Rosemary Jammal: Overcoming Insecurity
Written by WWCode HQ
How Rosemary Jammal Overcame Personal Insecurities To Become a Software Engineer At Google
Just four years ago member Rosemary Jammal was a high school mathematics teacher. Today, she is a Software Engineer at one of the largest companies in the world, working to troubleshoot technical issues affecting production, while supporting other technicians with their projects. The story of how she changed career paths, learned code through online tutorials and a coding boot camp, and went on to achieve her dreams is one of courage, determination, and perseverance.
When asked about her decision to enter the world of technology Rosemary said, “I was bored in my previous career and felt there wasn’t enough new information to learn. My career possibilities looked pretty stagnant too. I started taking an introductory programming class on Coursera just as something to do on the weekends. From the beginning I thought it was pretty fun, but after a few weeks, I started to realize it was more than just fun. It was what I spent all day thinking about and looking forward to.”
She quickly made the decision to dedicate her professional life to coding, but there was still one thing holding her back– insecurity. Plagued by self doubt she found it difficult to start the daunting process of learning to code. Even worse, she blamed herself for these feelings, which caused an emotional spiral that was often hard to control. But she managed to find the inner strength to push through these challenges and work towards her dreams.
The truth is, you do actually have some control over it, but it’s not like flipping a switch. It’s something that takes months or years of conscious hard work and effort to overcome, and it never fully goes away,
she said.
Rosemary said Women Who Code provided her with a safe community that she could turn to for support and guidance in the early days when she was still unsure whether she belonged in the tech industry. The enthusiasm everyone had for coding, learning, and working on interesting new projects also inspired her own passion for the craft. This would eventually lead her to participate in ChimeHack, the first WWCode hackathon event.
Describing the event Rosemary remarked, “I had never participated in a hackathon before and was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find a team, or that I would be a burden to a team I joined. Even though I was worried, people at the event really encouraged me to attend, and I figured I’d give it a shot. I was so happy I decided to go. It was a crazy couple days of coding and scrambling to get a working demo together, but I had a lot of fun doing it and was really happy with what we built. The judges must have liked it too because our app ended up winning! It was a real shock to my system and a big confidence boost. ”
With the winnings she earned from ChimeHack, Rosemary was able to save up enough tuition to attend App Academy, a coding bootcamp which she would eventually quit her job to attend. From there she moved on to a position at Advent Software, before eventually making the transition to becoming a Software Engineer for Google.
Rosemary’s advice to others? “Don’t be afraid of failure,” she said. Put yourself out there and fail a few times, so you can prove to yourself that the consequences of failure are usually pretty mild. When you can shake off your fear of failure, you can go forth more boldly, try new things, and innovate in ways that no one else has before.”
Visit Rosemary on LinkedIn.
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