When you think about coding or programming, what picture springs to mind? That young person (guy or girl) who has been studying technology and programming since college? Or maybe someone who understands all the tech terms and is just now opening their eyes to the wonders of STEM? Well, would you be surprised if I told you that most of the time, this isn’t the case? In fact, an astonishing number of non-tech-focused majors have started their own businesses after college! Here are two awe-inspiring stories:
Erin Parker was an economics major in college and never felt any urge to code until aged 23. She attended a Railsbridge Meetup and learned Ruby on Rails (her first ever programming language). She instantly fell in love with the idea of tech, and a couple of months later decided that she wanted to build her own website. The website is dedicated to helping women create their own personally perfected workouts. The name? Spitfire.
After traversing various websites and self-help books, Erin built her own website. She later pivoted to jQuery Mobile and built an app after some criticism. She was completely surprised by the turnout; people loved the app and even wanted more – a native iOS app! Flash forward a couple of months and Erin decided to launch a startup for Spitfire. Along with a new co-founder, Erin attended several bootcamps and eventually released the app (which was featured under the “Best New Apps” category in the iTunes store!). The company is now looking to develop Spitfire for android and to expand their reach worldwide!
Think 23 is still considered young, how about age 43?
Ken Hart was attracted to the field of web design through his hobby of fish-keeping; culturing aquatic habitats for fish and other species. He built a website for a blog about his hobby using a Wix template. He didn’t expect it to take off and see a constant viewership from other fish-keepers. Eventually, he felt guilty that he was using a template from another website and decided to learn to code. In his own words: “But rather than cowering behind my newspaper and angrily shaking my fist at the internet savvy kids, I decided to embrace the web and learn how to design websites.”
Ken began watching numerous Youtube videos to learn web design. Once he finished this particularly helpful course, he began making websites for his friends and family. After making one for his local dog walker, the father of the walker (who worked at Aims Media Glasgow) offered him a position as a design intern.
Fast forward four years, and Ken is still with the same agency, now enjoying the flexibility of working from home and visiting the office only for team collaboration and idea-sharing. While his primary expertise lies in design, Ken eagerly seizes every opportunity to expand his knowledge. In fact, the company recognized his potential so much that they funded his programming course, helping him embrace software engineering as a lifelong journey.
And these aren’t all the stories! There are plenty of new and amateur coders out there who aren’t millennials. Programming is a basic skill that everyone should learn, regardless of age; it helps us as a society out in the long run. Don’t believe me? Read this article entitled “To save the economy, teach grandma to code”!
About the author
Stephanie Almeida
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