Sara

Meet Sara 🇸🇮! Originally from Slovenia, Sara is a woman of many interests who loves finding new hobbies. From trying sports like karate and horseback riding to learning guitar and multiple languages — including Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Japanese — Sara has a passion for creativity and learning. She has also been drawing and painting since childhood, enjoys writing her own stories, and loves reading books. Recently, she discovered a surprising new passion: coding! Although she never thought she’d be interested in it, she fell in love with the endless possibilities coding offers. ✨

Before SheCodes, Sara was still in school, unsure of what career path to pursue. She moved between schools and worked various jobs, including shop assistant, receptionist, horse caretaker, and on a production line — none of which had any connection to coding. The IT industry seemed intimidating, especially since her secondary school never presented it as achievable. Math courses had discouraged her from considering coding as a possibility.

Sara’s interest in coding was sparked during a school project when she realized a product needed a website. Curious, she tried coding for the first time and built a very simple website. Despite its imperfections, Sara loved the creativity and sense of accomplishment coding gave her. However, not knowing where to start or how to move forward, she felt overwhelmed and put coding aside — until she discovered SheCodes.

“I fell in love with all the possibilities I saw were possible and that feeling of success when I managed to do something just the way I wanted it to be. I loved it, but I didn't continue with coding because I was intimidated by the scale of it all.”

One day, while watching YouTube, Sara saw an ad for SheCodes and immediately remembered the joy she felt when creating that school project website. Intrigued, she clicked on the ad and spent a day reading about the workshops. She loved what she saw and, after thinking it over, decided to commit. The very next day, she signed up for all three workshops offered at the time — and her coding journey began! 🚀

Sara’s experience with SheCodes was exactly what she needed to start her coding journey. The workshops explained the basics in a way that was clear and easy to follow. She learned how to think like a developer, how to search for solutions, handle errors, and use the tools needed to build her own web applications. These skills have been very useful to her and are something she still uses every day at work.

“SheCodes showed me where to start, laid down all the basics for me in an understandable way, taught me how to start thinking like a developer, where and how to search for any information I didn't know from the top of my head (something I still use daily at work).”

A moment that stood out to Sara was working on her React Weather App. She was usually quick to complete tasks, but this time, she got stuck on one small detail. She spent days trying to figure out what was wrong but couldn’t solve it on her own. Finally, she asked for help in the SheCodes Slack community. The supportive members quickly stepped in, helped her find the issue, and explained the solution. Everything made sense after that, and she even understood the rest of the project better because it was a key React lifecycle issue. This experience gave her a deeper understanding of the language and boosted her confidence. 💻

"I just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Then I wrote in the SheCodes Slack group asking for help, and the amazing community you built jumped to help me out immediately.”

After completing the three SheCodes workshops, Sara’s hard work paid off when she landed a role as a Front-End Developer at Dotcom d.o.o.! Sara had a summer job lined up as a receptionist, but instead, she kept building on the solid foundation SheCodes gave her and stepped into the tech industry. In her new position, Sara applies many of the skills she learned during SheCodes workshops. While her current work involves Angular instead of React, the knowledge she gained with SheCodes made it much easier for her to learn and adapt to this new framework. 

”I kept learning, and eventually, I landed a Front End Developer role, which entails exactly what I learned from SheCodes. Except instead of React, I'm mostly using Angular now, but SheCodes definitely gave me a strong foundation so I could learn it easier after I got hired.”

Sara credits SheCodes for giving her the foundation she needed to start her career in tech. Without it, she wouldn’t have had the basics or the confidence to step into this role. Now, she’s working in a field she enjoys and using the skills she developed every day. 🚀

Sara’s advice for future SheCodes students is simple but important: don’t be afraid to ask questions! Even if you think it’s a silly question or something you think you should already know, ask it anyway. Everyone starts somewhere, and every developer has to learn the basics at some point. So, don’t be afraid to ask for answers and keep learning! 💡

“Never be afraid to ask questions, even if you think it's a stupid one and that you should already know it. No question is stupid and everyone had to learn it at some point, so don't be shy; demand answers!”

Sara also shared how SheCodes connected her with a global developer community. By creating a LinkedIn profile and sharing her coding journey, Sara built valuable connections with other developers. One of these connections led to a sponsorship for a product management program, where she gained hands-on experience working on real-life projects. This opportunity opened even more doors and helped her grow in her career. 💪

Lastly, Sara fondly remembers collaborating with other SheCoders after completing the workshops. They supported each other by sharing knowledge and working on small projects together. Sara knows that SheCoders around the world are always ready to help each other when they can. 🌍✨

“I have connected with a few of SheCoders after we were done with the workshops, and we talked a lot about our experiences and helped each other further our coding knowledge with some minor projects.”

🎉 Sara’s SheCodes Basics Testimonial:

“It was great fun completing SheCodes workshop. Matt is a great instructor that explains everything in a concise and understandable way and the support on Slack is quick and efficient if you ever get stuck. Would highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in codding, because it's a good foundation to understand what's going on. I can't wait to continue with the SheCodes Plus!”

🎉 Sara’s SheCodes Plus Testimonial:

“It's amazing how much knowledge and new skills I acquired during this course. It truly did open endless coding possibilities in my mind and I'm already rearing to learn even more with SheCodes React and later continue to explore the coding world and create new projects I can be proud of. Would highly recommend it to anyone wishing to learn how to code. The SheCodes team is amazing and always willing to help if and when you eventually get stuck with your code. Thanks everyone for your help ❤”

🎉  Sara’s SheCodes React Testimonial:

“I really enjoyed learning React with SheCodes. Everything was explained in detail and Matt was a great instructor as always. I think this is a great way to learn the basics of this framework and all the really hard stuff about setting it up and how it differs from Vanilla JS. I would definitely recommend it to anyone wishing to learn React, but finding it too intimidating to do so on their own. Thanks SheCodes team!”