The Empower Her Community X Non-Tech-In-Tech non-technical Bootcamp is a Bootcamp geared toward helping women develop skills that can get them ready for a career in tech without having to code. Because many people want to get into Tech, but do not want the technical part - having to code, the Bootcamp comes up as a path to bridge those gaps and connect women with mentors in the fields they are applying for.
Why Technical Writing?
I have been eyeing Technical Writing for a while. First, I am a student and I needed a career where I can freelance and still make enough money (my #1 motivation). While I am currently learning frontend development, the traditional route: Internship » Junior Developer » Mid-Level Developer» Senior Developer was not suitable for me considering I am a full-time student enrolled in a very time-consuming course. The uncertainty that the ASUU strike left me suffering from made me sure that I needed a more flexible path that would combine my strengths, writing, and frontend development and give me my greatest priorities/wants (flexibility with good pay). Technical Writing made sure of all that.
I won't lie, it took me a while to apply. ASUU and how many indefinite strikes they were dashing out kept me in a constant state of back and forth. This left me no choice but to stay passive; hoping that by being passive, I would not have gone so far if the strike is called off. I did not want to go quite far so I would not need to have to "heal" all over again if the strike got called off... What this did was that I suffered when making serious decisions. Often postponing it or not making it at all.
When EHC posted this flyer, I saw it a lot of times; on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Whatsapp but I didn't bother to read through it. I just scrolled off; non-tech? I was already a frontend developer (in-training), of what use could it be for me? Then it closed, and I realized I could have gone for the Technical Writing track
What I hoped to gain
Since writing has been a long-time passion of mine and I was already making good progress with frontend development. the Technical Writing Bootcamp acceptance email came at the right time. I went in search of courses and finally settled on sticking to the Bootcamp. There is nothing better than structured courses and project guidance from people that have towed the path before. I came into the Bootcamp intending to build up good writing habits, and eventually build a technical writing freelance career. I was so excited, and what I learned over 6 weeks met my expectation.
What I learnt
The Bootcamp featured 6 weeks of classes where classes were held two times a week. It kicked off with an onboarding session on YouTube where I met all of the tutors— Elizabeth Okaome was such a good host.
Week One
I had my first class and we went over what Technical Writing was and the tools used for technical writing. I could not attend the first class fully because I had issues connecting via the Telegram Web (on my laptop) but ahead of the second class, I downloaded Telegram for Desktop and joined the class. It was a question and answer section, quite interactive, loved it!
Week Two
This week, we got introduced to an essential skill in Technical Writing; Markdown and created our first blog. I chose Hashnode for my more Technical articles and Medium as a more personal blog. I'm curious to know what blog I am posting this on...
Week Three
This week, we were given a project to write about a chosen topic. I was super indecisive and took a while before settling for a topic. Then I eventually decided to put my Markdown skills to the test and wrote a tutorial on using Markdown. I also submitted my article for review, which was a huge shocker for me because I avoid criticism, especially public criticism, but receiving tailored criticism helped me to make good edits to my article, which I published here » I remember writing my article and thinking I went past the word limit only to see it was far less than 1000 words; the images were deceiving. The tutors also took us through crafting a writing process and implementing a style guide. I decided to use the Microsoft style guide although I haven't implemented it fully in my article, however, once I take a more serious look at it, I will use it going forward.
Week Four
I continued writing my article and tried to publish it but I was scared — the perfectionist side of me. I played around more this week, I also had a lot of engagements so most of what I did was to edit and edit. I also changed the way I added screenshots which took up a lot of my time... However, it was worth it a lot. The screenshots became more readable and the code could get copied too.
Week Five
Once again I procrastinated under the guise of trying to optimize my article for SEO but well... We went through SEO and it was so informative. SEO to me, before this class, was like that term I heard over and over again but never really knew much about it. It was fun. Then I eventually published my article. I got a lot of support from my friends so it felt very good ...
Week Six
This was the last week of lectures and we got introduced to API Documentation and a load of complex lessons. We were told to work on our capstone project and I remember looking at it for a short while and sighing — the draft stage of writing is zero fun.
Conclusion
That was a quick run-through of my six weeks with the Empower Her Community Bootcamp. I enjoyed it amazingly well. I loved how interactive the classes were. How it opened my eyes to a career in technical writing and how much fun it can be.
My highlight of the Bootcamp was when @zaycodes was invited to speak about Open Source. I still remember how beautiful her slides were. That day, she inspired me on a whole different level. I also contributed to an Open Source project but with code, which demonstrates just how much influence you can have on someone. How dare I leave out my article; the procrastination, the endless editing, and revamping, the sharing of drafts, Hashnode not opening... Looking back, it was all fun; maybe not at the time, but that's all in the past. Moving forward, I will be learning API documentation, writing more portfolio-worthy articles, and applying for technical writing freelance gigs! I am grateful to have been a part of this cool experience, and I can't wait to see how far I've come a year from now...