Hi there, future developer!

You can remember me as Dragons&Codes so my new handle can be confusing. Let me explain.

Quick recap:

I started my coding journey back in March 2023 and launched my TikTok profile, @dragonsandcodes with it. My goal was to learn to code and get a job in the field, as I felt completely burnt out from my previous 7 years in marketing.

Guess what? Mission accomplished!

Here is how it happened:

💀 Am I cursed?

When I started my learning journey I already knew that I could take a few months off without needing to work.

My goal was to learn as much about coding as possible within three months and secure a junior position. At that time, it was a feasible option. I was sure that if I dedicated 6 to 8 hours of my daily schedule to this endeavor, I would be able to land a job.

Then the layoffs started.

Tens of thousands of developers were let go and junior positions were filled with people who had several years of experience instead of a few months. So the plan went up in flames.

No problem, I’ll lean into content creation, turn to game development, and make some sweet-sweet YouTube AdSense money while looking for a job.

The gaming industry layoffs started.

I was sitting at my laptop in August with 3 problems:

• I had to find a job ASAP

• Nobody will hire me as a junior full-stack developer as I just spent 2 months learning Unreal Engine and game development instead of full-stack.

• Nobody will hire me as a junior UE developer. Period. Game development is the hardest field to get into.

I applied to hundreds of jobs across various fields, but nothing worked amidst the current job market.

🎡 Wheel of Fortune

I’m a tarot card nerd and since September the Wheel of Fortune card popped up for me constantly. I was waiting for a sign or anything to tell me what to do.

First I got an interview for one of the marketing executive positions I applied for. It was a fully remote position for an amazing SaaS company focusing on developers, so it was a match made in heaven.

During this time I also launched my Ultimate Learning Guide For Future Developers and started hosting it on Stan Store.

You may not know this but previously I had over 200 students in my social media marketing courses and have quite a bit of experience selling digital products. So when I was blown away by Stan, I went to LinkedIn and shared my love for the service with my network.

I was pretty surprised when one of the co-founders of Stan reached out to me to say hi.

He checked out my TikTok and wanted to thank me for the shoutout. We had some small talk, and I was ready to move on. I mean if you are active on LinkedIn you know how these things go. Most of the time is just a polite interaction and you may connect to build your network.

But a few days later I woke up to this message:

👩‍💻 Happy End

After this message, I also got offered the marketing executive position mentioned earlier, but deep in my mind I already made the decision.

If I can be blunt here: I already worked in executive positions, and I already sipped margaritas on the beach while working remotely… It felt like going back to a life I left for a good reason.

Toronto is one of the biggest tech hubs in the world and moving there would open countless doors for me.

I don’t want to blindside anybody: you have to know that in my current position, I’ll be mixing my coding skills with my love for content creation sprinkling my marketing experience into it.

The reality is that the company created a special position that only I can fill, because of my unique experience. And because of my cool TikTok videos.

This was the sign I was looking for.

🤔 What’s next?

1. Selling all of our furniture to get ready for our move to Canada 🇨🇦 

2. Working remotely in my new position

With this, my TikTok profile served its purpose.

So I decided to start sharing more of my personal journeys and love for learning. This is why I changed @dragonsandcodes to @fanni_sophia, and have new branding for the newsletter. We’ll still talk about coding, but I have so many more ideas.

Learning to skateboard, to crochet, sharing how I learned to cook in the last few months….

Thanks for joining me for this more sentimental letter this week. If you have any questions please just hit the reply button!