Learning to Code with ADHD: How Zuza Landed Her First Tech Job after Only Four Months

The Scrimba Podcast

🎙 About the episode

Meet Zuza Grońska 🇵🇱🇳🇱! Zuza is a recently hired new developer with a previous career in social media marketing in the music industry. She's also a Polish transplant who moved to the Netherlands during the pandemic. She craved a career change, and when it turned out that all of her work friends were from the software development team, she put two and two together and decided to learn to code. She landed her first dev job after only four months of intense studying!

Zuza has ADHD, which can be a hindrance and a superpower. In this episode, she talks about the importance of spreading awareness of ADHD and neurodiversity in general. You'll also learn how she approached her portfolio projects, why you should think like a marketer, and how you can stand out in a world where every new developer has a unit converter in their portfolio. Zuza shares how she approached learning to code, what kept her going when she felt unmotivated, why she wanted to leave Poland, and why a career in social media marketing can be draining even though it sounds glamorous.

🔗 Connect with Zuza

• 👩‍💼 LinkedIn
• 🌐 Website
• 👩‍🚀 Github

🔗 Timestamps

• How Zuza started coding in the early 2000s, but never pursued coding (02:26)
• How misogyny plaid a part in Zuza's career choices (04:21)
• Zuza worked in social media marketing, until she realized it was time for a change (05:46)
• How Zuza approached learning to code (spoiler alert: hyperfocus!) (07:30)
• Community Break with Jan the Producer (08:54)
• Following schedules, and good and bad sides of ADHD (11:35)
• How Zuza kept herself motivated (14:25)
• How Zuza approached her porfolio and went beyond the stretch goals with her porftolio projects (18:45)
• How to think about your projects like a marketer (19:56)
• How Zuza applied for a job, even though the job ad was in Dutch and she didn't speak it (24:39)
• Why Zuza wanted to leave Poland (and eventually moved to the Netherlands) (29:24)
• Zuza's new job (31:22)
• Zuza's interview process (32:34)
• Quick-fire questions! (33:26)
• Zuza's tech interview (36:39)
• Zuza became a CSS expert! (37:45)
• Working with ADHD (40:17)
• Zuza only got diagnosed with ADHD two years ago (44:10)
• Why spreading ADHD awareness is important (45:12)

🧰 Resources Mentioned

• Frontend Developer Career Path
• Scrimba Bootcamp
• Kevin Powell
• MDN Web Docs
• Sass
• Kink.nl radio

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