Have you ever wanted to learn a new programming language from a pirate expert? Well, now is your chance! That’s right, folks: our teachers come with a whole host of experiences and expertise here at GDI, and Hanah is no different (she’s just funnier).
Hanah Yendler started her studies as a history major with a focus on pirates (and she will do the ARRR for you to prove it), but she took her first coding class after graduating and everything changed. “I absolutely fell in love. I love the fact that coding is problem-solving in its purest form, and you can build something helpful to the world,” she shares. After her first coding bootcamp experience, she went on to teach bootcamps and eventually landed her first production job five years ago.
Even after many years of experience and growing in the tech field, Hanah remains a curious programmer, citing her favorite tool not as software or an app, but people. “I utilize the people around me, both in work and in my personal life, to learn new things and help me sort through problems.” She uses this creative approach to learning and connecting in her current job as a full-stack engineer at Carbon Health where she is currently working on building a world-class, “kickass” Electronic Medical Record for doctors.
We are lucky to have her leading classes at GDI, starting with her ES6 Cohort that she will be teaching with fellow funny-girl, theater professional, front-end developer, and GDI instructor, Lauren Libretti. Hanah and Lauren will be leading this four-class cohort on the enhanced JavaScript language: An Intro to ES6, Tuesdays and Thursdays, October 19 – 28 from 7:30p – 9:30p ET (learn more and sign up here!). They will be also leading a six-class cohort to follow this series on React in January, 2022.
We strongly recommended learning from these professionals; they make learning informative and fun. And have great advice to share along the way. Hanah jokes that she has “all the advice,” from practices that replace imposter syndrome with a growth mindset, to strategies to stay focused. “I see it all the time that junior engineers try to be full-stack engineers or trying to learn multiple languages or frameworks. Instead, focus on one thing - front end or back end, one framework, one language, etc. You need to have enough depth in one area to be hire-able for a job, not all the areas. So keep the focus.”
We hope you'll join us for more pearls of wisdom, more pirate ARRRRs, and an introductory dive into the programming language ES6, later this month!