My Journey With Code

In this presentation I tell my story about how I learnt to code, what drew to code, why I chose Python as a language of choice and my whole career journey to get me where I am today. This was my DjangoCon US 2018 Keynote.

Transcript

1. My Journey With Code by Anna Makarudze DjangoCon US 2018 @amakarudze
2. About me Fundraising Coordinator, Django Girls Foundation Django Software Foundation Board 2018
3. Overview ➔ Share my coding journey. ➔ Answer “Why Python?” ➔ Share my thoughts on mentorship through a project.
4. My background
5. Childhood in the rural areas 1998
6. Zimuto High School, Masvingo 1999
7. Then I met a tech enthusiast...
8. Making the decision for a career in tech…
9. And my coding journey begins…
10. 1. Computer Studies, Computing High School Student
11. 1. Computer Studies, Computing High School Student 2. University Student, Intern
12. 1. Computer Studies, Computing Student 2. University Student, Intern 3. Network Technician
13. 1. Computer Studies, Computing Student 2. University Student, Intern 3. Network Technician 4. Senior ICT Technician
14. 1. Computer Studies, Computing Student 2. University Student, Intern 3. Network Technician 4. Senior ICT Technician 5. NOC Technician, Billing Analyst
15. 1. Computer Studies, Computing Student 2. University Student, Intern 3. Network Technician 4. Senior ICT Technician 5. NOC Technician, Billing Analyst 6. Senior BSS/OSS Consultant
16. What role do I apply for?
17. Met another old friend...
18. Why Python?
19. 1. Computer Studies, Computing Student 2. University Student, Intern 3. Network Technician 4. Senior ICT Technician 5. NOC Technician, Billing Analyst 6. Senior BSS/OSS Consultant 7. Consultant, Python Developer
20. 1. Computer Studies, Computing Student 2. University Student, Intern 3. Network Technician 4. Senior ICT Technician 5. NOC Technician, Billing Analyst 6. Senior BSS/OSS Consultant 7. ICT Consultant, Python Developer 8. Fundraising Coordinator
21. Working with Python
22. Full Disclosure/ Disclaimer This is not my best project and it’s still incomplete. Work in progress.
23. Github repo https://github.com/amakarudze/sh erpany-task
24. Question Build a single page app with a full viewport map on top and a list of addresses below based on Django 1.9.
25. Major challenges ➔ We don’t use Google Maps that much. ➔ Had never heard of Google Fusion Tables in my life!
26. Initial attempt ➔ AngularJS ➔ Django Rest Framework ➔ Django 1.9
27. Initial feedback ➔ No testing. ➔ No validation. ➔ No documentation.
28. Time for some personal development...
29. Developing coding skills ➔ Learnt Angular online. ➔ Did a workshop tutorial on Django + Angular + DRF.
30. Second attempt ➔ Google Map rendering issues with ngMap. ➔ POST requests were a huge struggle.
31. Third attempt ➔ Angular, DRF and Django. ➔ Javascript to load map. ➔ Still struggled with Angular POST requests.
32. Asking for help ➔ Twitter - for Angular POST. ➔ A friend responded and pointed me to a tutorial on CodeCraft.
33. Asking for help ➔ Harry Percival- Testing & other stuff @ PyCon Namibia. ➔ Harry recommended books for coding interviews.
34. Asking for help Marc Tamyln - Django dev and Validation
35. Asking for help Daniele Procida- documentation @ DjangoCon EU
36. Asking for help Emma Delescolle- Django Rest Framework @ DjangoCon EU
37. Asking for help Ola & Ola, Markus, Norma – Django & AJAX
38. Sourcing books Raphael Michel helped with the shopping pre-DjangoCon Europe.
39. Project redesign ➔ Django ➔ Javascript ➔ AJAX ➔ Django Rest Framework Amazon
40. Getting a mentor ➔ Asked Tom Christie for help with AJAX via Twitter since DRF also uses AJAX.
41. Brute force solution ➔Load map and do reverse geocoding for clicked places with Javascript. ➔Save to database and Google Fusion Tables using AJAX.
42. Architecture ➔JavaScript and AJAX for frontend. ➔Django backend. ➔Django Rest Framework to link the two.
43. Working with AJAX ➔I was new to AJAX and jQuery. ➔Required many Twitter DMs between me and Tom Christie to get the project working.
44. Testing ➔ Functional tests. ➔ Unit tests. O’Reilly Media
45. Validation Custom validator to check for “Unnamed” and duplicates for Address Model.
46. Documentation Tutorial How-to Guides Explanation Reference
47. Documentation ➔ Small project so followed the format but in a README.md. ➔ Best documentation I have ever done for a project!
48. More feedback ➔ Good documentation and tests, though incomplete tests. ➔ Reverse geocoding to be done in backend.
49. More feedback ➔ Resetting with a GET request wrong. ➔ Recommended reading resources. ➔ Validation not enough.
50. More feedback ➔Question: What’s my career plan? ➔Joining a small team would be ideal for me to learn and would one day become a great developer.
51. My reaction to the feedback?
52. My ultimate career plan?
53. Site Reliability Engineering
54. Key lessons to draw from my journey...
55. ➔Attending meetups, conferences, sprints helps meet potential mentors. ➔ASKING FOR HELP is crucial.
56. ➔DO NOT dismiss a beginner. ➔Encourage. ➔DO NOT tell them how poor their code is - they that know already.
57. My thoughts on mentorship...
58. I feel so blessed to have so many kind people who take their time to look at my code and help me improve it.
59. Getting involved in Africa…
60. ➔Mentoring someone/ some people. ➔Speaking at conferences. ➔Help organise conferences. ➔Sponsor in some way.
61. ➔Join our mailing list and help organise Pan-African events in Africa. python-africa@python.org https://africa.python.org/en/
62. “The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance, and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.”
63. Thanks! Contact: @amakarudze anna@djangogirls.org