From the beginning.

Like many people, I've contemplated making a career change a couple times. Well, multiple times. I actually did make a career change once before when I decided that I'd had enough of the long, inconsistent hours working in hotels and was tired of the redundancy in my job. I knew I needed a change.

But what would I do? What could I do?

I contemplated a number of things, including coding. I had dabbled with HTML and CSS before when xanga was a big thing (does anyone even remember xanga?). But that was many, many years ago and I just didn't believe I had the brains or the skills to pursue it.

So I thought — well, I like training and developing people. The hotels I worked at had high turnover and I usually taught new hires the ropes. So I decided to pursue a degree in Human Resource Management, and I got a pretty good job coming out of it. I got my foot in the door as an admin and made my way up to specialist and then senior specialist over the course of 3 years. I had a pretty good trajectory ahead of me, and an even greater support system at my company.

But the thing is, I still wasn't sure if it was the right path for me. I realized I just didn't like discussing people and company talent all the time. It was draining for me, and I found myself wondering, what about me?

That brought me back to my dilemma... What the heck should I do with my life?

Making the jump.

Over the years, I shared my dilemma with my husband. Being in cyber security, he brought up hacking or coding from time to time. I mostly just brushed him off, but then I had the opportunity to work on some projects with websites in my job. I didn't necessarily code anything other than some light HTML and CSS, however it was enough to spark my interest again, and at some point I realized that I had more fun working on these projects than my actual job.

I went back and forth for months, telling myself, "Yes! You should totally do this! You just need to make the leap."

And then other times going back to "but... who am I kidding? I don't know the first thing about coding, and I can't just leave my job for something unknown."

It was a struggle against me and myself. I felt that coding was hovering over me like a cloud. I could see it, but I couldn't really reach it.

Luckily, my husband was persistent in his support and encouraged me that it was never too late to pursue anything. So, with a deep breath and a renewed sense of passion, I finally mustered up the guts to leave my job and enrolled in a coding bootcamp.

So now what?

Well, I came out of the bootcamp in one piece! I can't say I have a fabulous new job in coding yet, but it was a great experience and I learned much more within the 12-weeks than I could've tackled on my own.

I admit that since then, I've gone through my share of ups and downs. It's been a few months of job-searching with no light at the end of the tunnel, but I always knew that it would be challenging to break into a new field. There are many times when I read job descriptions - even for junior developer roles - and I feel I'm not qualified enough.

But everyone has to start somewhere, right? And all I can do is continue to build on the new skills that I've learned.

With that said, I'll be reviewing what I've already learned in addition to learning the basics of computer science. And to keep myself accountable, I'll post summaries of what I've reviewed/learned along the way.

If anyone else is at the beginning of their coding journey and needs an accountability buddy, feel free to reach out and connect!