Episode 49 – How Liz made it big as a new developer

Our next guest is Liz Rush and while Liz has only been coding for the last few years, she has become an expert at branding herself, which has turned out quite well for her and even opened up new opportunities. Listen in to episode 49 of Mentoring Developers as Arsalan Ahmed and Liz Rush discuss how she got into tech, what she’s done, and how she designed and built her reputation for success.

Liz’s Bio:

Liz Rush is an independent software developer & evangelist in Seattle, WA. Liz has worked on development teams large and small to build web apps, experimental services, and complex data platforms. She is a graduate of Ada Developers Academy’s inaugural cohort and remains active as an alumna mentor. Prior to transitioning into tech, her professional background was in technical translation & marketing and she studied at St. Louis University in Madrid. When she’s not blogging or coding, she can be found volunteering or out at live music & techno shows.

Episode Highlights and Show Notes:

Arsalan: Hi everyone. My guest today is Liz Rush. Liz, how are you?

Liz: I’m great. Thanks for having me.

Arsalan: It’s so good to have you because you have a lot of interesting stories in your career. Everybody who I interview has interesting stories, but you’re a little bit unique.

Liz: Well, thanks.

Arsalan: Tell me a little about yourself. Who is Liz Rush?

Liz: Well, I am a web and IOS developer in Seattle. I made the transition into development a few years ago through a coding boot camp. Right now I am working as a consultant at a wonderful consultancy called Foundry Interactive as well as doing freelance development and evangelism work.

Liz: Aside from code, I really like to speak at conferences and blog about making the career switch into development. I am also an alumna mentor for Ada Developer’s Academy, which is the nonprofit code school for women that I went through. In addition to that, I also moderate our alumni stack team where graduates and current interns can connect over experiences and share resources. Outside of tech, I really enjoy doing volunteer work in feminist activism and I have hobbies that include sewing and embroidery.

Arsalan: So, I’m thinking “wow, this is incredible.” I think my audience right now would agree. But, I know that in the world of software development, in any industry, two or three years is not a long time. You’re hitting home runs after home runs. It’s amazing.

Liz: Thanks. I’ve practiced my elevator pitch about who I am a few times, but you’re right. I’ve only been doing this a couple of years. I was part of the inaugural cohort of Ada Developer’s Academy. So, this was a new boot camp for women in Seattle where we didn’t pay any tuition and we did a 6-month classroom portion and a 6-month internship at a Puget Sound company. So, I graduated from Ada Developer’s Academy about two years ago. The program is about a year long. I’ve been coding for about three years.

Arsalan: That is incredible and not only that, there’s something very unique about the way you’re approaching this. Okay, so let me explain myself. Not only are you a professional software engineer, you’re also a speaker and not just somebody who has given just one or two talks. This is one of the things that you do. You’re also volunteering. You’re an activist. You’re doing all these things. You’re putting yourself out there and I know from experience and other people’s experiences that when you are an activist and you have a message which is going to rub people the wrong way, you’re going to have haters. It makes life hard.

Liz: Definitely. Yes.

Arsalan: Especially if you are new and may not be as self-confident or may not have established yourself yet and no really sure if you lose your job or if you lose your income. If you lose your current way of making money or something happens to it,