Forem: Sarah Price

How to Promote Yourself

Sarah Price — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 02:54:31 +0000

First though I would stop and ask why do you want to promote yourself and what is your end goal? Are you trying to become an influencer, get a job, or gain recognition in the field?

Here are some ideas (depending on your level of experience):

Start a Blog: I would say an easy way to promote yourself is by starting a blog. You can answer questions on it, post research or side projects, put your own spin on the field, etc. I would start out with creating a personal website with a professional domain and then cross-posting to sites like Linkedin, Medium, Dev.to and other places. Then promote those blog posts on social media.
Write for other Online Publications: This is similar to the topic above but if you search Medium, you’ll find a lot of UX focused publications like UX Planet and UX Collective. Look into what the requirements are to become a writer for them and start pitching articles.
Put “[Your Title]” in all your social media handles: This one is really easy and free!
Volunteer: There are a lot of opportunities out there to volunteer your skills. Not only will this get you real life skills, but it’s great for networking as well. You don’t have to volunteer a ton of time, but even 5–10 hours a week will help out a lot.
Mentor: There are a ton of people also looking to break into your field and if you have some seniority in the field, there are lots of people looking for mentors. ADPList is a good place to start for free.
Create Courses: You can look into how to publish a class on Udemy, Skillshare, or Linkedin Learning. If you like teaching, this is a good way to not only get name recognition but to earn some money as well on the side.
Publish an Ebook: Another writing method that involves earning some money as well. If you have a lot of knowledge, you can look into self publishing an Ebook on Amazon, Gumroad, and other places.
Be Active on Social Media: This method can be really time consuming but also possibly rewarding. The community is active on almost every social media platform out there. Look for ways you can contribute to conversations without seeking anything in return.
Be Active in your Local Community: There might be opportunities for your to get involved in some local networking or professional clubs around you. Some of them might be career specific if you’re lucky, otherwise there’s always general clubs as well. See how you can participate by showing up to meetings and events and if you’re feeling up to it, volunteer with them!
Give Talks: If you’re a good speaker, some conferences will pay you to give talks for them. Or you can give talks for free. Find local conferences and pitch your presentations to them.
Host a Podcast or be a guest speaker: These days, everyone has a podcast but people still love listening to them! Maybe writing isn't your style, but you can talk a lot! Look into creating a podcast or if that sounds like a lot of work, look into opportunities to be a guest host or speaker on one.
Promote other people: People don't always love it when you're talking about yourself. As awesome as you are, it always helps to promote other people as well. Maybe someone wrote a really cool book or they made a really helpful tutorial. Make sure to share it and give them credit for it.
Participate in Open Source projects: This is good for your own skill set, portfolio, and name recognition. Look for projects that you can contribute to, even if its just helping to debug some code or double check someone's work.

My Master Guide To Learning Front-End Development and UX/UI in 2020

Sarah Price — Sun, 12 Jul 2020 00:04:06 +0000

A couple months ago, a good friend of mine asked me how to learn how to code. Since she already has a background in design, I thought web design or UI developer would be a good fit for her. So to help her get started, I created a master list on my github to share with her.

I included a variety of topics such as:

Essential Topics and Learning
Mastering the Front-End
Tutorials
HTML, CSS, & Javascript
Advanced Topics + Computer Science
Exercises
Just for Fun
Developer Communities
Accessibility for Developers
Job Boards
UX & UI Design

I tried to cover a wide range of topics and subjects, especially ones I wish I had learned about when I first started. Like accessibility for examples. Or learned more computer science concepts.

When I first started out, I learned the very basics of HTML and CSS, we barely covered Javascript in my classes. We did however touch on other great ideas like Wordpress and responsive web design.

But I didn't know that there were guides on how to learn everything and I wish I would have known about them back then. I really enjoy the popular Road Map to Front End Development (2020) and other similar resources.

