Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable with Aimee Knight

There's no denying that engineers are in high demand. Bootcamps are popping up everywhere, and while they're churning out highly motivated juniors, often it's seniors that companies are really after. So how do we bridge this gap together? On the surface it often looks like we've 'naturally' developed into our current roles. And, as we progress it's incredibly easy to forget what it was like being new. Rest assured however, for most the journey has been filled with a whole lot of grit, determination, and discipline.

In this talk, we'll discuss lessons learned one year after going from a bootcamp grad, to a full time, full stack JavaScript developer. Plan to walk away empowered, and with renewed passion for the incredible industry we're all a part of!

Speaker Bio
I’m Aimee Knight, a former figure skater and software engineer at DramaFever. In 2014 I decided to go all out, and spent six months as a student in the fourth cohort of the Nashville Software School where I focused on JavaScript, Node.js, and Ruby on Rails.

Coming from a background in collegiate sports I’m highly driven. After my first degree, I spent a lot of time working with developers and in late 2012 my career path began to diverge. When a developer for my employer’s site handed off their CMS to me saying “don’t touch anything outside of this” my fate was sealed. My curiosity, coupled with increasing frustrations from the surmounting code changes we were always needing, led me on a path of no return. I started to stay up really late so I could work on the site while (hopefully) no one was looking. Within a few weeks I was hooked.

As a former professional figure skater I have a tremendous amount of energy and grit. Outside of work, I’m a panelist on the JavaScript Jabber and Angular Air podcasts, a co-organizer for CharmCityJS, Board Director for Operation Code, and an avid runner. I’m a type A personality, and I’m not at peace, unless I have a set of challenges in front of me. As a former bootcamper, I also really enjoy mentoring current students, and helping out at Baltimore NodeSchool.