Web development student, Geraldine Hernández Al Attrach, takes over the Ubiqum blog and tells us how she went from working as a psychologist to learn to code and becoming a React developer.
A few years ago, when I had just finished my bachelor’s degree in psychology, I began teaching the psychology of arts to university students of design. I shared my knowledge through weekly seminars and explored complex topics like how the human mind works, how we perceive the world around us, and how language structures thought. Each person had a different learning process and the relationship I built with these students is what I enjoyed the most as a psychologist.
All this made me realise that language and creativity are connected concepts. I felt like everything that I had learned was merely on a theoretical level and distanced from the true tendency of humanity. My interest was sharpened by understanding how it was effectively developed and put into practice.
I decided to do a masters degree in creativity in order to continue delving into my internal debates. It was there that I learned about topics such as design thinking, the psychology of branding, and how a creator, in order to develop their work, owes a lot to communication.
At this stage, I finally began getting closer to synthesising what I was looking for in a more optimal way. Then, while reflecting on the evolution of western society during the 20th and 21st century, I realised that we are developing something unparalleled in history. This, in other words, was the explosion of technology in creativity and communication.
At this point, I awkwardly began to explore the different technologies that existed, but evidently, I needed something or someone to guide me. This is where Ubiqum Code Academy came into my life, and with them, I began to discover a surprising, fascinating, and innovative world.
My time in Ubiqum, on their Full Stack Web Development program, has been one of the most important milestones I have faced in my professional life.
When I started at the coding bootcamp, I had to unlearn my theoretical background as I would be learning in a totally new way. I had to delve in with a practically blank mind and acquire new knowledge like a sponge.
I learned, for example, what the text markup languages are (i.e. HTML), cascading style sheets (CSS), and even the most famous programming language, JavaScript, which has all allowed me to create new and dynamic content. I have worked with a number of JavaScript frameworks (React, Angular, and Vue), worked with Agile methodology, and created multimedia files and animated images.
All this has been possible thanks to Ubiqum’s Learn by Doing methodology and help from the course mentors. I have been challenged constantly, but have always kept a clear goal in mind for each project, and step-by-step, I have been able to achieve my desired goals, which were to develop the mental models of a programmer and find a job in web development.
Having completed Ubiqum’s web development course, I have been hired as a React developer by Between Technology.
To undertake this path, taking into account that the world of technology moves at a much faster pace than society, it’s necessary to know your strengths and weaknesses, have clear goals in mind, be curious, and have the ability to adapt and improve. It is also important to know what kind of learning process you have, if you are more visual, more auditory, or more kinesthetic. This will help you to find the resources you need in order to put into practice the skills you are learning. When you learn to code you learn to think, it’s learning a universal language in an evolving world.
And finally, despite going through this intensive, difficult learning curve, the reward was very satisfying. In just six months, I have built a number of websites and I have acquired the necessary tools to start a career in the world of programming. I think that’s something to be pretty proud of.