Hi, Dev.to folks! Hope you’ve all been well and are staying safe!

I wanted to do an update/retrospective after my first few months of working at my first software engineering job…but a little while ago, it was part of the big wave of COVID-related layoffs.

Luckily, I learned a HUGE amount during my 2 1/2 months there, so I’m here to share and explore those lessons!

There are three things I plan to write about:

• I learned a lot of patterns and techniques for working with Rails and Vue—and I’m currently starting a project, QueerHub, to re-implement them on my own, entirely from scratch!
• Both last year and this year, I’ve accumulated some jobhunting advice, much of which comes from answering questions from other coding bootcamp graduates—I want to share my strategies, especially with respect to navigating mental health issues, queerness, and the current US quarantine
• One of the reasons I love Dev.to is that it’s a place to be my whole-ass queer self—I’m here to share my perspective as a queer trans woman, and ways to be a better ally to people like me while at work, while networking, and in general!

Good to be back, everyone—glad you’re all here, and looking forward to catching up! (And picking up some new video game and/or trashy TV recommendations to keep me sane!)

Accurate representation of how much I want to hug right now. <3