A Young Woman's Etiquette Guide to Coding

We are no longer in the age of etiquette dinners and coming of age balls, but rather have entered a beautiful era of programming and engineering. This is an essential guide crafted to teach young women how to properly learn to code. Forget how to master the dinner table, learn to master the command line. This is an extensive list of resources, scholarships and inspiration to immerse oneself in and to fully embrace the role a young woman must take in the world, the world of STEAM of course.

Study the Terminology

Before going into the many resources that exist for young ladies today, it is important to comprehend a few basic definitions in the tech industry. We will start with the three different type of developers (or programmers) that exist.

Front End Developer [fruhnt / end / dih-vel-uh-per]

"The front end of a website is the part that users interact with. Everything that you see when you're navigating around the Internet, from fonts and colors to dropdown menus and sliders, is a combo of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript being controlled by your computer's browser." - Udacity

HTML

CSS

Javascript

Back End Developer [bak / end / dih-vel-uh-per]

"The back end of a website consists of a server, an application, and a database. A back-end developer builds and maintains the technology that powers those components which, together, enable the user-facing side of the website to even exist in the first place." - Udacity

Server side languages

Ruby

Python

Java

.Net

Languages to find, save, or change data and serve it back to the user in front-end code

MySQL

Oracle

SQL Server

Full Stack Developer [foo l / stak / dih-vel-uh-per]
"Full stack developers work, like back-end devs, on the server side of web programming, but they can also fluently speak the front-end languages that control how content looks on a site's user-facing side. They're jacks-of-all-trades." - Udacity

Example of the skill set of a Full Stack Developer

Now that you understand the relations between these languages and skill sets, you can do some research on which area you would like to test out. There are tons of free online classes available.

Master a Free Online Course

Codeacademy- all free lessons, great for beginners and learning new syntax. A community of 25 million learners around the world.
Mozilla Developer Network- free resources, classes and communities to support you learning how to code.

Coursera- 1,500 free courses available in multiple languages.

Khan Academy

- tons of online free classes in all disciplines.

The Code Player- free project based lessons to learn how to code.

MIT Open Courseware- incredible resource of classes offered at MIT with materials and readings posted publicly.

Code School- $29/month but also has free courses.

EdX- take online courses from top universities such as Harvard, MIT and Princeton.

Team Treehouse- free trial available, then $25/month to access 1000+ videos and lessons.

Udacity- free trials available + "nanodegrees" for learning programming languages which you can post on Linkedin.

Course options at Udacity

Udemy- free and paid classes to learn a variety of programming languages.

Apply for Scholarships and Grants

The Coding Space- an after school program to teach kids how to code. Scholarships available.

CodeUp- Bootcamps in San Antonio, Texas. 2 full-ride scholarship available.

General Assembly- locations in 19 cities around the world offering part and full time programs. Multiple scholarships available. Example:8,500 scholarship available powered by Google.

Dev Bootcamp- In person bootcamp in San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago and New York.500 scholarships for women and full ride scholarships powered by Girl Develop It available.

Code Fellows- Coding school for web and mobile development based in Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, and Chicago, IL.

Bloc- Largest online bootcamp.1000 scholarships awarded every month.

Coding House- A coliving and coworking bootcamp in San Francisco. Scholarships available for women include full tuition and housing.

Hackbright Academy- All female coding fellowship in San Francisco. Need based scholarships from500-2,500 available.

Hackbright Academy

Iron Hack- Bootcamps in Miami, Barcelona, and Madrid. 1000 euro scholarship for women available.

Recurse Center- If accepted, a hacker school with free tuition. Need-based living stipends are awarded between 500 and 7,000.

Code Core- Vancouver's Bootcamp with emphasis on Ruby on Rails. Scholarships available.

Coding Campus- Web development bootcamp in Provo, Utah. 10% scholarship available for women.

Mobile Makers- Chicago based iOs bootcamp.2,500 scholarship.

Flatiron School- Manhattan based coding school. #KodingwithKarlie scholarships available.

Young ladies from Brearley School at Flatiron

Full Stack Academy- 13 week program with 97% hiring rate. Offers an Ada Lovelace Scholarship which contributes1000 to tuition.

Dev Points Lab- 11 week junior developer bootcamp in Salt Lake City. Scholarship with free tuition and 3 month internship and 6 month membership to Church and State.

Nashville Software School- Nashville web development school. Scholarships available.

Launch Academy- full service bootcamp in Boston.500 discount for women.

Makers Academy- London based ruby on rails program. £500 scholarships for women.

RefactorU- full stack javascript bootcamp in Boulder.2,700 discount for women.

Metis- Data science bootcamp in San Francisco and New York powered by Kaplan.2,000 scholarship available.

Try a Bootcamp

I can list them all, but honestly the Thinkful Database is the best resource I have found for searching through all the bootcamps around the world.

Participate in Meetups & Communities

Ladies Storm Hackathons- amazing Facebook group with meetups around the world. Tons of women there are happy to provide resources and mentorship. One of the strongest communities I've seen.

Code and Cupcakes- a coding workshop for mothers and daughters in Chicago

Code & Cupcakes

Women Who Code- incredibly strong network of women all around the world holding hackathons, meetups, and workshops.

Girl Develop It-empowering women through workshops in Javascript and HTML5/CSS3 and a supportive community.

Ladies Learning Code- providing digital literacy for women and youth in Canada. Tons of workshops and lessons in Toronto.

Kids Learning Code- subset of Ladies Learning Code with after school programs available in Canada.

PyLadies- international mentorship group for women to become active in the open-source Python community.

She Plus Plus- a fellowship in Palo Alto for high school students.

Girl Geek Academy- Australian community for women in tech.

Black Girls Code- chapters around the country and powered by American Express.

Lady Loves Code- a blog, podcast, forum, and weekly Twitter chat for female developers and allies

Women in CS @ NC State- mentorship, resources, and community at NC State. If you are in University, check to see if your school has a local women in CS group.

Project CS Girls- a national computer science competition for middle school girls and workshops around the country.

She++ Event

Attend a Hackathon

She Hacks- a hackathon at Monarq to build something to make women's lives
#HackGirlsRights-a hackathon held in 5 cities around the world to help girls have more and better access to safe spaces
Geekettes- a hackathon in Berlin for women
TechLady Hackathon- DC hackathon for ladies.

Gracefully find Mentorship
WEST (Women Entering and Staying in Tech)- A mentorship program being jointly developed by Box, Facebook, and Pinterest.
GIT Mentor Program- a mentor/protégé program powered by Girls in Tech
Tech Women- an initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
Glassbreakers- Mentorship program for modern women

Search for Inspiration

Ladies Storm Hackathons Medium- a compilation of blog posts written by amazing ladies in tech.
Wogrammer- like Humans of New York but with incredibly inspirational female developers showcased.

Photo credit: Wogrammer

Women of Silicon Valley- stories and profiles of women working in companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing- a Facebook page that compiles wonderful resources, information and tips for women in tech.

So that concludes the Young Woman's Etiquette Guide to Coding. Some final Do's and Don'ts to remember:

Do: Join communities, online classes, or mentors to get started. Do independent research to find what learning style works best for you.
Don't: Be overwhelmed by the massive amounts of resources listed. Start with one small step at a time, being an expert does not happen overnight. Take your time and remember practice makes perfect.

Nicole is the VP of Marketing & Recruiting at The Coding Space. The Coding Space is an after school program to teach middle and high schoolers how to code. To learn more about our program take a look here. Feel free to email Nicole at nicole@thecodingspace.com.