Marian was one of the enthusiastic Girls in Tech joining our Le Wagon partnered “Coding your own landing page workshop”. Although she had zero coding experience, through asking the right questions, she has started to build a new skill.
Girls in Tech partnered with Le Wagon to host a session teaching interested individuals HTML and CSS Coding by building their own landing page. Le Wagon instructor Mirha is all too familiar with what the participants are going through. She started off her coding journey at Le Wagon and is now giving back and hoping to enthuse and engage more (women) for coding.
We took the liberty of interviewing participant Marian, who attended the session with purely a passion to learn and understand more about coding. She had no experience in coding prior to this as her experience is in fashion retail management. Instead, she had a drive to create her own landing page and hopefully spark a new business idea. Marian shares her thoughts on what she learnt, the impact this had and why she feels this is a workshop to help empower others who want to take control of their own capabilities, businesses or lives through embracing technology.
“Your sharing is very helpful and passionate. Thank you! I will see you again :)” – Participant SF E
Why did you want to attend such a workshop and how did you come across it?
At the moment we’re feeling this internal pressure to make use of the extra time we have at home to develop ourselves. Maybe a little too much – but it has meant I’ve been attending many workshops to learn and get things done.
When I was introduced to this workshop by a friend, who knew I wanted to make my own landing page for my new business idea, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to learn and do something myself. So I signed up on the forwarded link and joined the session!
“A LOT, but fascinating! Thank you so much! All the very best!” – Participant Pathmah
What was the workshop like?
It was run very smoothly and was very well organized. It started at the basics and walked us through every step. It allowed someone like myself with no coding experience to keep up. All I had to prepare beforehand was the material, which I downloaded and had ready to go when the session started.
I loved that it was a way to encourage girls and participants to start coding and that it’s OK if you don’t have any experience because this is a journey. With that in mind and having such a wonderful host, made the whole session more comforting and less daunting. This combination of content, structure and inspiration helped focus me for three and a half hours! I did not expect to enjoy myself so much, let alone keep concentrated for so long.
“Thank you for the very clear explanation ! love the session !” – Participant Dawn
Would this kind of session be useful for experienced coders?
I would say so. Near the end of the session things got too fast for me to follow – and this part was targeted towards those experienced coders. This could be a good refresher for those with knowledge already and give them another perspective on how someone else would code their landing page.
What were your key takeaways?
There are two main things. First, practice. The more you do this, the more familiar you’ll get with it and hopefully better as well. Secondly, there are quite a few tools on the internet at the moment to help you throughout the journey. During the session we were given some tools to use so we don’t have to memorize everything ourselves which was very helpful.
“Thank you Mirha! It was fun and I can’t wait to get started on my journey too. :)” – Participant Heyerina
Will you use what you created?
Well I haven’t fully finished my landing page, but my aim is to complete it and then use my own time to dig a little deeper and improve it. My goal is to see if this landing page is a workable product to help kick-start my e-commerce business. If so, that will allow me to invest into the resources to actually start and outsource some of these projects – because ultimately, I know I won’t be a programmer or coder full-time.
Would you recommend this to others?
Yes, definitely. This is great for anyone who has an interest in knowing what coding actually means. It helps non-coders understand what goes on behind the scenes and can offer an alternative to ready-made templates.
I would also recommend this to any other small businesses who want to kick-start their own websites. Especially those whose business won’t rely solely on the website, like your local bakery next door. Building your own landing page then could be quite useful.
Marian rightly shows that learning and taking capabilities into our own hands can help empower us to build and create what we’ve always wanted to. Be it your own website, a small business or just to learn more things. Complex concepts such as programming and technology can be conquered through small milestones that are designed to make even the inexperienced master them. If you’re interested in upskilling yourself, subscribe to Girls In Tech events so you can keep up to date with the latest workshops and networking events.
About Mirha Masala, the Le Wagon instructor
Before joining Le Wagon, Mirha experimented with 12 lifestyles while blogging and traveling. At the end of this 5-year project, she decided to become a web developer and figured the fastest way to get there would be with Le Wagon. Mirha landed her first job a week after graduating and has since worked both as a freelance and remote developer in Singapore. Find out more about Mirha on her website.
