042: Career Switching

Published: April 15, 2020, 9 a.m.

Parent Driven Development Episode 042: Career Switching and Learning to Code After Babies. Welcome, Bekah (https://twitter.com/BekahHW)! A content-creator by nature. Bekah is working on websites, coding-related projects, and her blog, but she has also written three screenplays, three pilots, and is finishing up a memoir. Bekah is all about getting creative! A mom to four young kids (3-10), Bekah has spent the last ten years of her life adjuncting in various university English departments. She is practically doing a 180 learning to code, and is sharing her failures, successes, and everything that falls in between. Bekah graduated from Flatiron School Software Engineering program, in May 2019. She been working at Sprokets as a frontend dev since July 1, 2019. 01:15 Bekah’s journey in career switching Trauma after 4th kid Husband encouraged her to code, and it helped with her PTSD She realized her passion and continued to tackled the challenges Bekah was a teacher prior to coding 02:40 Coding became therapeutic Learning a new skill requires intense focus, gave Bekah excitement and a break from past trauma, because coding required her FULL focus Constant learning with code Flow state when you sync into your work Code provides structure to balance a chaotic life with children Out of Africa & Into the Cloud: Girls can Code too (https://amzn.to/2X6zLfD) : coding inspiration 06:28 How to get through the lows of learning to code? Imposter syndrome Setting goals week-by-week, month-by-month, quarter-by-quarter Embracing the learning curve 11:23 How to manage coding and kids? Community and mentorship Momscan.co (https://www.momscan.co/), online co-working, sharing experiences Embracing natural flow, Bekah codes in the morning, because she’s a morning person 16:08 Conquering difficult births and moving past trauma Finding a mentor with similar experiences 17:51 Bringing coding methods into the house routine Sunday ritual for planning for the week ahead Bekah’s partner codes as well, built in mentor, and key communication 23:10 Experience in women in tech community highlights Being open and willing for meetups! Alex Tate - aligned interested to support moms in tech Moms need more support, especially with younger kids Childcare at meetups 29:20 Any surprises of the moms in tech community? The true vulnerability moms offer in support groups 31:47 Genius // fail Adarsh hired a babysitter for the morning after his wife's birthday bash! #genius Allison empowers her son's creativity and gives him all the extra boxes and he makes rocketships and more! #genius Mandy bonds with her daughter watching a classic favorite, Full House #genius Bekah’s daughter wants to go to Harry Potter land, and is reading all the Harry Potter books (https://amzn.to/2X7e6UF) to prove it! #genius ...but maybe #fail when Bekah’s daughter decides to cash in on a promise JC’s bird watching community is growing and growing! But his family lacks consistency to join… #fail Follow & Support Please follow us @parentdrivendev (https://twitter.com/parentdrivendev) on Twitter or email us at panel@parentdrivendevelopment.com (mailto:panel@parentdrivendevelopment.com). Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com (https://parentdrivendevelopment.com). Support us via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/parentdrivendev) and get access to our our Slack Community. *As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Panel Allison McMillan (https://twitter.com/allie_p) Adarsh Pandit (https://twitter.com/adarshp) JC Avena (https://twitter.com/jcavena) Mandy Moore (https://twitter.com/therubyrep) Special Guest: Bekah Hawrot Weigel.