I’m officially a software engineer! No really, I have a certificate and everything. And a sweet red graduation robe–er, hoodie.

I graduated!

(Also, let’s not forget that I have a pretty awesome first project under my belt, too. Have I pointed you to it yet? No? Here’s the code.)

On Closing One Chapter

My Hackbright fellowship term ended last week, and I’m pretty sure the song from the end credits of Wreck it Ralph is the best way to describe how I feel. I’ve made so many amazing friends in the last three months that it’s hard to comprehend that I’m not going to see all of them every day anymore!

Seriously, this group of incredibly smart, driven, talented, generally wonderful women became like a family to me. We have this insane shared experience of soaking up as much knowledge about software engineering as we could over the course of 12 weeks, and for me at least, I can’t imagine a better group to have gone through it with. Each person in my cohort inspired me in some way to strive to become a better engineer. Seeing their projects at the end of the course blew me away in terms of tech and creativity, and I’m still so proud just thinking of everything they accomplished.

Fellow Adas, you taught me so much; thank you. We did the thing. It was hard, but we made it to the end, and our new journies are only just beginning. I can’t wait to see what you do next, because I know it’ll be epic.

Thoughts on Career Weeks

Since I’ve touched on several bits of the Hackbright curriculum in some way over the last few months, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say something about weeks 11 and 12 in my last “in progress” reflection post. Now that I’ve got the sentimental bit written, here are some of my impressions on those less programming-heavy pieces.

The last couple weeks of each fellowship are focused on career development. That means lots of whiteboarding practice (both with Hackbright staff and at partner company offices), interview practice, and interesting speakers.

I was only able to whiteboard with the ed staff, but they were all very encouraging, and just being exposed to possible interview questions was helpful. We also had a chance to work through some more complex “coding challenge” type puzzles (the kind you might receive as a take-home challenge), which I found fascinating.

The talks I saw were helpful to varying extents. A few stick out in particular in my memory:

  • Seema Ullal’s Git presentation. I wish I’d seen this before doing my first hackathon, but at the same time, I don’t think I would have appreciated Seema’s awesome tips and explanations as much without experiencing the struggle of Git collaboration firsthand. I definitely want to try out her setup suggestions and play with hooks.
  • Sharon Wienbar’s equity talk. Sharon is the CEO of Hackbright, and she’s just such an inspiration that I think I would have loved any talk she gave. I didn’t know much about equity going in, but her lecture clarified quite a few things. I know I’ll refer back to it someday. Thanks, Sharon!
  • Robert Slifka’s lecture on interviewing companies. The questions he suggested asking here made a lot of sense and offered a great framework for getting the info you need in an interview.
  • Ian Chan’s technical interview talk. Entertaining and informative! Ian made technical interviews feel a little less scary by breaking them down into their component parts.

Ultimately, I’d suggest any future Hackbright student try to make it to Hackbright during as many of these events as possible. If you wind up not wanting to watch a talk, you’ll at least be in the building with other students. You can grab a lab and practice whiteboarding, work on code challenges, or even work on your next project. Make as much use of the Hackbright space and time structure while they’re available to you regularly.

Starting a New Journey

We’re all setting out on new adventures, and I’ve actually found a clear path to follow, at least for a while: I’m now a teaching assisstant at Hackbright! Though seeing a whole new cohort in the space my group called home for three months is a bit crazy, I’m really psyched about this opportunity. I have a chance to dig further into Python and explore areas of software engineering that I’m excited about, and I get to teach while I do it. I’ve always had fun explaining things and seeing people have those “aha” moments; I’ve only been at it regularly for a few days, but helping other women learn for even that long has already brought me so much joy.

I still plan to go into industry, and when I do, I’ll have an even deeper understanding of software engineering. Until then, I’m going to have fun teaching and learning, dive down all the rabbit holes, and keep writing here.