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How SheCodes helped Victoria become a Software Engineer at Philips!
🙍♀️ Before SheCodes
Meet Victoria 🇮🇹! An Italian living in the Netherlands, passionate about different things. In her downtime, she's often found practicing dynamic sports like spinning and tennis or exploring her artistic side through painting, pottery, and digital art 🎨.
Before embarking on her coding adventure, Victoria spent over three years in the medical device industry as a product specialist. Working in global corporate companies, her work focused on collecting and analyzing clinical evidence for medical products, to ensure their safety and performance.
“I've always been passionate about learning languages and thought that learning a programming language was a good alternative. While exploring the language options, I realized that front-end development was a great way to channel also my creativity. It is another type of canvas, where you use code instead of paint.”
With a love for languages, she saw programming as a novel and creative linguistic challenge. This interest in coding, especially in front-end development, emerged as an opportunity to blend her technical curiosity with her creativity 👩🎨. It was this unique combination that guided her to the SheCodes workshops, marking the beginning of a new chapter in her life.
👩💻 Her SheCodes Experience
Victoria's journey with SheCodes was really exciting! The user interface (UI) of the SheCodes platform stood out to her, making her learning experience not just educational but also enjoyable. She found the platform's design intuitive and engaging, which helped her stay focused and absorb the material more effectively 👩💻.
A key highlight of Victoria's experience was the vibrant SheCodes community on Slack. This supportive environment was crucial in keeping her motivated and connected. The availability of community support meant that she always had a helping hand or a word of encouragement when needed, ensuring she never felt alone in her learning journey.
“It was very encouraging, pleasant and exciting. I really enjoyed the UI of the platform, the availability of the Slack community and support, and the possibility to create your own projects.”
Perhaps most thrilling for Victoria was the opportunity to create her own projects. This hands-on approach allowed her to apply what she learned in real-time, transforming theoretical knowledge into practical skills 🙌. Crafting her projects not only bolstered her understanding of coding but also fueled her creative side, aligning perfectly with her love for creativity and design.
🙋 How SheCodes has Helped to Change Her Life
Victoria's life changed a lot with SheCodes. After she finished her studies in Biomedical Engineering in 2019, she started working but soon felt unhappy. She always knew she wanted a job where she could be more creative and engineering wasn’t it. When she learned about web development, she realized this was what she was looking for – a job that was both technical and creative 💻.
SheCodes was the start of this new path for her. SheCodes Workshops not only introduced her to the coding world but also marked the beginning of a significant career change.
“Since I started working in 2019 after graduating from Biomedical Engineering, I soon realized I wasn't happy with my job. I started to regret my choice of studying engineering, as I always knew that I wanted to work in a creative sector. After starting to learn about web development, I realized I could have the best of both worlds (technical and creative). SheCodes was my entrance to this world and the beginning of my career change.”
Today, Victoria's life has taken a remarkable turn. 🚀 She is currently a Software Engineer at Philips, a leading medical device company, working within a Doctorate of Engineering (EngD) program. In her role, Victoria is actively involved in developing software for cancer screening. She not only improves the software's front-end but also researches UX aspects, combining her technical skills with her creativity ✨.
Victoria's story shows how much you can change your life if you follow what you love. Thanks to SheCodes, she found a way to mix her love for creativity and technical skills.
We are so proud of you Victoria! 🌟
👩💼 Advice to Future SheCodes Student
Victoria has some great advice for those starting their journey with SheCodes. Her main message is: don't give up! 💪 She knows that learning to code can sometimes feel hard, and you might think you'll never understand it. Victoria wants you to remember that it's normal to feel this way. Coding is something that takes time to learn, so it's important to be patient with yourself.
She shares from her own experience that some things can be learned quickly, but coding is different. It's okay if it takes a while to get it. Victoria's advice is to keep trying and not to lose hope. 👩💻 Even when it's tough, remember that with time and effort, you'll get better at it 🌟.
“Some things can come very fast to me, so my frustration with coding would also build quickly. But it is one of those things that needs time to master, so be patient with yourself. It's worth it, you can do it!”
🎉 Victoria’s SheCodes Basics Testimonial:
“What a great way to spend my free time in a productive and creative way. It's pleasant to do even after the workday, which says it all. I highly recommend SheCodes, big thanks to Matt and the rest of the team!”
🎉 Victoria’s SheCodes Plus Testimonial:
“It took me waaay longer than planned to complete this course, but I gave it my best between my full-time job and personal commitments and hobbies. Despite having extended this journey, the feeling of completion is still highly rewarding. The course is made in a way you can really express your creativity in coding as well as in the app design, which was very nice to experiment with. Moving forward to SheCodes Responsive!”
🎉 Victoria’s SheCodes Responsive Testimonial:
“Another SheCodes workshop completed! It was a fun one to search for and try out some web designs, color palettes, and features. So it is a bit less about JavaScript and more about the building blocks of a website and looking through your own work to share in the portfolio project. Ready for the next challenge!”
🎉 Victoria’s SheCodes React Testimonial:
“Great way to wrap up the SheCodes PRO package. I love that you can just work on the same project you developed previously if you want to, as it helps making the connections between using vanilla JS versus a framework. I highly recommend taking this workshop, as it is easy to follow and you can get support on Slack, which comes in very handy. Thank you SheCodes for the great ride, I managed to find a front-end developer job thanks to this!”
