Nevertheless, MJ coded.
Tags: wecoded
Published: 2019-03-09 02:15:21

---
title: Nevertheless, MJ coded.
published: true
description: the beginning.
tags: #shecoded
---

This time last year I was freelancing from my childhood bedroom — A place I hadn’t planned on returning to, ever. I’d spent the last ten years in California trying to find my way, getting a degree in behavioral science and working a grueling retail schedule, while also studying programming on my own as a hobby. For a while, I’d been considering joining the military to pursue a career in compsci. I felt stagnant. I needed change. Needed direction.

So I packed up my life, flew out to see my parents in Washington State, and started making plans. I meant to visit New York, then possibly bunk with a friend in Japan for a week or two, and finally see about joining the Air Force.

My flight to NYC was scheduled to arrive on March 13th last year. The morning of March 11th, I received an email from Girl Develop It with some New York based opportunities:

_LaGuardia TechHIRE-OpenCode_
==========================
_Over 20,000 new web developers will be needed by 2020. Are you ready? Learn to code, from fundamentals to more advanced application development in LaGuardia Community College’s free web development training program. Find out how to get a job in the tech industry with networking opportunities and job search assistance. Take advantage of this great opportunity to enroll in professional level coding classes to get you going in the world of tech. FULL SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE to eligible students! Call us at (***) ***-**** or check out our website at https://www.laguardia.edu/techhire-opencode/ and open the door to your future! Classes start in May 2018!_

_Full scholarships available._

You’d better believe I signed up and sent my resume along. I attended an info session a week after flying into JFK, had an interview nine days after that, then crossed my fingers for a month.

Here’s a run down of my very crazy, very exciting year:

__March 11th__: I read an email mentioning TechHire
__March 20th__: Info Session
__March 29th__: Interview
__April 26th__: My acceptance email comes in.
__May 7th-18th__: Open Code’s vestibule.
__May 18th__: Decision — our cohort of 11 waits to get acceptance into the web dev portion.
__May 21st__: I receive my acceptance letter!
__May 29th__: The Web Development mini-course begins.
__June 18th__: Welcome session with The Software Guild
__October 4th__: Java OOP Mastery project due.
__October 10th__: Data Driven Web Applications with Java and MySQL begins.
__January 1st, 2019__: I send out applications.
__January 2nd__: I hear word back for a teaching position.
__January 8th__: I interview for said teaching position.
__January 9th__: I get an offer.
__January 14th__: I teach my first class — all incredibly talented girls.
__January 25th__: I attend my last in-person bootcamp class.

__February 2nd__:
    ![Alt text of image](https://brackettobracket.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/yas.jpg)

__February 28th__: I interview for a position at a major password manager company.
__March 11th__: I get an offer -- and accept!
__March 18th__: I start my new job on the Android team.

UPDATE
__March, 2020__: I interview for a new position within the company.
__March, 2020__: I start as an official Junior Dev for the web team!

It’s been a long but incredibly fast journey.
I’m ready for the next step.