand. He breaks down step by step the problems that we need to think about and do. SheCodes is really the place to learn JS!β
πΒ Katyβs SheCodes Responsive Testimonial:
βSheCodes made me realize that I really enjoy coding. A fun way to learn is by a step-by-step video by Matt & we have a community who are always there to help out when I'm stuck with my code. The best part, I now have a working online portfolio that I showcase all my front end developer works!β
πΒ Katyβs SheCodes React Testimonial:
βIt's been an amazing journey for me learning coding from HTML to CSS to Javascript and React! I actually feel sad that this is the end for SheCodes. I look forward to continue coding and always learning the new technologies! Thank you to Matt Delac for teaching us to understand, think, plan, and test our codes. I've met so many amazing ladies along the way, so inspiring and amazing platform to be in!:)β
