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Welcome to another episode of Develomentor. Today's guest is Jennifer Creighton.\xa0

Jenn Creighton is a frontend architect and conference speaker. She lives in New York with her two cats and maintains a Home for Abandoned Succulents, Mismanaged Plants and Otherwise Ailing Flora. You can find her online @gurlcode.

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Episode Summary

\u201cDoing a major in English is very technically heavy, and so I think a lot of that transfers into engineering. You pay attention to composition a lot. You are working in specific languages, and so you\u2019re getting used to what they look like, how they\u2019re composed and what are the best practices with them.\u201d

\u2014Jennifer Creighton

In this episode we\u2019ll cover:

1. Why Jenn chose not to get a formal degree in software engineering
2. How is it that so many English majors become front end engineers?
3. The differences between junior engineers, senior engineers, and software architects?

Key Milestones

[1:52] \u2013 Jennifer got a degree in English. She fell into the role of a content manager for several companies including The National Academy of Sciences. To manage websites, Jenn had to relearn HTML and CSS. This led her to become more and more technical.
[3:45] \u2013 Jenn built a website when she was 14 years old and learned HTML and CSS.
[6:20] \u2013 How did Jenn accidentally use Javascript when she was 14 and didn\u2019t know it?
[8:20] \u2013 Jenn describes lucking into her first technical role at Ralph Lauren. For a while, she was convinced she needed a formal degree in computer science but then chose the self-taught route.
[13:40]- As she decided to leave Ralph Lauren, Jenn spent her nights and weekends preparing for legitimate technical interview. She had a few subpar interviews that served as early learning experiences.
[16:05] \u2013 Jenn recalls finding her first mentor at Lover.ly, a startup she worked at.
[20:02] \u2013 The differences between junior engineers, senior engineers, and software architects. How did Jenn\u2019s expertise with React get her promoted quickly at ClassPass?
[24:20] \u2013 Why do so many English majors get into front end software engineering?
[28:20] \u2013 Jenn\u2019s first speaking engagement was at the conference, Women Who Code 2018. But it was attending Write, Speak, Code that really put her in that position. In 2018, Jenn spoke at 10 conferences!\xa0
[31:10] \u2013 How has speaking at conferences taken Jenn\u2019s confidence and career to a whole new level? Why does Jenn monitor her pulse?

To learn more about Write Speak Code Conference, click here

You can find more resources in the show notes
To learn more about our podcast go to https://develomentor.com/
To listen to previous episodes go to https://develomentor.com/blog/

Follow Jennifer Creighton
Twitter: @gurlcode
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jennifercreighton/

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