From the course: Career Clinic: Developer Insights
Bonnie Brennan
From the course: Career Clinic: Developer Insights
Bonnie Brennan
(electronic notes) - I was actually a single mom for a long time, and I got my first, like, legit job. I was a entry level clerical tech, and I was a secretary. I really liked computers. I liked software. I liked kind of figuring out and working with the programmer. So any time we had anything like that I always volunteered to be the first one to use the new software. So I had volunteered to this new SharePoint thing. It's like 2007, right? And we had this guy who was a consultant, and he was an expert and he was supposed to be helping us get it all set up. And I was asking him questions like there's a photo library and I wanted thumbnails. Like, I know you can do that, right? You can do that in Windows Explorer. I just didn't know how to do it in SharePoint. And I asked him and he said you can't do that. And I was like, okay. Well, I Googled it later and I found out you absolutely can do that. He just didn't know how to do it. And then I found out that he was making, we were paying this guy $200 an hour. And that's when something went off in my head and I was like I need a new job. I came in early and I stayed late, because I wanted a better career. I wanted to be professional. I didn't want to be support staff anymore. I think the big thing for me was that I learned the hard way, and I wish that I had learned this much sooner, no matter how hard I worked at my admin job they just kept telling me, "Bonnie, go sit down "and shut up and make us some more coffee." They were never going to promote me. I was never going to become an engineer. You know, I didn't have that degree. I didn't go to college. I didn't know how to get from where I was to where I wanted to be. And no matter how hard I worked, they just wanted me to make coffee. The only way that I ever changed my career was I had to learn on my own time. I had to go and spend my weekends and my evenings learning how to code. And then when I came back with the skill, I was treated with respect and I was treated so much better and I was paid so much better. And it wasn't until I started spending my own time learning, teaching myself that I got that big break. And it changed everything. And I just wish that I had done that sooner. (electronic music)
Contents
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Kirsten Hunter4m 55s
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Mary Ellen Bowman3m 40s
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Ray Villalobos4m 51s
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Rae Hoyt4m 25s
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Steven Lipton4m 26s
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Diversity in tech5m 23s
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Mohammad Azam4m 49s
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Chiu-Ki Chan4m 56s
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Maximiliano Firtman3m 27s
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Carrie Dils2m 40s
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Ted Neward5m 13s
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Shonna Smith3m 1s
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Janan Siam4m 3s
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Emmanuel Henri3m 28s
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Albert Lo3m 9s
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Christina Truong3m 1s
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Sasha Vodnik3m 47s
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Jen Kramer4m 25s
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Freelancing5m 14s
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Upcoming in tech3m 39s
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David Okun3m 57s
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Learning and obtaining new skills3m 43s
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Perseverance3m 59s
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Clarissa Peterson4m 27s
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Starting a business3m 27s
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Mind of a developer4m 7s
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Derek Peruo5m 26s
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Clean code practice5m
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Mentorship3m 33s
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Bear Cahill3m 4s
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Networking5m 15s
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Ketkee Aryamane3m 28s
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Conferences4m 19s
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Meetups4m 19s
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Leigh Lawhon2m 48s
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Star Wars or Star Trek1m 43s
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Unexpected opportunities4m 58s
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Acting on your ideas3m 30s
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Matt Boyd2m 31s
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Career changes3m 53s
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Business tips4m 57s
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Bonnie Brennan2m 8s
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Collaboration and open source5m 44s
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Communication skills3m 49s
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Upcoming in tech3m 46s
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Diversity in tech5m 15s
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Mind of a developer3m 48s
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Working across generations5m 35s
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Mentorship5m 33s
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Conferences4m 59s
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Collaboration on projects4m 26s
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Networking3m 30s
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Introversion5m 22s
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Raising concerns4m 19s
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Dealing with conflict5m 20s
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Work-life balance5m 25s
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Impostor syndrome5m 24s
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Learning and obtaining new skills1m 42s
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New tools learned4m 16s
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Favorite gadgets/tech3m 46s
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Communication skills5m 3s
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Diversity3m 23s
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Mentorship4m 29s
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Motivate kids/development3m 31s
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Work/life balance2m 14s
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Perseverance4m 49s
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Introversion3m 40s
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Imposter syndrome3m 39s
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(Locked)
Self-promotion3m 36s
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Favorite projects4m 59s
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