Hour of Code: Do it!

This will be a quick one. To those of you who don’t know me. I’ve just been accepted into ThoughtWorks an Agile Software Consultancy Company. I start January 2014. What might surprise you is that I never went to University. Well that’s a lie I went to University and have a degree in Nursing. I’ve been a Cardiac Nurse for most of my career with humble beginnings in Gastroenterology. I was driven to learn how to code, to solve a problem while working as a co-coordinator of the Chermside Cardiac Rehabilitation unit in Brisbane. I wanted to cut down assessment time because there was sooo much paper work. One of the contributing factors was how long it took to conduct a 6 minute walk test. Sounds like it takes 6 minutes, but after recovery of the client, explanation of the test, explanation of results, calculating formulas and then having to document the results in 5 different places. It turned into a nightmare. I was so fascinated with this small problem, I decided to tackle it myself in my own spare time. I taught myself how to code and found other people who helped me learn. It started when I was introduced to CodeAcademy…it was the Year of Code…I taught myself HTML, CSS, Javascript (I’m still learning and have a long way to go yet) and managed to build an app that I wrapped in PhoneGap. My app is now downloaded all over world and although I’m not making millions. I still find it so rewarding to see people use my app and continue to improve it. I love coding so much that I resigned from my Cardiac Rehab Job (my last day was two weeks before my wedding) and decided to take my novice Web Dev skills to the next level. After blood sweat and tears I now have a portfolio I’m proud of (that I will continue to grow) and can happily say that I will be a Graduate User Interface Developer at ThoughtWorks. The point is if a Nurse from Brisbane can teach himself how to code and change his career to Web Development without a University Degree. I’m sure you can too. I’m very excited to be part of the “Hour of Code” movement. I hope to gain more experience at ThoughtWorks and one day build more robust software to tackle bigger problems in the Health Care Industry.