Nevertheless, Mariam Coded in 2022
Tags: wecoded
Published: 2022-03-09 09:38:35

## My journey to coding...
I studied BASIC (Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming in school when I was 10 years old and I was pretty good at it, at least I thought I was. I remember creating *Who wants to be a millionaire* game with a user interface, making animations, and a phone directory for my family. 

I did my schooling in South India where I learned to do the programming by writing lines of code in a notebook and got a chance to try coding on PC only during practical periods once a week in the school computer lab. I was born in a middle-income family in India but I was lucky to have a Windows PC in my house that was handed over to my family by my grandpa who bought it for a whim and never got to use it because he found it hard to use the mouse or keyboard.

As I got into 10th grade I learned the C language as it was a trend at that time and that was it. I had no clue what to do with the knowledge that I gained. 

Well, couple of years went by, I did my bachelor’s in Civil Engineering and worked as a Civil Engineer doing Estimation, Designing Structural Buildings, and Surveying lands for at least 4 years.  In the course of my job, I largely dealt with estimating costs in Excel sheets and I realized that I was good at making formulas for calculations and automating data entries. It suddenly struck me with the thought that I could have been a programmer .. only if someone guided me at the right time. 

Well, my wish was about to come true. I resigned from my job, gave birth to a baby girl, and moved to Denmark as a family where I got an opportunity to do software programming for a microcontroller. I took the chance right away, to start over and learn various programming languages and the rest is history. I am now a frontend developer at Maersk and I had been coding for the last 6 - 7 years. 


## My biggest technical achievements are…
I learned a lot (I mean literally, C, C++, Java, Javascript, Android, Frameworks like Angular, React, Vue, Python, Web assembly, Web security .. etc) and I am still learning. Thanks to the internet. I was part of some great products that enable customers to book online and manage their bookings. I was awarded Spot and Star awards for my contributions. I got the opportunity to speak at technical events for the first time. I was also one of the top authors in 2021 in Dev. to  :) 

## I pledge to break the bias in tech by…
Encourage and uplift my female colleagues to speak up and to aim higher. Help and guide beginners to pursue careers in IT. 

## Throughout my career, I have overcome…
judgemental attitudes from others, low confidence, taking risks and getting out of my comfort zone to speak up.  

## Advocating for myself looks like…
to showcase my achievements and inspire other women and girls in tech.

## I pledge to support women, non-binary folks, and other minorities in tech by…
sharing my knowledge, providing guidance, educating, and supporting causes in tech.

I would like to say to other women as we are celebrating International Women’s Day is that you can achieve whatever you put your heart into and never doubt yourself.  It’s never too late to start over and follow your passion.