The Only Thing Worth Investing in Is Yourself, with Scrimba Student Özge

Meet Özge Ahras 🇹🇷! Özge studied computer enigneering, but felt her coding skills weren't up to par. She yearned to transition into frontend development and explore cutting-edge technologies, but the company she had spent eight years in was relying on vanilla javascript. Eventually, she discovered Scrimba, back in the day before the Frontend Career Path even existed. Can you imagine?

Özge fell in love with Scrimba's pedagogy and enrolled in the Path. But the journey wasn't without its challenges. It took her two and a half years to complete the course, balancing her studies with a demanding full-time job. And in February 2023, a devastating earthquake struck her hometown in southern Turkey. Yet Özge persevered, realizing that the true investment lay in nurturing her own growth and peace of mind.

Today, Özge is a front-end developer living in sunny Malta! You'll hear how she picked where she wanted to move and how she went about hunting for jobs, as well as learn one trick that boosted her job application success rate. Özge also shares the details of her interview process (spoiler: there was a bit that was slightly unconventional). 

This is a story about giving yourself grace and time, staying motivated, and remaining curious!

🔗 Connect with Özge

• 👩‍💼 Linkedin
• 🌐 Portfolio
• 👩‍🚀 GitHub

⏰ Resources Mentioned

• Özge studied computer engineering and worked at the same company for eight years, but wanted to get better at frontend (01:03)
• How it felt to relearn JavaScript and React (04:15)
• Why JavaScript fixed 90% of Özge's work problems (06:43)
• Community Break with Jan the Producer (07:48)
• How Özge stayed motivated and learned to code alongside her full-time job (09:43)
• Özge's mindset shifted after a devastating earthquake that hit her hometown (11:13)
• Invest in yourself, that's the only thing you can't lose (12:50)
• The aftermath of the earthquake (14:02)
• Letting go of material goals (17:38)
• Why Özge moved to Malta to continue her career (18:35)
• Özge's job-hunting process: ChatGPT and reaching out directly (22:09)
• Özge's job interview (22:41)
• How Özge got a same-day coding assignment... And successfully completed it! (24:53)
• HR questions and a technical interview (26:31)
• And finally, the latest technologies! (27:41)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• Learn React for free!
• Scrimba Bootcamp
• Frontend Career Path

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