Hannah Eichelsdoerfer
Full-Stack Developer
Monday, 6 December 2021
Could you please introduce yourself?
Hi everyone, I'm Hannah from Germany 🇩🇪
I'm 25, currently still in Berlin, but planning to live as a Digital Nomad in the upcoming years, either with a remote company or as a freelancer. I love the ocean, the sun, sunsets, reading a good book, a cooled beer and obviously coding.
Whats your background?
Before I discovered coding I was very lost in regards to my place in the professional world. At the time I was studying a degree in Psychology that I did not enjoy for various reasons, it was more something I had started because of my interest in the human behaviour and mind. So instead of studying I was mainly working as a waitress to make some money. I really liked the fast-pace, stress and continuous customer interaction, but I realised its not something I could see myself growing and evolving in, as I had no desires to have my own restaurant/bar one day or be a manager in these departments.
When Covid first put the world in lockdown I did not have much on my University schedule and work suddenly was not part of my daily routine anymore so I found myself on websites like Treehouse, Codeacademy, Pluralsight (just to name a few) that advertised free months for enrolled unversity-students. I was hooked from the beginning, but real life came back fast and between working full-time and studying, I never progressed as fast as I wanted to as the focus was never a hundred percent on it. So after finishing my BSc in early 2021 I decided it was time to really see if I had it in me to learn to properly code, so I joined a Full-Stack Web Development Bootcamp, which honestly was one of the best decisions I've made. I not only discovered that I was quite talented in understanding the concepts but also had an enormous amount of fun at the same time. Studying suddenly no longer felt like a chore, but something I wanted to do - which I had not imagined I could ever find just two years prior.
Whats your current role?
I work remotely as a Full-Stack Developer in a Startup in Germany and also a few days a month (evening and Saturdays) as a Teaching Assistant in Berlin, where I have also just started giving Workshops.
Why have you decided to learn to code?
During my Psychology-Studies I realised I wanted something that was continuously evolving in a fast-pace and in accordance with the modern world. Also, even though I wouldn't describe myself as very creative, I wanted something where there was some creativity involved and where I could actually see what I created, fixed or worked on at the end of the day. When I discovered the endless possibilities that coding offers, I knew straight away I had found the right thing. Initially I just wanted to create a website like I want, without a Wordpress template, but that soon evolved into stumbling upon Backend and Databases, which got me even more curious as soon as I grasped the main concepts.
Do you think its important to learn to code?
Yes I do think as our world becomes more and more tech driven, understanding the basics of code is valuable in much more fields than just Software Engineering and might even be required in other fields to some degree at some point. Also the lessons on problem solving, logical and structured thinking, trial-and-error mindset that develops resilience as well as the creativity it can inspire are worth a lot. But I also have to say I do not think it is for everyone to pursue a career in this field or have it as a hobby, like with every other thing in this world.
Do you feel the tech industry is male dominated? How can we encourage more women into the industry?
Yes it definitely is still very male-dominated, but I think the trend is going in the right direction. I think coding is something that should be thought much earlier (especially to young girls) in school to avoid building up the stereotypes that often still come with it. Even though I was already breaking the stereotypes by playing soccer, hating pink and never wearing dresses as a young girl and loved technology, it was never brought up as something I could be interested in, even though my stepdad, uncle and cousin all work in this field. In the end it were Youtubers, events for women and easy access to materials that surfaced in the recent years that brought it to my attention.
Did you struggle being a woman in the tech industry yourself?
So far I have only made positive experiences, with the people that I have talked to not really differentiating between the genders, but between skills. I do think I might have gotten lucky as the Bootcamp that I attend is very focused on reaching Gender Equality and encouraging more women through designated workshops to give Coding a shot.
Whats the most rewarding and most challenging parts of your tech career so far?
The endlessness of what to learn is definitely challenging, as there is always some new release, a different programming language, a different framework and so on. To find what to really focus and put effort and time in, was hard at first, but it is also rewarding as the possibilities are endless with what can be done with code. Also trying to figure out the best, fastest and most efficient solutions has down and up sides. At the beginning especially you just focus on what works first, and if you see how much better someone else can write the same code, that is frightening at first, but it also inspires to learn and read more to improve my own skills. Also time-management is challenging, as I just love what I do, it is sometimes hard to stop working on a problem, a feature or so on even though there is no close deadline and the working hours are long over. Oh and Imposter Syndrome. Overcoming Imposter syndrome especially as a self-though and bootcamp-graduate is a hard process thats still ongoing some days for me.