Guides like these make learning development a lot less daunting, since otherwise everything is overwhelming. For the newbie dev or beginner programmer, it can be tempted to want to learn everything at once. But I think with some guides and mentorship, we can help each other grow and become better.

Please let me know if there is anything I should add to it!

View My Guide

6 months in to fight impostor syndrome

Sarah Price — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 15:35:24 +0000

I've been working primarily as a front-end developer for 3 years now and while I'm currently job hunting, I'm using this time for self-improvement.

I'll admit I've never felt like a true developer.

I majored in design in college, learned coding during my interactive media minor. Most days, I do more design then code at my jobs.

I learned HTML and CSS really quickly, but never picked up Javascript or other programming languages as fast. I also never studied Computer Science, so a lot of that I have had to teach myself.

Because of this, I've always been self-conscious about working as a developer.

I can make a website, but getting into the nuts and bolts of animating it with Javascript, React, Vue, Node.js, or something else has always felt a bit beyond me.

Well since I have a lot of time on my hands right now, I know I can't sit around and just magically expect to get better at it. I'm also aware that the next company I work at will probably expect me to be decent at those things.

So in the past year, I've been working really hard to master what I feel I should know and become more confident when I tell people I'm a developer.

INSPIRATION CENTRAL

Twitter

One of the things that has been particularly useful in feeling more confident is joining the developer Twitter space.

Everyone one there is so encouraging.

I’ve also been learning a lot that I feel I wouldn’t have otherwise. Every time I see someone mention a new technology or a new language I don’t recognize, I write it down to google later. That way I at least have an idea of what people are talking about.

I’ve also been inspired by the other people on there who live stream coding sessions. I think doing activities like that is a great way to show off what you know and help other people learn thing.

Tech as Art

I recently found out that people like to create digital paintings using CSS and I never thought to use it for that before. It’s another thing on my to-do list to try and master.

Ever since I learned Processing in college, I’ve always loved the idea of using programming to create art.

Lady Dev

My really inspiring activity of the year has been volunteering with a local club called Lady Dev. They’re an inclusive group and the members are all super talented and really cool. I’m so lucky to be working with them this year.

Medium, Dev . to, and Hackernoon

I’ve always loved reading and blogging so I love that there are people in tech who also love this side of communications. Being one of those people who learn by reading, I find articles on programming and computer science to be particularly helpful.

CodePen and GitHub

I actually didn’t make an account on Github until several years after I started programming. I wasn’t proud of the first things I created and I couldn’t share any of the code I created at work.

So it wasn’t until recently that I really started to use CodePen and Github like I should. I know not all programmers regularly use them. But I like to find places to show off my work and explore new concepts.

I’m using these sites also as a way to show my progress and to try and fight my perfectionism. As someone with OCD, uploading half finished projects or projects I’m not super proud of bug me to no end.

But I’m slowly learning to let go of that by purposefully uploading my progress and focusing on the little wins.

My Task List

One of my dream positions would be to work as a UI Developer or a Web Developer, so that's what I'm aiming towards.

Udemy classes on Javascript, React, Vue, and CSS
Begin to study PHP and SQL
Following other developers on Twitter and researching any terms or languages I come across that I'm not already familiar with
Watching Youtube tutorials and code streams
Khan Academy CS course, Interview Cake on CS, CS course on Youtube and a book on CS
Practice programming by creating projects
Quizzes on w3schools
Practice common interview challenges
Update my Github and Codepen more frequently
Answer questions on Quora and browse Stack Overflow
Brush up on technology mentioned in job postings I don't already know
Read tech articles on Medium, Dev.to, and Hackernoon
Join Women in Tech communities and volunteer as the Officer of Joy for a local group

My goal is to continue these tasks until I feel more confident and hopefully, I will be able to more faithfully say I'm a developer in my next interviews.

So far I think this task list has been working and although I haven't mastered anything yet, I am doing great so far. I am excited to see where I'll be in another 6 months.