Amanda

Amanda is a SheCoder who has gone from working in customer service to software development thanks to her new coding knowledge! 🤩 She’s from Connecticut, USA, and is still living there today. She likes to spend her time baking, gardening, and exploring with her dog. 👩‍🍳 👩‍🌾 🐕 She spent many years working as a Customer Service Sales Representative at an e-commerce business, where she often came into contact with basic coding.

Her company closed down and Amanda decided to explore new opportunities. She had developed an interest in coding during the days of Myspace and had gained some experience with coding in her customer service role, as well. When she gained some free time, she finally decided to take the plunge to learn to code. She found SheCodes on social media and decided to give it a try. We’re so glad that she did!! 💜

“I first became interested in coding through websites like Myspace where it was required to make cosmetic layout changes. Later I also utilized some basic coding to create product listings at my e-commerce job.”

“My previous place of employment temporarily shut down for Covid and never re-opened, giving me the opportunity to use my new free time to learn to code to better myself and my career.”

SheCodes was the first coding course that Amanda took. She loved the format of the course, the live tech support on Slack, and the graded assignments, along with the sense of feeling accomplished after completing each coding exercise. 💪 💻

“I loved the format of the course, that help was always available in Slack, and that assignments were not peer-graded like in some other courses. My favorite part was the feeling of accomplishment after completing an assignment.”

After SheCodes, Amanda took a few more coding courses to gain even more coding experience. She says that in comparison to these courses, SheCodes is more engaging and easier to follow. 😄

“I didn't try any courses before SheCodes, but after SheCodes I took a couple of courses from different sources like Coursera and Udemy. Matt's enthusiasm and constant encouragement made SheCodes the most engaging and easy to follow out of all of these. I also loved that I was able to get help at any time on Slack.”

Amanda really enjoyed the community and says she’s thankful that she was able to start learning how to code with SheCodes! 😍 Students like Amanda help make our community great!

“The community was great, everyone was incredibly kind.”

“My overall view is incredibly positive, I have nothing but good things to say and am thankful I was able to start my coding journey with SheCodes.”

SheCodes helped Amanda gain some career confidence and realize that coding was something she wanted to do as her career. After finishing SheCodes, she started doing some freelance front-end web development work and built some pretty amazing projects! 🙌

“The knowledge I gained in SheCodes gave me the confidence to start building my own applications right away and the ability to research my coding questions. I began freelancing and created some incredible projects I never would have thought were possible prior to your workshops, like a chatbot for a Twitch live streamer.”

After gaining some experience freelancing, Amanda landed an internship as a full-stack software developer working for an engineering company. She was then hired to stay on as a permanent member of their team. She is now working as an Associate Software Developer at Cardinal Engineering LLC. She says that she absolutely loves her job and her team. 😊

“I was previously working a Customer Service/Sales job in E-commerce and am now an Associate Software Developer. I found this job through LinkedIn and utilize everything I learned from SheCodes (especially React) on a daily basis.”

She spends her days joining team meetings, reviewing code, researching and designing new components, and implementing new components into their existing applications. 🖥 Her job as an Associate Software Developer comes with many benefits that she didn’t have in her previous role as a Customer Service Representative.

“I absolutely love my current job, I end every day feeling proud of the work I've done and appreciative of all I've learned from my supervisors and coworkers. I have a career now as opposed to just having a job. I also now work remotely with flexible hours. Thank you SheCodes for offering such an amazing program and giving me the start to my development career and love for coding.”

In her coding future, Amanda would like to take on more coding projects and keep learning as much as she can. 👩‍💻 We feel confident she'll accomplish all of her coding goals! 

Amanda’s advice is simply to sign up! Because SheCodes can lead to an improved skill set, more confidence, and a foundation to continue learning.  💪 💻