First Professional Software Engineering Gig

After graduating from Flatiron school Bootcamp, I felt like I was behind most of my cohort mates in terms of finding a job. They all seemed to be getting interviews for jobs while I was still going through most of my setup for the job search. One of them and even landed a job! I knew I needed to step it up but my current work schedule limited me significantly to the amount of time I could devote to my new job search.

Luckily, someone on the alumni slack for Flatiron put out a volunteering opportunity. I quickly jumped on this and was super excited to add this to my résumé, but then some worries set in and my imposter syndrome began acting up. Of course, being my first step into a new field, I began thinking of all the things that could go wrong:

• Would I be able to devote enough time?
• Did I just sign up for something that I’m dreadfully under-qualified?
• I don’t want to let anyone down.

A week after committing to this project, I finally got the chance to meet my team. Everyone was very optimistic but seemed to be in the same boat as me. Then we got down into the nitty-gritty and things for all of us seemed to open up. We began talking about what deliverables would be required for this project, and all of them seemed very simple.

• A custom mail sign-up button with checkboxes to pick one or multiple mailing lists
• A custom donation form where the user can input the desired donation amount or pick from predetermined amounts
• The user would also be able to select if this donation would be recurring or only a one-time donation
• Populating all received donations into an external API

A year ago when I first started learning to code; no, even 6 months ago, what we need to deliver to this company would have seemed impossible. This was a huge morale booster for me. I thought to myself, “Maybe I do know what I’m talking about!”

The next day we all met with our client and got the chance to clear up any questions we had and ensure we were all on the same page. After speaking with the person who would ultimately accept our work, I am raring to go.

With that being said, it seems that all of the volunteers have very different schedules. Since the Kick-off meeting, I haven’t had the chance to speak with any of my coworkers and get their thoughts. I hope that the communication is able to pick up moving forward.

As this project progresses I will be posting more blogs to keep any who are interested up to date. Wish me luck!