Forem: Estefania Flores

Apprenticeship Experience pt 1

Estefania Flores — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 21:29:13 +0000

Well guys, I finally did it; I got a programming apprenticeship. You know how everyone tells you things like, “Wait for your moment” and “It wasn’t your time” when you get a rejection or things don’t go the way you planned? I hate that. But it’s something I have learned to get comfortable with because without rejection, you don’t grow. You know what though? I wouldn’t be as appreciative of this opportunity if it hadn’t been for all the rejections I have had in my life. Maybe people who tell you that are really up onto something.
Like I’ve said in my previous post, I am from a small, rural area in California with little tech opportunities. A few years ago, I was introduced to a company trying to bring tech to the Central Valley, Bitwise.
Bitwise is an up and coming tech hub located in Fresno started by founder, Irma Olguin Jr and Jake Saboral. Bitwise has an extension, Geekwise, where people interested in tech can take classes. Geekwise offers classes from specific programming languages to free design workshops. The whole goal of Bitwise/Geekwise is to have a more accessible route into tech for people from all walks of life in the Central Valley.
Of those who choose to take the courses, some are invited to interview for a cohort position. The cohort is a paid internship type opportunity, learning whatever is necessary to contribute to the project at hand, kind of an accelerated apprenticeship. They are doing something that most companies don’t do, I am getting paid to learn instead of just getting thrown into the ring of fire and that is something that I am truly grateful for. When you accept the full-time cohort position, you are also agreeing to help teach and co-teach the classes offered. Personally, I like to teach things back to people because it helps solidify the information for me. Watching the “lightbulb moment” when everything clicks and the person I’m helping understands.
I was assigned to the cohort that is working on a banking app using both Python and React. This first week has been dedicated to learning Python and it has been fast but very gratifying. Most of my background as far as work, is a lot of customer service positions so when people have asked me how the new job is going, I always answer, “different.” Everything has its ups and downs but I have honestly never gone home so satisfied or eager to go home after work to practice on my own.
This week we went over basic Python. Really hit dictionaries and functions, learned how to manipulate apis by implementing CRUD functions for what’s to come in the future. Coming from a Ruby/Rails background, the syntax was a little difficult the loops looked incomplete to me, I wanted to write “end.” I understood what was happening in the functions but when I was writing them on my own, I was struggling without talking it out and being able to confirm it with a colleague. I had to go home and work on my own to make sure I was grasping the information enough to teach it back. When I can teach it back, I feel like I truly understand it and can move to the next challenge. And honestly, in the jobs I’ve held in the past, I wouldn’t have worked on projects at home. It feels good to be working on something I actually enjoy and don’t mind working on at home. There are some things outside of actually writing code that comes with the territory I have to get used to as well.
Can we talk about how intimidating code reviews are? I think I was expecting to be
questioned like in an interview but, not yet. When I realize everyone is struggling in the same places as I am, it makes me feel better. Coming from an online bootcamp, the sense of community is a little lost. You have things like Slack to keep in touch with your colleagues but it’s never the same as sitting with people and bouncing ideas off of them. That said, I have little experience working on a team when it comes to writing code. So I’m really excited to get that experience under my belt and also share it with you, my online community.
Before I got to my first day, I thought I was going to be bad, not as good as the rest and you know what? I’m probably not as good as some of the people in my group and that’s okay, I need to focus on myself and how I can grow as an individual and as a programmer. That’s mostly what this blog will consist of during these next few months so get your popcorn ready or snack of choice and strap in for the ride.

DIY Cheesy Pickup Line and Twilio

Estefania Flores — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 17:17:43 +0000

Hey guys and welcome back to my channel! Just kidding, that’s not what this is, I just don’t know how to start a blog. I’m not even a YouTuber.

Anyway, a few months ago, I decided to participate in my company’s incentives for our health insurance. I made an appointment for a regular physical --- what’s wrong with a little extra cash and making sure everything is still running like a well-oiled machine?

The day before my physical, I get a text to confirm my appointment with my PCP. Select one to confirm. This got me thinking about how these sms messages are procured and sent.
While I was scrolling through the interweb and it’s vast indexes of information, I came across Twilio.

Twilio is a straightforward and fun way for businesses to communicate with their members in ways that makes sense for them. Twilio has sms, voice and video options. With a little fun and engaging “how-to” Twilio has quests to teach you how to use their product. I selected a phone number I wanted my messages to come from and I was off to the races. I started my first quest: voice functionality. (Let me preface this with the fact that I have random song lyrics coursing through my head constantly.) Several options on languages makes it easy for companies with national and international users. I chose English and with an English accent, just to make my selection a little more classy. For whatever reason, the first thing that pops into my head is Iggy Azalea’s, “First things first, I’m the realest.” I call the phone number that I had selected and I hear an automated voice saying the lyrics. I’m stoked; super painless tutorial and I got my XP in the quest.

