Six months looking for a job... Fighting for hope.

ME AS DEV:

Hi! My name is Corina Morera and I’m spanish and a multidisciplinar professional who more than 2 years ago decided to study with the first “Samsung Desarrolladoras'' initiative (2019 / 2020) to be a fullstack developer (with JS) and an “expert” in AI and Big Data (python); Nowadays more focused on frontend development with React JS.

How did I end as a developer? More than 10 years ago I started as a freelancer in the digital field in creative positions: content and ghost writer, final arts for the social networks and blogs mostly, web support while I was acquiring some experience and then, later, I began to retouch blogs and other websites.?

All of these jobs took me where I was once, before Windows even existed, with my father teaching the little girl I was how to program in GWBasic (Do you remember that one?). Computers were always one of my passions, or as we call it in the autism community, one of my personal interests, so I reached a point where I knew I had to come back and conquer that area. I want to swim in code the rest of my life. My most authentic passion is to learn and discover patterns, and… that’s coding!

Since 2020 I’ve been working personally and professionally with React mostly making some SPAs, PoCs, and even using Wordpress as backend (you can see what I’m doing right now in my last personal project in the featured section of my LinkedIn profile).

ME BEYOND CODE:

As an autistic person my brain is different, with different talents and traits than typical people, and I think diversity, in whatever field, is one of the greatest keys we can have.?

But… What about the best and the worst of myself knowing this?

As a more detail oriented person I can usually find some patterns that others can’t see, and I think that can be really cool, I can be really analytic, but I’m worse with the bigger picture (I usually have to work more on that). This also implies that more than once I’m better with complicated tasks than with the most simple ones (yep, weird)…

When someone gives me an opportunity, that person has my eternal loyalty (at least if I don’t suddenly discover that person is the incarnation of evil or something).

I have a strong sense of ethics and empathy, but I love humor, even the darkest one (so I’m not one of those offended people out there).?

I’ve been very much autodidact in the creative field, so I think I can be resolute. And I am a hard and highly motivated worker, simply because I LOVE WHAT I DO.?

What I have to take special care of is the pressure I can put on my own self. A lot of us can pass through what we call a “meltdown”. What is a meltdown? What I hate the most about myself as an autistic person, and the reason why I’m openly talking about me as one.?

I’m much more sensitive than others and it can be a total gift as it can be a total curse, a double edge sword. The pressure I’ve had to put on my back in the past trying to act “normal”, to be perfect, to pretend I don’t have any kind of sensory and social overloads, in short, to not be who I am, can be exhausting and overwhelming. And here would come the meltdown; the brain exploding, activating what you have heard perhaps as the “fight or flight mode”, so the survival instict, and it puts me in a defensive state for a moment, I can’t think properly in that situation and I can say or do something really stupid or something I may even regret. So that’s my weakest point.

Starting with the truth of who I am, I finally allow myself to liberate much of that pressure because statistically speaking I’m not typical but also I’m not less valid.?

So, if you are not one of those people who gets scared in front of diversity and neurodiversity, I’ve been the last 6 months just doing some little jobs and personal stuff. I’m still a junior and, honestly, I’m losing hope to find my place to grow (and to pay the bills, of course, and to eat, although as a good developer I live mostly on coffee). So, please, if you have an opportunity don’t hesitate to contact me, and if you don’t maybe you can share it with someone else.

Thanks to everybody! Have a great day!

Corina Morera.