Advantages of being a freelancer
After graduation, Jessica launched her own freelance web development business - a job she’s kept for over six years. From being your own boss to setting your own hours, there are many benefits to working as a freelance web developer.
My main reason for learning how to code was acquiring the skills to build my own business - and have the flexibility to set my hours and work from wherever I wanted, in my pyjamas.
“I know that in the middle of a pandemic/quarantine, those things don’t sound too special or glamorous - but at the time, they were a real luxury!” she adds. “I felt completely empowered to be running my own business.”
"Juno was our home and launchpad," says Jessica. "It catapulted us into the world of tech but provided a parachute to make sure we landed safely. It’s incredibly comforting to know that if I ask a question to the Juno community, someone will always be there to help."
When she’s running her web development business, Jessica spends her days coding, working with clients and designers, and spending time learning new skills to stay current on the latest tech that impacts her work.
What I love about my work is that it’s so varied. I can never get bored because every website I build is different.
"Learning is such a crucial part of my life," she says. "That is such an amazing quality of working in tech: you can’t sit still and close yourself off to the world. You have to continue learning and trying new tools and languages and moving with the times. It’s exciting!"
Since graduating from Bootcamp, Jessica has since returned to Juno to take part-time courses in design, Full-Stack Development, and Data Foundations. She also takes online courses on different tools and languages to stay current.
“All of the knowledge I gain from these learning experiences, as well as the projects I do for clients, enable me to find better solutions to the challenges my clients need to solve,” she says.
How to become a better web developer
Jessica’s advice for those looking to grow in tech? Get involved in the community! "These community bonds are important and they make you a better developer," she says. She mentions how these bonds can look different for different people - here are some ideas:
- Participate in meetups
- Volunteer for organizations that teach code
- Participate in hackathons
- Attend conferences
- Contribute to open-source projects
- Create or join study groups
Currently, Jessica is part of a JavaScript study group with developers she met during an online course. "We meet every Saturday to talk about the latest going on in the world of JS and WordPress," she says. "Especially if you plan to freelance, which can be quite lonely sometimes, it’s crucial that you build a community around you. The beauty of Juno is that you graduate with a community around you already.”
Jessica also recommends teaching as a way to learn and grow as a developer: "Even if you don’t think you might be “good enough” to teach someone else how to code, don’t let that stop you!" she says.
We are all students, no matter the stage in our learning journey. And we all have something to teach.
Bringing coding and opportunities to remote communities
Jessica’s love for teaching led her to start volunteering as a mentor at Canada Learning Code (CLC), helping to teach adults HTML and CSS.
“Teaching what I knew to others cemented my knowledge in those subjects even more, and it felt great to give back,” she says.
Soon enough, Jessica was leading workshops at CLC as an instructor and began travelling across Canada with CLC’s Code Mobile, teaching kids how to code.
CLC was invited to travel to Lake Helen Reserve to give two special workshops for the local schools. Lake Helen is an hour outside of Thunder Bay in Ontario and is home to the Red Rock Indian Band.
“We were met there by Denise Bouchard, a wonderful leader who was fighting hard to bring technology skills to her community and other northern communities like it,” says Jessica.
The school in Lake Helen where Jessica taught the coding workshop didn’t have any computer classes, as there were no teachers in the area with that skill set at the time. She felt shocked and saddened.
“I thought about how coding had changed my life and given me so many work opportunities,” she says. “I thought about my own Juno Bootcamp classmates and their diverse skill sets. We had a chef, a farmer, a journalist, and a construction worker, to name a few, who became coders in 9 weeks!”
Jessica found herself wondering: "Why couldn’t people in remote communities with limited access to work opportunities also learn how to code and start businesses like mine, or find remote work?"
I imagined a thriving digital sector in Canada’s north, and it could all start right there.
