How I got into the tech field...

Working remotely had always been fun for me and I had been doing it for over 4 years, yet I wanted more. Most of those 4 years I was in the field of education. While I still enjoyed what I did, I knew it was time to move on. I was ready for a big change in my life so I began my search. Though I had been teaching the past 10 years, I carried a degree in Anthropology which I never found a purpose for till the day I found out about UX design. Funny anecdote was that my father himself had been in the tech field his whole life and while he kept pushing me throughout my undergrad years to pursue a career in technology, I just felt it wasn't for me. I wanted to travel the world and learn about cultures and people. So I did. I lived abroad for years, never finding a place to stay longer than a year or two. I lived in Germany, Australia, China, Colombia, Vietnam, Malaysia and now Spain. It was my passion to explore what the world had to offer, eat all exotic foods I could find, pick up conversations with locals (even if it meant not understanding them though I learnt that a smile went a long way) and truly taking in a culture by learning basics in the language and just be the neutral anthropologist in me - stand back and observe how people functioned. I was thrilled by this "travel itch", they called it, and all the adrenaline that I would get from filling my brain with new information. I had always had this willingness to learn that I probably got from my father since from my mother's side of the family, I was the first one to go to university and become something of myself. After doing some thorough research on what anthropologists would go into to specialize, UX design came up.

But before this, let me explain that I was in a mental state where I needed a challenge in my life and felt like I was drowning day by day knowing I wasn't happy at the stage in my life that I was. It occurred to me to try looking into programming and since I already had a few friends in the field, I turned to them for some recommendations. I looked into learning programming languages like Python, Javascript, HTML and CSS. The tech opportunities that I found were endless so I was overwhelmed with the information. Each day I would spend hours digging deeper and deeper, trying to find the best ways to get into the field and gain more knowledge in the matter. I even had a friend who mentored me and we spent one full day going over how broad things in this field were. He went over terminology that meant nothing to me ... yet, but to him I am very thankful because I understood it a few months after and it all came into play. He recommended to me the documentary series on Netflix - explained and watch the episode on coding and I did. It blew my mind! I was fascinated by this new topic which I so hated in the past but now kept calling my attention. A few weeks time, I was reading books on programming, watching YouTube tutorials, playing with coding Apps, attending meetups events, networking with programmer friends, and everything else I could think of. I decided I would teach myself using many coding sites available (my recommendations are below). Through one of these coding events, I was invited to another event by a graphic designer. This time, though I had heard the term many times before, the topic was new to me. It was a conference held at the google campus here in Madrid by the international organization - Ladies that UX. I am going to be honest, I understood nada (nothing) but that only made me more inquisitive so I told my friend who explained it to me more in-depth. I then understood why it was so important and even though not a lot of us newbies would understand it (trust me, I have had to explain it to family and friends ever since) it's something we interact with every day, every hour. Just like coding, I understood the impact that UX/UI design had on our lives and how it would help us evolve as a society.

As I am walking my dogs one day, I notice a coding academy right next to my house so I decide to stop by and take a look. I met Noemi and Ruben, great people by the way, who were both designers and programmers and had just opened up the school (probably a month after I had moved there). I told them my story and though they had many courses available, they thought UX would be a great way for me to start. Here I am now, completing the Udacity Nanodegree in User Experience that due to Covid-19, Udacity offered a free month of access to their courses. Next week, starting my classes at North Camp in Madrid virtually while we are still in lock-down. One thing these couple of weeks have taught me, when you're bored and you have time, pick up a theme/topic... it will spark your interest and take you to new places - places you would've never thought you would like but it can surprise you.

My favorites (resources):

Programming

Netflix: Explained series - coding

Online school - w3schools.com

Practice coding - codepen.com

"On the go" Apps - SoloLearn (few programming languages), grasshopper (JS)

Books - Head First series

Design

Books - "Don't make me think" by Steve Krug and "The Design of Everyday Things" by Don Norman

Online Courses - Udacity Nanodegree on User Experience and Product Design

Netflix: documentary - The Creative Brain

Netflix: Abstract (the art of design) *all of them are good but my favorite was on Typography by Paula Scher

TED Talk - Think Big by Tim Brown

#Anthropology #UXDesign #Tech