How I Started My Software Engineer Career

CodingNomads alumni Meghan talks about her journey of learning to code and kicking off her software engineer career. She discusses her experience getting her foot in the door as a Test Automation Engineer, her promotion to a Java Engineer, and pursuing her personal passion for environmentalism through coding. Meghan has also stayed active in the CodingNomads community as a Java mentor, helping students follow the same software engineer career path that she pursued! Topics discussed include: * What was your background before learning to code? * Why did you want to switch to coding? * Why did you choose to study with CodingNomads? * How did you stay motivated while learning to code? * How did you find your first engineering job? * What was the technical interview like? * Describe your roles as a Test Automation Engineer, and Java Engineer? * What's the coolest project you've worked on? * What do you like about being a Java mentor? * What advice can you share with others pursuing a software engineer career? * What can people start doing today to get on the path? Chapters: 0:00 Intro 2:47 Megan’s background 4:50 Why Megan started programming 7:10 Why Coding Nomads? 9:38 The learning journey 12:32 Advice for staying motivated 14:12 The job search process 16:36 Finding the first job 20:36 Preparing for the interview 27:57 Megan’s first role 30:42 Getting your foot in the door 34:44 Day to day work 36:11 Learning new tech on the go 37:15 The coolest thing Megan’s worked on 40:05 Becoming a Java mentor 44:19 Biggest piece of advice for getting started 47:18 Would Megan do anything differently? 49:15 Q&As 50:53 Having a degree vs no degree 54:55 Course offerings at Coding Nomads 57:33 Knowing what you want in your career 59:17 Developing software sustainably 🎓 Interested in learning to code? Start for Free: https://platform.codingnomads.co/learn/ 🧭 Website: https://codingnomads.co/