S24:E6 - Surviving Cancer, Building Code, Thriving in Tech (Stacey Graham)

Saron sits down with Stacey Graham, Software Engineer at a fintech company. Stacey grew up curious about computers since being introduced to them in the 7th grade. Although she didn't take the full plunge into code immediately, she constantly provided technical support in her previous roles. Hear Stacey talk more about her experience navigating her career transition while battling health troubles, how you can level up and network in the tech community, and where to look for communities while you are just starting out. Show Links Partner with Dev & CodeNewbie! (sponsor) YNA OpenSource Project Github Join & Contribute to YNA YNA Twitter YNA LinkedIn YNA Instagram Stacey's Instagram Stacey's Twitter Meetup.com WorkSource Atlanta Career Karma Team Treehouse Codecademy freeCodeCamp JavaScript CSS HTML Network Administrator

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[00:00:05] SY: Welcome to the CodeNewbie Podcast where we talk to people on their coding journey in hopes of helping you on yours. I’m your host, Saron, and today we’re talking about going from an admin assistant to a software engineer amongst hard times with Stacey Graham, Software Engineer at a FinTech company.

[00:00:21] SG: It was that drive and motivation to help my family and to continue to provide for them. That kept me going to meet-ups, reaching out to people because I could see other career changers that did the same thing that I did. So that motivated me like, “Hey, if they can do it, I can.” [00:00:41] SY: On this episode, Stacey and I explore her coding journey and how critical community really is when you’re just starting on your path after this.

[MUSIC BREAK]

[00:00:56] SY: Thank you so much for being here.

[00:00:58] SG: Thank you for having me.

[00:00:59] SY: So let’s start from the beginning. When did you first learn about code?

[00:01:03] SG: The first time I learned about code was actually in college. I wanted to go into management information systems. And so first I went to community college first and then transferred, and that’s where I had my first coding class. And first coding was like QuickBASIC, which I don’t think anybody really knows about. That was the first language I learned.

[00:01:26] SY: And when did you realize that you wanted to get into tech professionally?

[00:01:32] SG: I believe when I was first interested in computers in middle school, I was in like seventh grade and we had a computer class and I didn’t have a computer at home, so that was my first experience, like working with a computer. And so from there, I just continued to have interest and curiosity. And all the way up into high school, I still knew that I wanted to go into tech.

[00:01:59] SY: So you knew pretty early on that you were going to get into technology. Did you have a sense of what type of job you were going to have or what you were going to do when you got there?

[00:02:10] SG: Not when I was in middle school or high school, but when I went into college and learned a little bit more about tech and I wanted to go into being a network administrator. That was the first thing I thought.

[00:02:26] SY: Oh, interesting. Why was that? What got you excited about network administration?

[00:02:31] SG: When I was in college, I took a C++ class and I said I did not want to code.

[00:02:38] SY: Okay.

[00:02:39] SG: So I said I want to be...

[00:02:40] SY: It ruined it for you?

[00:02:41] SG: Yes, it ruined it. But I did want to still be in tech. So I started learning about different careers and I decided to go for network administration.

[00:02:55] SY: Got you. But then you ultimately did end up coding because now you’re a software engineer. So how did you get from no coding, not going to do that to where you are today? How’d you get started learning?

[00:03:05] SG: So once I decided I wanted to be a network engineer, when I transferred to another college, their big thing was co-ops. So I did a co-op and the career that I had, it was called PC LAN Technician. And so kind of like tech support. And so I really liked that and I thought throughout the time, in college, I thought that was the career path I was going to go towards. I switched schools again and I changed my major to network administration and security. So I really wanted to get into cybersecurity, but as time went on, as I continued to go to school, I had a lot of delays and I ended up going back and working as an administrative assistant. And then from there, I still wanted to get into tech and I started hearing about coding bootcamps. And that’s when I decided, “Hey, let me look back into coding again.” I did this workshop and they said, “You know, web development using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is a little different from C++.” And so I started looking at websites, going a little bit of courses here and there and decided that was the path I wanted to go.

[00:04:21] SY: And so when you revisited coding during that time, what was going on in your life? Why did you want to get back into tech?

[00:04:31] SG: I had always wanted to get into tech, but as life happens, I had a lot of delays, things that happened in my life that I thought I would get into tech a little bit sooner than I did, and so I just wanted to continue going that path to have a better life for my family, to increase income and to also have something that I really enjoy because I was working as an administrative assistant for about, I would say 15 years or so, and I felt like I just knew how to be administrative assistant and I was ready for something new that was more exciting.

[00:05:13] SY: May I ask what some of those delays were?

[00:05:15] SG: So when I was in college, I was very close to finishing up. I had about maybe two more semesters before I graduated. And my son, I had a six-month old son and he passed away.

[00:05:30] SY: Oh, I’m so sorry.

[00:05:32] SG: Thank you. So he passed away from SIDS and I took a break from school. I actually ended up moving. I'm from Philadelphia, ended up moving to Atlanta. And eventually, I went back to finish up my degree. And then I was ready to look for work in the tech field and I found out that I had cancer.

[00:05:59] SY: Oh my goodness.

[00:06:00] SG: And so I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer and I did chemo for about six months. After I did chemo, I was cancer free. I’ve been cancer free now for about nine years.

[00:06:14] SY: Oh, wow! Congratulations!

[00:06:15] SG: Thank you.

[00:06:17] SY: That’s amazing.

[00:06:17] SG: Thank you. So after I was done, I got the okay to go back to work. I decided to get back into tech again. And started looking for jobs again, and it was very hard for me to get into tech. When I talked to a lot of recruiters, they were saying, “Oh, you should get a certification. But I felt like I took so long to get my degree. I thought that, “I didn’t want to do another certification.” I was kind of like done with school and like studying for tests.

[00:06:48] SY: Yeah. It had been so long since you were in a classroom again. Yeah.

[00:06:53] SG: Right. And so I just ended up going back to admin role, but it was interesting because the company hired me because of my technical background, because they didn’t have anybody in IT. They were in another location, and so I was kind of like the technical person, but also the administrative assistant. So if there was not an IT support specialist in the office, they would reach out to me or the IT specialist in the other city would reach out to me to do something. So I would be in the network closet, switching cables, or if they had a new employee, I would be setting up their computer and their system and everything. So it was kind of like I had like an admin/technical support position.

[00:07:44] SY: How’d you feel about that?

[00:07:46] SG: I liked it, but it was more of an administrative assistant position. So I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to use those technical skills that I had. So I took the time after I realized, after talking to actually a technical support specialist that worked at the company, after I realized there was no way for me to move into that role at that location, that’s when I started my job search again.

[00:08:14] SY: So you mentioned going to this workshop and them kind of reintroducing you to the world of coding in a different way, different tool set, different language. Tell me about that workshop. What was it? Where was it? How’d that go?

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