My Experience at REFACTR.TECH
Tags: vue, react, inclusion, career
Published: 2019-06-08 21:14:25

Hello there! I'm here to recap my experience at [REFACTR.TECH] (http://refactr.tech/). 

REFACTR took place this past week, from June 5 - 7, in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference was organized by [Beth Laing](https://twitter.com/laingbeth), [Angel Banks](https://twitter.com/angelmbanks), and [Erica Stanley](https://twitter.com/ericastanley). The focus was on "technology while creating a safe space or thoughtful and nuanced conversations around diversity, inclusion, and intersectionality in tech." 

In short, this conference was aimed at giving everyone a seat at the tech table.

## Day 1 - Workshops

### Vue

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Day one at REFACTR was focused solely on workshops. Being that I want to become a front-end developer, I chose the [Vue Vixens](https://vuevixens.org/) workshop. This was my first time working with a framework, so I was somewhat nervous that I didn't have enough JavaScript knowledge to understand what was going on. My fears were quickly put to rest by the supportive Vue Vixens team. Yes, I had plenty of questions,  but there was always someone there to help clarify. I want more JavaScript experience before I dive any deeper into Vue, but the course structure made it easy to follow along regardless of skillset.

If you're new to Vue or just want to get more practice, you can 'vue' 😂 the workshop [here] (https://vue-vixens-workshop.netlify.com/workshop/), for **free**!

### Google AMP

I also had several friends who attended Google's [AMP Roadshow] (https://amp.dev/). According to AMP's website, "AMP is an open-source HTML framework that provides a straightforward way to create web pages that are fast, smooth-loading and prioritize the user-experience above all else." You can learn more about AMP's benefits and take its **free** courses [here] (https://amp.dev/documentation/guides-and-tutorials/).

### Entire Workshop List

You can view the full list of workshops [here](http://refactr.tech/schedule/). (I'm not sure if the other workshops provided any resources, but it may be worth looking into, if you find a topic you're interested in.)

## Day 2/3 - Breakout Sessions

Rather than walk you through every single talk that I attended, (they were all great by the way), I wanted to only focus on two. 

*Disclaimer*: I chose these two talks because the speakers have a background in the technologies that I'm interested in, not because of where they work.  

### Reconfiguring Our Mindset from “Self-taught” to “Community-taught”

This was a talk by [Ray Gesualdo] (https://twitter.com/RayGesualdo), a UI Engineer at [Salesloft](https://www.salesloft.com/). I'm always interested in hearing the stories of those who don't have a CS degree, like myself. My takeaway from Ray's talk was that no one is truly self-taught, we're all community-taught. You may not have gotten a formal education, but you certainly didn't wake up one day with your current knowledge. You gained those skills because of others who were willing to share their knowledge and resources. Whether it was a blog, YouTube video, etc., someone went out of their way to share information about that topic. It's up to us to make sure that we continue to maintain and create for others who will come after us. After all, that's what those before us have done.

### A React Developer’s Guide to Tech Interviews

[Adrianna Valdivia] (https://twitter.com/adriannavaldivi) is also a UI Engineer at [Salesloft] (https://www.salesloft.com/). The purpose of Adrianna's talk was to help developers, who are on the hunt for a React role, avoid the pitfalls that she encountered while interviewing. While I'm not 100% sure that I'm ready to start interviewing, this gave me an opportunity to identify the gaps in my JavaScript knowledge, so that I can better identify what to focus my time and attention on. I met several, recent bootcamp grads who also found her perspective very useful!

## Random, but Valuable Resources

Below is a list of resources that I found out about from my fellow conference goers:

* [Year Up] (https://www.yearup.org/) - I met someone who went from working at a coffee shop to becoming a front-end developer within a year because of this organization

* [This Dot Labs Apprenticeship Program] (https://www.thisdot.co/fempire-for-apprentices) - Helps women break into to tech through a year-long apprenticeship

* [Greater Sum] (https://www.greatersum.com/software-apprenticeship/) - This is a software engineering apprenticeship located in Atlanta

* [Flatiron Prep Course] (https://flatironschool.com/free-courses/coding-bootcamp-prep) - This is the **same** prep work course that's given to Flatiron students, it's totally **free**, even if you have no plans to attend Flatiron

## Final Thoughts

If you couldn't already tell, I learned a lot at REFACTR.TECH. As an introvert, I made a point to go out of my way to talk to people and I'm so glad I did! 

There were several people who offered their time and resources to help me along the way. I'm looking forward to cultivating these relationships and can't wait for next year's conference. 

Thank you to [Beth Laing](https://twitter.com/laingbeth), [Angel Banks](https://twitter.com/angelmbanks), and [Erica Stanley](https://twitter.com/ericastanley) for putting on such an amazing conference! 🎉