Everyone loves to be a part of something. We all strive to be involved in communities with like-minded people, where we feel supported and respected. Whether it is sports, church, video games, work, or hobbies that we connect with others, we will all journey through life looking for our tribe. This may involve lifelong friends or a person who you meet once at a work conference, they all impact and mold your experiences.
Six years ago, I started thinking about turning my web design hobby into a full-time career. I was researching web developer bootcamps when my brother introduced me to some web developers in his (now also my) town. I got to explore coding in different languages and met some super supportive souls that led to my decision to quit my job and pursue a coding bootcamp and thus a new career. It was one of the most terrifying decisions that I’ve ever made, but I had support from people who understood and respected my journey.
I moved to St. Pete, Florida to attend The Iron Yard web development camp for four months to study front-end development. Despite the variety of work backgrounds we were coming from, as well as age and family life, some of us became good friends and kept in contact daily for a couple of years. While we went on to have slightly different career paths and don’t talk as often, I learned a lot about how important community is, especially when you are working in tech. This is a fast moving business and having more than one set of eyes and more than one brain to design, build, and troubleshoot is invaluable.
I started working with WordPress five years ago but was the solo developer for most of that time. I knew I needed to find my WordPress community in order to really expand on the passion I felt for this. Lots of things happened. Hurricanes, leaving my full-time job, followed by a pandemic.
Then I did a thing. I saw a Facebook ad for something called WP Rockstar. And from the very first line, “Confidently say ‘YES’ to any WordPress request” I knew I had found the place I needed to be. I signed up for the course, which was everything that I needed to bring Purple Bunny Web Solutions to reality. A huge selling point was inclusion in a FB group called GeekPack that was a community of other students and alumni of the course. Immediately, I felt so connected with the instructor and her team and the other GeekPack members. Within about two weeks, I was hand-picked by the instructor to become part of the technical support team for GeekPack. I’m amazed every day by the women (and a few amazing and supportive gentlemen) who are a part of this group. No matter your age, gender, previous background, future goals, or coding experience ALL of the developers in this group are respected and encouraged.
Checking GeekPack posts is the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do before I go to sleep. I enjoy seeing all of the achievements, as well as helping fellow students through struggles. Sometimes it’s celebrating a business or personal victory with a fun GIF, sometimes it’s taking an hour or two to walk through their code with them to find a missing semicolon or fix a JavaScript error. I love every second of it.
This is my tribe. My people. Fellow developers. WordPress geeks. Like-minded friends. The VERY best co-workers and teammates. This is the community that made Purple Bunny a reality. No matter what you decide to do in life, I truly hope that you find your pack, as I did.
Leave a Reply