Parent Driven Development
Episode 042: Career Switching and Learning to Code After Babies.
Welcome, Bekah!
A content-creator by nature. Bekah is working on websites, coding-related projects, and her blog, but she has also written three screenplays, three pilots, and is finishing up a memoir. Bekah is all about getting creative!
A mom to four young kids (3-10), Bekah has spent the last ten years of her life adjuncting in various university English departments. She is practically doing a 180 learning to code, and is sharing her failures, successes, and everything that falls in between.
Bekah graduated from Flatiron School Software Engineering program, in May 2019. She been working at Sprokets as a frontend dev since July 1, 2019.
01:15 Bekah’s journey in career switching
- Trauma after 4th kid
- Husband encouraged her to code, and it helped with her PTSD
- She realized her passion and continued to tackled the challenges
- Bekah was a teacher prior to coding
02:40 Coding became therapeutic
- Learning a new skill requires intense focus, gave Bekah excitement and a break from past trauma, because coding required her FULL focus
- Constant learning with code
- Flow state when you sync into your work
- Code provides structure to balance a chaotic life with children
- Out of Africa & Into the Cloud: Girls can Code too : coding inspiration
06:28 How to get through the lows of learning to code?
- Imposter syndrome
- Setting goals week-by-week, month-by-month, quarter-by-quarter
- Embracing the learning curve
11:23 How to manage coding and kids?
- Community and mentorship
- Momscan.co, online co-working, sharing experiences
- Embracing natural flow, Bekah codes in the morning, because she’s a morning person
16:08 Conquering difficult births and moving past trauma
- Finding a mentor with similar experiences
17:51 Bringing coding methods into the house routine
- Sunday ritual for planning for the week ahead
- Bekah’s partner codes as well, built in mentor, and key communication
23:10 Experience in women in tech community highlights
- Being open and willing for meetups!
- Alex Tate - aligned interested to support moms in tech
- Moms need more support, especially with younger kids
- Childcare at meetups
29:20 Any surprises of the moms in tech community?
- The true vulnerability moms offer in support groups
31:47 Genius // fail
- Adarsh hired a babysitter for the morning after his wife's birthday bash! #genius
- Allison empowers her son's creativity and gives him all the extra boxes and he makes rocketships and more! #genius
- Mandy bonds with her daughter watching a classic favorite, Full House #genius
- Bekah’s daughter wants to go to Harry Potter land, and is reading all the Harry Potter books to prove it! #genius ...but maybe #fail when Bekah’s daughter decides to cash in on a promise
- JC’s bird watching community is growing and growing! But his family lacks consistency to join… #fail
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Panel
Allison McMillan
Adarsh Pandit
JC Avena
Mandy Moore
Special Guest: Bekah Hawrot Weigel.
