Hi, everyone! ๐ I have been building frontend projects for over 5 years and have transitioned into full-stack these past two. I mainly use TS, JS, React, Tailwind CSS, Node JS and PostgreSQL.
- ๐ย I'm based in Southwestern Ontario, Canada for family reasons, but I'm an expat at heart. ๐
- ๐ง ย I'm a TypeScipt & React developer, who builds full-stack accessible apps. My latest obsession is web performance.
- ๐คย I'm open to collaborating on group projects, pair programming and open source. I love getting more practice with the team git workflow. But the best thing is combining our collective tech knowledge & talking code.
- โกย I was an English as a Foreign Language Teacher for 15+ years. I lived primarily in China, but also spent time in England, Canada and South Korea. There was actually one 6-month period where I lived on 3 different continents!
- ๐ฅฐ I'm addicted to celebrating my LinkedIn connections' achievements and giving encouraging reactions. I never thought in a million years, I'd be on this wild Software Engineering ride, and I want others to know they can absolutely do it too! Oh, yeah, my mental health journey and protection of wild bunnies also feature in my posts.
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I'm a TypeScript & React developer, since Hey, those are top of the deck in most job postings, but I also love them.
My efficiency and effectiveness-focused brain craves strict types, which TypeScript provides. It also helps in DX, or developer productivity. I had a serious love for Rust with it's extremely helpful messages, but have found I can parse TS's tips in VS Code and browser messages with just a tad more mental wrangling in TS and React.
I wasn't initially sold on React, and I'm still not in all cases - sometimes another framework is more appropriate for a particular project. But I have learned how to use DevTools to evaluate my app's performance and are becoming more experienced using advanced techniques to keep things working speedily.
I'm still learning SCSS in my free moments. I love Python and Vue and totally mean to get back into them after reaching the stage I'm comfortable with React. I use Figma to access designs and can do some cool things in Illustrator - even if I have to refer to my notes and/or guides!
My career totally flipped
That said I'm 100% community-taught, which is my preferred term (rather than self-taught), meaning I've learned from so many excellent sources! My skills in education really came out in choosing which resources to use; which free resources to use and when to actually cough out my limited cash... ๐ซฆ๐ค
I started out learning Frontend Web Development, because I love design and instantly seeing my creations come to life - that simply rocks! ๐ธ Of course (of course!), I encountered the amazing videos of Kevin Powell to explore the power of CSS. This lead to my discovery of Scrimba which became my guide. ๐งญ
But I'm getting ahead of myself! Sorry, I get so excited about code!
I knew I had to learn JavaScript; it being one of the pillars of the web. But, but, but...
It was so hard! Especially after my stressful repatriation with just a phone and a 7" tablet using apps like Grasshopper and YouTube videos from excellent teachers that were just way beyond my level. So... I switched to Python for awhile.
Ente 8000 rs Class Central's JavaScript Bootcamp using FreeCodeCamp's curriculum. It clicked!!! ๐
Scrimba showed me all kinds of awesome ways to make my humble sites interactive! And I could finally sink my teeth into DSAs through Codewars. Somewhere along the way, I advanced to the stage where I can just read the docs on MDN to find my own solutions.
This was ๐ฅ!
I had a lot of fun creating apps that simulated the full experience, but I wanted more than an illusion - I wanted the real thing! So my goal of being a Frontend Web Developer morphed into a Full-stack track. I started out using Firebase, then Node & Express to complete the ever-popular (in learning paths, anyway) MERN stack.
Resources like CS50 and Exercism encouraged me to become a more rounded developer. The yearly challenges the former has offered got me excited to try out different languages. But more importantly recognize the pros & cons of them.
These represented the start of my journey into code that has only bloomed these last few years.
Nowadays, I spend my time building full-stack projects, tackling DSA challenges (mainly through Codewars).
I finally completed Scrimba's Fullstack Developer Path!!! This was huge for me, because it had been the backbone of my education. I'd complete modules, then go of into the ether and create projects to solidify that knowledge. As you can probably guess, this would lead me into so many learning rabbit holes.
- How can I use routing? Oh - just learn **React Router**!
- I'm neglecting **Python**. Let's pick up some **Django**.
- A cool LinkedIn connection wants me to work on a C# project - Time for an abbreviated learning sess.
- [Exercism](https://exercism.org/) has a challenge to use a new programming language each month this year - Gotta jump on that!
- I want to make fullstack apps - let the exploration commence!
Total Time: 7 hrs 27 mins
Python 7 hrs 19 mins โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ 98.28 %
TypeScript 4 mins โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ 00.94 %
JSON 2 mins โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ 00.54 %
Text 0 secs โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ 00.20 %
Other 0 secs โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ 00.04 %