Meet Jenny Ngo, HackerYou's Head of Part-Time Web Development. Jenny is a HackerYou Bootcamp grad and a Toronto-based developer with a background in education. She loves being able to use her development knowledge and teaching skills to share her passion for coding with students.
Q: Why do you love being a developer?
A: I love to code! It can be challenging at times, but that’s what makes it so fun and exciting. As a developer, I also get to work with some really amazing and talented people and it’s awesome to be able to take an idea we had and bring it to life. I love the idea of being able to build something that other people can use.
Q: What's the most important quality that you think every developer needs to be successful?
A: Being resourceful. It's not expected that you should know everything (thank goodness!), but knowing how to find a solution with the information that you do have access to is a valuable skill to have as a developer. Although it’s important to not give up and keep chipping away at a problem, it’s also important to know when to ask for help. Being able to explain what you’re stuck on and asking good questions is also a great quality to have as a developer.
Q: What new technology are you most excited about right now?
A: Self-driving cars (I hate driving). Coding-wise, CSS variables are something I’m excited to play around with more.
Q: What new skill are you learning right now/would you most like to learn?
A: Redux! So far it’s been really great to work with, but I would love to have a better understanding of it. I’m looking into ways I can apply it to my next project so that I’ll have more practice.
Q: What's your favourite HackerYou memory or favourite HackerYou tradition?
A: I love our Demo Nights! At the end of every Bootcamp cohort, we have a big party to celebrate our students' hard work. It’s awesome to see all the amazing projects everyone has worked on, over the course of nine weeks. In addition to everyone's friends and family, we also see a large number of our alumni come out to support the new graduates. It’s so nice to catch up with everyone and it just reminds me of the amazing and supportive community we have here at HackerYou!
Q: Tell us something you've learned during your career that you wish you knew when you were starting out.
A: It’s totally cool to not know all the things. Web development moves so fast, and there's always a new tool or technology that people are talking about. When I first started, it was really overwhelming to hear about all the tools and technologies that were out there. I had a big list of to-learns and I wanted to be good at all of them. However, it’s just not possible to master every language, tool, and framework that exists. It’s better to focus your energy on learning one or two things at a time, rather than trying to learn it all.
Q: What is your advice for someone who is thinking about switching into the tech industry or becoming a developer?
A: The tech industry is such an exciting industry to be in. I got started at a Ladies Learning Code workshop. It was a great way to get an idea of what front-end development might be like. At all of the LLC workshops that I’ve taken, there were always tons of mentors around to help you and most of them worked in the industry. Taking the workshop gave me the opportunity to talk to people who were either currently working as a developer or had just graduated from a web development program. I got to ask them what it was like to be a developer and how they got started. If you’re not ready to enrol in a full-time program, taking a part-time program is also an amazing way to test things out before completely changing your career.
Ready to dive in and start learning with Jenny? Her next Part-Time Web Development courses start Jan. 15, 2018. Apply today to get started!