Where do we go from here?

How to continue with coding: A guide to the post-Rails-Girls-event blues

Transcript

1. Where do we go from here? A guide to the post-RG-event blues
2. So you’ve attended a Rails Girls event. But how can you keep learning?
3. User Groups Find a ruby or rails user group in your city!
4. Study Groups Start one by bringing together attendees that are interested in improving their skills, and then: ! 1) Meet regularly. 2) Discuss things you want to learn. 3) Work together!
5. Don’t hesitate to ask for help Use the opportunity to “bond” with your Rails Girls coach at the event. Most of us love helping out and would be more than happy to give you some tips along the way!
6. Find a problem you’d like to solve To find your next project, think about something that annoys you in your daily life. ! Try to figure out if you can solve it with the magical help of ruby!
7. Mix and Match Alternate between reading and building. ! Play around with “safe” environments (like tryruby), but understand that they don’t replace the real thing.
8. Use every resource you can find Online Classes: ! Codecademy (codecademy.com) Code School (codeschool.com)
9. Use every resource you can find Tutorials & Books: ! Michael Hartl’s Ruby on Rails Tutorial (railstutorial.org/book) The Odin Project (theodinproject.com/ruby-on-rails) Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby
10. Use every resource you can find Screencasts/Podcasts: ! RailsCasts (railscasts.com) RubyTapas (rubytapas.com) RubyRogues (rubyrogues.com)
11. Coach at Rails Girls Events It doesn’t take much (except a bit of courage) and, as an attendee, you’re already more than halfway there! ! The organisers will adore you, you will learn A LOT and the attendees will have female coaches to look up to.
12. Contribute to existing projects It takes guts as a “newbie” to contribute to existing projects (eg. on GitHub). ! But once you get the hang of it, it’s awesome.
13. Rails Girls Summer of Code Practice, practice, practice.. So you can apply for a Rails Girls Summer of Code scholarship next year!
14. Don’t let anyone stop you The tech world is full of not-so-nice people. Sadly you can’t avoid them. ! On the upside, there’s a lot of welcoming people in the ruby community, so let those balance each other out, and don’t give up too easily.
15. Thank you! @alicetragedy