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Julia Dufresne
Julia Dufresne

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From Cosmetics to Coding

Hello World!

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My name’s Julia, but I like to be called Jules!

I am a current student at Juno College in the Web Development Immersive Bootcamp.

Want to know how I got here? Let’s rewind a bit 👇

Back in 2012, I got my first job in cosmetics. I was a makeup artist at a beauty counter, and I absolutely loved it. What drove me, was knowing that I got to help people feel confident and teach them to practice a little bit of self care.

Eventually, I had to choose what to study in College. The only familiar thing to me at that point, was the cosmetic industry. I decided I wanted to expand my knowledge and my current skill set, and pursued a diploma in Esthetics.

Julia standing in front of an F18 Aircraft in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Jules in front of an F18 Aircraft in Moose Jaw, Sasksatchewan

After completing one year of post-secondary education, I decided to take some time off and move to Saskatchewan with my partner. What an amazing experience that was - I got the chance to do something completely different, and work as ground-crew on a Royal Canadian Air Force base, and in the Military Family Resource Centre. These opportunities took me right out of my comfort zone, and showed me that there is so much out there in the world to experience, and sometimes it isn’t best to always “go with what you know”.

Eventually, we came back to Toronto and I decided to finish my diploma in Esthetics, as I only had one year left. I knew I had a blossoming curiosity for what else was out there, but I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what I wanted to do differently.

Fast forward - I got my first position as an Esthetician in a spa. I connected some more dots, and decided that I wanted to pursue a position in Management. I was intrigued about much went into running a successful business, and I wanted to do what I could to help the team and the spa flourish. This lead me to an opportunity to work for a B2B company that focused on importing and distributing cosmetics. I couldn’t turn it down as it fed my curiosity to continuously learn about all aspects of the industry. My primary role was purely administrative - a little bit of this and a little bit of that. However, I was quickly given the opportunity to take over a marketing role and become the Content Designer and Developer. I spent my all my free time teaching myself how to create successful email, digital and printable marketing materials. As a team, we started looking into updating our website and adding an e-commerce section. I was tasked with researching our options through third party agencies and creating/collecting inspiration for our new design. This - is where my life changed.

Everyone can code, banner

Everyone can code!

I went down a rabbit hole of researching how websites are built, e-commerce, design and email marketing - the whole bit of it. I have never been so excited about a project - I really wanted to understand what went into making these applications.

I decided to take some free online courses, starting with FreeCodeCamp. I read HTML & CSS: Design and Build Web Sites and JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development by John Duckett. I subscribed to Developers and Designers on YouTube, bookmarked Medium and Dev.To to learn about in demand technologies and a11y, and joined Twitter to connect with other developers in the community.

It has been about a year since I started coding, and I feel like I finally found my community, and the type of work that I am passionate about. I am so thankful for my career journey before tech, because without it, I don't think I would have been exposed to coding. Funny how things always work out how they're supposed to, hey?

At last, we come full circle. After tons of research (you wouldn’t believe how much research), about the best way I could go about becoming a full-fledged Developer, I found Juno College (at the time, HackerYou). I've been sold from the minute I walked through those doors, that this was the right move. Juno College provides the education, community, and support that guides their students on the right path.

Now we are here, Week 1 of Bootcamp is complete and I am lost for words as to how amazing this journey has been so far. I have already learned so much, and I can't wait to continuously build skills and relationships in this new-to-me industry. I am a Developer now - I can say I'm proud of myself, right? 👏

Here’s to 2020, the year of taking chances!

Top comments (16)

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joshuawoodsdev profile image
JoshuaWoods

OMG lets chat!! I'm also from the cosmetic world. I say take what you know and apply it dont' try to become a dev culture wise I think it's best to let what we know change into something new. You have alot to add to the culture. I find that I am leaning more towards creative parts of coding like game design and such.

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julesdufresne profile image
Julia Dufresne

I love that! Definitely love design aspects of development - I am pretty sold on Front-End / UX/UI!

Have you been a developer for long? What has your journey been like?

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joshuawoodsdev profile image
JoshuaWoods • Edited

I started learning Figma and html/css and Beauter.css. I used sololearn to get learn RUBY did not have a clue hoe to use it. Things cam together when I started learning with Treehouse. Now I'm learning Lua and blender. INK language is good to learn also. here are some of my site.

Joshuawoodsdev.glitch
Theolfactive.com (squarespace Im remaking this with Middleman, learning that now. But I say watch youtube you can learn anything you want.

nodedataedu.glitch.me/

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israel_adeyinka profile image
Dah_Mola

Reading your comment left me surprised because i am wondering how you learnt all this. I am having a hard time between picking frontend and Android developing. So many things to learn at the same time.
Please advise me.

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joshuawoodsdev profile image
JoshuaWoods

Hmm I"ll post in order.

SOLOLEARN(ruby), YOUTUBE, GLITCH, FIGMA, GITHUB

ATOM IDE
ZORIN linux,
(courses.edx.org/courses/coursev1:L...) free course
designcode.io/design-system-in-figma
TREEHOUSE
beakerbrowser.com/(p2p)
100r.co/site/home.html
itch.io/
MIDDLEMAN(Giraffacdemny on youtube)learn ERB ruby
zeit.co/
inklestudios.com/ink/ (ink lang then take this to go back and learn with ruby)
I leaning to learning to to make games so LUA!! it like ruby
lua.org/ + love2d.org/wiki/Main_Page

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joshuawoodsdev profile image
JoshuaWoods

DONT pick just find something you like and learn it. I do a little everyday well alot it's been about 1 year or so. YOu sort of ahave to unnerd yourself and look at things from the view or background you come from I HATE python. So I picked ruby it fits with how i think.

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katnel20 profile image
Katie Nelson

Hey Jules, good luck in bootcamp. Sounds like you found your calling. I'm so happy for you!

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julesdufresne profile image
Julia Dufresne

Thanks so much!
I definitely feel so connected to coding - I just wish I found it sooner!

Are you currently a dev? What has your journey been like!

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katnel20 profile image
Katie Nelson

I'm a student who's been coding on my own for a couple of years, I started on front-end with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Now, I've moved to the back-end with C# ASP.NET Core and SQL where I'm working on a student-run web site here at school.

I'm not sure yet what I'll major in when I go to college. I've still got time to decide.

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jayhinds profile image
Jay Hinds

Hi friend :)

Loved reading your story Jules! Really admire your courage to jump into something completely new. That's a common theme I saw in your story, you're not afraid to take on new challenges and no matter the challenge you're able to be successful at it. I can truly say this new endeavour will be no different :)

Can't wait to read more from you!

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puhantnf profile image
Puhantnf • Edited

Good job! I wish you success in developing this cosmetics page, and I am sure it will be successful. Now more and more women choose to shop online and especially find out about various cosmetic products or procedures or even cosmetic surgeries. I took a look at your work, and I can certainly sound user-friendly because it was easy for me to find all the products I was looking for. I would like to find on-the-site products for ipl skin rejuvenation procedures.

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aritdeveloper profile image
Arit Developer

Congratulations on your journey so far! I'm eager to see what you accomplish, and to continue learning from your experience. I hope you'll keep blogging 😄

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julesdufresne profile image
Julia Dufresne

Hi Arit!

Thanks so much for the comment - I definitely plan on posting throughout my whole journey, I turned to so many blogs to get where I am now, so I hope to help someone else out the same! Stay tuned!