March 8, 2022, 5:08 p.m.
Victoria's Edition: Meet Ayu and How To Get involved in Tech Communities
Awesome Developer Diaries
Hi Megha and fellow devs,
Last week, you introduced us to Saurabh, a Frontend Engineer who is passionate in building side projects and giving support to the community.
His story is really inspiring! It made me want to start/resume all the side projects in my backlog haha 😂😂
So continuing on the topic of communities, I’d like to introduce you to my friend, Ayu Adiati. She’s a self-taught Frontend developer and mom who’s been inspiring others by actively learning in public and getting involved in many tech communities online.
In this edition, let’s learn about her story and how to get involved in the developer community to learn and grow.
👩💻 Ayu’s Journey Into Tech
Ayu’s journey started about two and half years ago. Having photography as a hobby being originally from Indonesia, she wanted to write a blog about her experiences living in the Netherlands with her two-year-old daughter.
That was when Ayu started to browse about WordPress. Her friend then said to her, “If you really want to have your own blog, and personalize it, why don't you build your own blog?” That was the chain of events which led Ayu to look up web development, code her first “Hello world” on JavaScript and love it ever since.
🤔 Ask Ayu: What were your biggest challenges as a self-taught developer and how did you overcome them?
As a self-taught, I thought I had to help myself and I didn't have anyone. If I’m frustrated in something, I cannot ask anyone. I did not have developer friends when I first started teaching myself.
So I started Twitter account and posted my questions on Twitter to ask for help. I found that people were very kind and were willing to help me. That’s how I overcome my first hurdle in my journey.
Another big challenge is having a 2-year-old, so it's really difficult to have a fixed, undisturbed time in the day to learn web development. So I just had to find and squeeze time to learn. What I find works for me is the one hour during my daughter’s nap time and at night, from 11 until one in the morning.
🤝 Ask Ayu: How did you start getting involved with the tech community?
One time I got burnout from juggling with family, work and learning. All that stops when I tweeted about it. To my surprise, many people responded to my tweet. And it’s mostly other moms who are learning how to code.
They were very comforting and supportive. That was the first time I engaged with the community.
So I joined a group called Moms Can Code and made friends who were living nearby and we became like a study group.
Slowly, I started to open up to the community more. I frequently asked questions on Twitter and received many help. People kindly recommended resources for me and there were even times when strangers were willing to jump into a call to help me with my learning. I think that says a lot about the community.
🌐 Ask Ayu: What other tech communities have you joined?
I’m very much an active member in Virtual Coffee. It is a community for developers at any level. It is a wonderful community full of inspiring individuals from all over the world. We have online get-togethers and events, which are really fun. And a Slack channel to communicate with all the members. A few of my friends from Moms Who Code are the ones who started and grew this community. I’m very glad to be a part of it.
I’m also active in Hashnode and CodeNewbie - hope everyone can recognize these amazing communities 😊 Especially Hashnode since Megha and Victoria are both really well-known there haha!
✨ Ask Ayu: What are your biggest takeaways/benefits for joining these communities?
- We build relationships, that’s the best benefit.
- I made friends from Moms Who Code and I find mentors to guide me. Everyone is really supportive in my learning journey. It helps me to lift me up when I’m burnout, keep me on track in my learning goals and a safe community to share knowledge.
- You also help people when joining a community. When I have the opportunity to help others, I love to help, and people help me back. So we push each other forward together.
- It’s a support system. Everyone learns from each other and grows together.
💬 Ayu’s Final Words
Ayu strongly recommends, to developers of all levels, to join a tech community to build relationships and boost their skills.
Because whether or not you are a newbie or an expert, technology is constantly evolving and you would need to update yourself. Learning a new technology, discussing latest news or sharing experiences at work, a community is the best place for it.
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Thank you Ayu for sharing such wonderful tips, insights and advice about your journey and how you get involved in the tech community! Everyone, do check out Ayu’s blog and connect with her on Twitter.
See you next week,