Anneke has recently made the move from teaching to web development in her journey to learn how to code. Anneke is currently completing her Full Stack Web Developer Bootcamp with HyperionDev. Two weeks into her bootcamp, she had already managed to find an internship in her career of choice; she began her internship at MobiMedia, which is part of Olé! Media Group, based in Cape Town. Now, she is excited to complete her web developer bootcamp and get out into the world and start building websites. Read on to learn more about Anneke’s journey so far.
What is your background and what were you doing before enrolling on a coding bootcamp?
After graduating from UCT in 2008 with a Bachelor in Music and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education, I taught at various primary schools as a classroom teacher both locally and internationally. Between the years 2014 – 2017, I taught at international schools in Italy, Romania and the USA.
Why did you decide on a career in tech?
I have always had a love for all things tech (especially gaming!) and always made a point of using it in my daily teaching to make lessons more interesting. I became very interested in coding while listening to my brother-in-law, Wessel Bosman, who is an extremely talented and knowledgeable self-taught full-stack developer. Thanks to his daily support and encouragement, I decided to enroll in the coding bootcamp and learn how to code. You are never too old to learn something you are passionate about!
Tell us about your internship. What was it like?
I completed an extremely insightful 3 month internship where I learned the basics of development first hand from a very knowledgeable and supportive dev team. This was only about 2 weeks into my bootcamp when I started! This was a great stepping stone in my journey to learn how to code.
To this day I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I was given to complete an internship at such a prestigious company, learning from such talented, supportive and hardworking developers. I was literally thrown into the deep end and told to “struggle” as this was the best way to learn (although help was always available when Google could no longer help me!).
As a result, I learned HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, NodeJS, AdonisJS, Git and Photoshop CC from scratch within those 3 months. I learned all the tech jargon and being part of the weekly meetings gave me a massive insight into the industry and how it operates (those deadlines are a real winner!). I can’t stress enough how valuable this experience was in terms of emerging into the tech field from scratch and also understanding the coding bootcamp material better. It’s the same with teaching – nothing prepares you for the job ahead better than being thrown head first into the classroom!
Any aspects/topics of the bootcamp portion you had covered that were helpful when you started the internship?
Thanks to the HyperionDev coding bootcamp, I already had knowledge about HTML and CSS which undoubtedly provided an excellent foundation for what I was to learn next. Also, working with Bootstrap and responsive design everyday really set me up for that part in the course. Also, the fact that I was doing an online bootcamp (thus showing my desire to learn how to code properly and seriously) hugely impacted their decision to take me on in their company, to learn and grow as a female in this industry.
What kind of things did you find challenging during your internship that you are looking forward to learn in the rest of your bootcamp?
I am looking forward to learning more about the backend, especially with regard to NodeJS, API’s and databases. I didn’t deal with much backend work, but I picked up some odds and ends from my colleagues and would love to be able to glue it all together when I learn about it in the bootcamp.
What are your plans upon completing the bootcamp?
Upon completing my bootcamp, I am hoping to get a good job in Cape Town or the UK as either a frontend, backend or full stack web developer. I am very creative and can’t wait to start building things!
Any piece of advice to women who are looking to move into tech?
With regards to women in the tech industry: I feel that women are not exposed enough to software engineering and programming as it carries a very large stigma that it is something that men only do. From my experience as a teacher, not enough attention is given to computer studies/ICT in this country and it is such a vital skill to learn in a forever tech advancing world. I would love to go around to high schools and do presentations to the kids about programming in order to provide some exposure to them as many people (especially women) don’t have clue what it is about.
The person in charge of the developers at the company I did my internship at, was a woman – a highly knowledgeable and talented developer who is very passionate about coding. Just watching her in action gave me heaps of inspiration and made me realise that I too can do this. I am also lucky enough to have a brother-in-law who is also very pro-female in the tech industry and greatly inspired me to pursue this career. This is what we need in this industry – to inspire and instill the confidence and excitement around the tech industry for our future female developers. Don’t ever think you can’t do it – take the risk and jump like I did, move out of your comfort zone and enjoy a new adventure, by being part of and contributing to the future of technology!
If you’re interested in pursuing a career in web development like Anneke, take a look at HyperionDev’s Full-Stack Web Developer Bootcamp. Start your free trial today to see if this is the career for you.
