This is it! I said I was going to learn in public, talk about my journey and now I’m following through..... a year later. Better late than never right? I think the biggest challenge for me is not going to be the inability to find a topic to write about but rather NOT use AI tools to help me write. Will I still use it to proof read emails? You betcha! But I want to find my own voice and style and I know AI will hinder this discovery. I’m sure I’m going to look back one day and read my first blog post and cringe but I can’t wait to see the growth in my writing. In this day and age there is so much AI generated content I’m not even sure who is having a real conversation in the comments anymore. I just want to be as authentic as possible. I’m not sure how this will evolve but, I digress.
My name is Sara Baqla and I have lived many lives. I have made a living by being a freelance musician and met the most incredible people. I have taught music and robotics from Pre-K all the way to 8th grade. I have conducted research in the beautiful, underrated, Chihuahuan Desert. I worked in the Trinity Alps Wilderness for half a year and loved being off the grid. I feel like all of these experiences (which I can definitely go into detail in separate blog posts) shaped who I am today. Becoming a software engineer is like getting to the final boss level where I'm the boss character and instead of pummeling the little guy trying to save the princess, I use all my powers and knowledge for good!Just about every company now is a tech company. The mom and pop restaurant down the street needs a website to drive customers to their new spot and a way for them to order online. The local community college needs a platform for students to see courses and register as well as track their coursework. That new jazz group making waves in the music scene needs a website to showcase their talent and share upcoming shows with fans. I can go on and on but you get the point. Just about every business has some kind of online presence and many need custom solutions to drive traffic and increase revenue. The beauty of software engineering is that it can touch just about every type of industry.
I dabbled with some coding back in the early 2000's and made some killer layouts for my Neopets guild page. Soon after I joined band and my life was fully consumed with playing the trumpet but coding was always kind of there. My first year teaching was 2019 and we all know why teachers and students didn't return back after spring break in 2020. It was during this time I started to pick up coding again and refreshed myself with the basics on Codecademy. I was slowing plugging away at HTML, CSS and JavaScript basics but I know myself and although self-paced learning is great, I needed a fire to be lit under me. I needed to be held accountable with some homework, due dates and the like. So I decided to quit teaching and I took the leap by joining a web development bootcamp in 2022 and never looked back!
My first software developer job was eye opening. It was such a different pace from teaching and it was my first time working a fully remote position. I was fortunate to be thrown a variety of problems and tech stacks which forced me to learn how to learn fast or get left behind. I quickly learned that documentation is KING! My next role was an incredible experience I will never forget. I worked for a Creative Agency and we had all types of clients. I was working on an engineering team of 4 and not to brag or anything but it was kind of the best team I have ever been a part of. There were no egos. I felt incredibly lucky and am proud to say I have made some life long friends. Unfortunately, I was laid off from said job about 2 weeks ago and I've had some time to reflect.
This is my first time experiencing a layoff and in the tech industry, I know this won't be the last. During this time I have cleaned up my LinkedIn, beefed up my resume and created a new portfolio which has jumpstarted this blog. My current goal is to post something every other week for the next 3 months. Who knows what this blog will morph into but I'm excited to document my job hunting journey and write up a couple technical blogs as I explore new libraries and possibly a new programming language. I already know my next blog is going to be epic because I will be writing about the amazing time I had at Commit Your Code Conference! Here's to networking and learning.