Carmen

Say hi to Carmen 🇻🇪! Originally from Venezuela and now living in Lisbon 🇵🇹, Carmen is passionate about strength training and cooking! 🏋️‍♀️ She loves fueling her body and mind to feel good, and finds joy in baking up delicious treats.

Before SheCodes, Carmen worked as a Team Leader in a content moderation project, where she guided and mentored her team while managing their performance. She also served as the communication bridge between her team and the leadership of the company. Despite enjoying her role, Carmen always had a passion for websites and technology.

“The SheCodes workflows caught my attention because they were very well structured, self-paced but there was still an instructor checking out your projects, and you had access to a support community.”

With some extra free time on her hands, she decided to invest in her education and explore the tech field that had always intrigued her. When she stumbled upon SheCodes, she was drawn to the structured, self-paced workshops and the supportive community at SheCodes. So, she decided to give coding a try and signed up for our workshops! 👩‍💻

Carmen's experience with SheCodes Workshops was fun and inspiring. 🚀 One of the best parts for her was seeing the creative projects from other women who were learning to code, just like her. It was exciting to be part of such a talented and motivated group! She also enjoyed working on her own projects and having fun along the way.

“I got to see all kinds of creative projects from other women learning to code like myself! And I had a lot of fun on my own too.”

A memorable moment from Carmen’s time at SheCodes was when she worked on her very first project, inspired by her favorite video game. 🎮 She spent hours trying to place an image as the background of a simple HTML page. Figuring out how to handle CSS utilities for images, especially with responsive design, was a big challenge. The image looked wrong on different screen sizes, but instead of giving up, Carmen pushed through. This experience helped her learn a lot about working with images early on, and even though it was tough, it turned out to be a fun learning process! 💻

After SheCodes, Carmen got a new role as a Website Quality Assurance Specialist at Nestlé! In her role, she ensured that the content and features delivered to clients met the highest standards. This involved a lot of testing, documenting bugs, and raising issues to the developers. She also playd a key role in explaining the impact of these bugs to various stakeholders in the project.

“As a Quality Assurance Specialist, I was always checking that things look good and function well in the website. The knowledge I gained from SheCodes allows me to identify the elements that may be causing a bug and I have even helped the Webmasters occasionally to fix them.”

Carmen recently got promoted, and is now working in a leadership position at Nestlé! As a Website Lead Specialist, she is now responsible for the overall operational excellence of the Website Services team across projects. She manages team members and workstreams to bring value to the business by ensuring project timeliness and high-quality standards.

SheCodes has played a crucial part in Carmen’s day-to-day tasks. Her coding knowledge helps her identify the elements causing bugs, and she’s even been able to assist her team with fixing some of them. When more complex bugs require a Front End Developer’s expertise, Carmen’s understanding of the development process allows her to bridge the gap between the developers and the non-technical team members, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

“Even when there is a complicated bug that needs a Front End Developer to fix it, I can understand their struggles to explain it to the stakeholders in my team, people that don't have as much technical knowledge.”

We're so proud of her journey! 👏✨

Carmen’s advice for future SheCodes students is very powerful: don't underestimate the power of networking. Even if you’re just starting out, talking to people and learning from their knowledge can be incredibly helpful. By connecting with others, you open yourself up to new opportunities that might not have been possible otherwise. 🌟

“It's super helpful to talk to people and benefit from the knowledge they have. More opportunities will arise this way.”

So, make sure to reach out, ask questions, and build relationships—your network can be a valuable resource on your coding journey!

🎉 Carmen’s SheCodes Responsive Testimonial:
“SheCodes is a very well-structured workshop to learn how to code, it's very beginner-friendly, the videos are well explained and there is always help available if you get stuck. The responsive course teaches you a lot of useful techniques to build websites that look good no matter the device (desktop, mobile...) I definitely recommend it.”

🎉 Carmen’s SheCodes Plus Testimonial:
“SheCodes Plus is a really exciting way to further your knowledge on Front-End Development, it has a well-structured learning path, the instructor is a great teacher who motivates you to learn more and more, the lessons are well explained and the exercises are challenging but at the same time, this makes completing this course a satisfactory experience. And, if you get stuck there is always support available. I definitely recommend taking this course!”

🎉  Carmen’s Basics Testimonial:
“SheCodes is a great introduction to coding, perfect for someone with a complicated schedule like I have, I was able to repeat the lessons as many times as I wanted to, check the code examples, and do it in my spare time, at any time. Classes are well structured and beginner-friendly. I learned a lot, Matt is a great instructor and he made me more interested in learning more! Can't wait to take the next step in programming!”