The second quest in the Twilio tutorials consists of implementing a dog facts API and receive a random dog fact when you text the phone number you chose. After doing the Random Dog Fact tutorial, I decide I’m ready to spread my wings and fly and write my own function. I think about some things you could get in a text message and settle on pickup lines. Who doesn’t like a cheesy pickup line? But I know I will need to build an API for this like in the Dog Facts Tutorial.

I decide to use Sinatra, a micro-framework built with Ruby to help make writing API simple and achievable. My first time using Sinatra, I follow another tutorial to make a quick API. I get stuck, multiple times. Can we just take a little break from this to talk about how true that saying about giving up is? Thomas Edison said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” I pushed through, finished writing the API. I chose to copy and paste a few pick up lines I found online since I don’t have that many up my sleeve. I paste them into a text file and add a route. Everything is great and working till it wasn’t.

Since this is a leisurely project, I chose to stick with Heroku it’s free and easy, like pushing to Github. Of course I get an error because I am missing a file, thanks logs for letting me know exactly what I’m missing. Add the Configure.ru file and do a quick bundle command. IT WORKS.

Now that I have it on Heroku, I’m feeling great; let’s finish this and get those pick up lines in texts. I quickly add the route to my brand new API, feeling great. I forgot Heroku, since it is free, has some downtime when it doesn’t operate. It doesn’t work, I’m not done. Since I forgot, I get annoyed and am changing a little bit of everything because obviously, what I assumed was correct was not. I decide to take a step back because I need a break and it’s late, past my bedtime.

I have dreams about what I need to fix and I see myself coming up with a solution that makes sense. I think about it all day at work and can’t wait to get back home to resolve it. When I get home and open my computer, I started doing a little more research for other options because I can’t be the only one dealing with this right? I come across a Twilio tutorial on YouTube and say, “Duh it’s their product, of course they know what to do.” I changed everything in my original code and it still doesn’t work. Weird. I had to phone in a friend. It took me awhile to realize this, but I love processing outloud. I get stuck, and explaining things to other people the way things work and what I am expecting as an outcome helps the fog to clear up for me.

I call my brother in law, my go-to for all my coding issues (and ceiling fan installations, but we’ll save that for another time). We end up going to the original code and talk about why and how it couldn’t work because it made sense. We try it again and IT WORKS. One more test run, just in case. I can confirm when I get a lame pick up line to my phone when I text 1 to the Twilio phone number.

I am pretty proud of myself for not giving up and completing the goal I set for myself, this blog post included. I love showing people what I did, not only to prove I can do cool things like build a random pick up line SMS project but because I hope people realize they can do it too as long as they don’t quit. Who knows you could end up learning a little bit about yourself, like how I learned how hilarious I think cheesy pick up lines are.

My Own Beginners Guide To A Career In Tech

Estefania Flores — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 05:00:20 +0000

Let’s start off with, “Hi! I am Estefania Flores” and “you’re probably pronouncing it wrong” (Este-fa-nee-ah). I grew up in the Central Valley, “Where is that?” you might ask. It’s the part of the California that no one talks about, The Gateway to the Sequoias. Sounds exciting right? Lots of cows and the least amount of tech in California. So, who am I? I am a person who loves making connections, helping people understand difficult topics and tech. Recently, I had an epiphany about what I wanted to be when I grow up, a Developer Advocate.

I went to a meetup while living in Silicon Valley, I watched the woman give a lesson whilst still keeping it upbeat and funny. She got everyone involved and made everyone feel comfortable enough to share thoughts and random stories. When I got home that night I looked up what her actual title was, Developer Advocate. The more I researched, the more I was falling in love with the position.

2019 has started my adventure in getting the job I really feel like is for me. Have you ever felt something just click after a long time of walking around aimlessly thinking, “Yeah I’m good at that and I like it so I should probably do it?” that was me, until now. This is pretty much another blog about the process it will take me to get the job I feel like I was made for. So stay tuned, learn more about a stranger from the part of California that you probably didn’t know existed.

I am going to give you the struggles and not sugarcoat things. Life is rough, people struggle but, if it were easy, it would be boring so the struggles make it worth it. At least give you fun stories to tell friends, like the one time I rode my bike to school in high school and ended up losing control of my bike and slamming into a bush, dust flew everywhere and I was embarrassed but now I laugh.

It’ll be fun, I promise, you’ll get some ridiculous laughs and maybe, hopefully, I’ll get a job.