Developing in Paris
So I was amazed when this friend of mine, Tatiana, told me what she was doing. Graduated in Literature and my trainer in Portuguese as a Foreign Language, she was now learning Web Development. The jump seemed so high and so long that my reaction could only be the following:
I want to do that, too.
Immediately, she transferred me some self-learning links and a web page called Paris Code, listing all the web development schools in the city. I had a try in some online courses and surprisingly found myself coding for the first time. And it was such a pleasure! It’s something as rewarding as writing: so much effort, but so much satisfaction when you manage to write a clean and neat sentence (or a clean and neat code).
Soon I started looking for some Web Dev courses in Paris. Two of them were for free, so they were the ones I applied for. The first course, Konexio, aimed at refugees as preferential students. I’m not a refugee, but I’m an immigrant, and I thought that it could at least give me some points in the competition. But the application to Konexio was more complicated than that.
The first step of the application consisted of cloning a layout and developing a JavaScript program. It means that we would be allowed to learn Web Development if we knew it already. I did my best, but I failed in the second step of the application, the (presential) technical test. Nevertheless, it was worth the experience of going for the first time to Station 7, one of these big start-up hangers in Paris.
So I applied to the second course, Social Builder. This program favorises +45 years-old peripheric women. Again, it’s not exactly my case, but I’m a woman and I want to code. After some tests of logic, I passed a quick interview with the association’s organizers. I tried my best to show my motivation, listing all the online courses I have done in the last three weeks. What happened? We still don’t know. We are waiting for their answer to my application.
My first experience at Konexio application taught me that, differently from my current professional field, showing motivation is not enough. Logic and technical habilities count a lot, even for the ones who are willing to pay for the training. You cannot fake having a logical mind. Can you?
While I’m waiting, I’m self-learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If you speak French, OpenClassrooms is a good way to start learning to code. I’m also about to join freeCodeCamp.
It was not the first time that I found myself navigating through the Medium pages. But this time, despite still writing in poor English, I decided to join you, writers and readers. I’ll keep you updated about the ups and downs of my new path: in some days we will know whether it will be entirely autodidact or it will take place at a women-only course. Anyways, it’s a high and long jump, the one I was willing to make.
Post-Scriptum
I’ve been accepted by Social Builder, the women-only web development course. I’ll keep you updated!
