Sarah Shook, Freelance Web Developer & 3 Kids
About Sarah
Sarah Shook, Web Developer
š©š»āš» Job: I currently freelance. My current projects work with Gatsby and Tailwind CSS on the frontend, with Prismic and GraphQL on the backend. In the past Iāve worked with many other languages including PowerShell, SQL, and PHP, and Iām open to project opportunities with those languages (or others!)
šŗšø Dallas, TX, US
š¶š»š¶š»š¶š» I have a 6 year old whoās just finished homeschooling, a 3 year old, and a 1.5 year old (all three stay at home with me during the day).
š„ Twitter
āØ Shook Codes
ā”ļø Hashnodes
Resources
I enjoy podcasts about current events, history, and tech (Lady Bug Podcast is a great podcast run by women!).
Career
Coding and learning
What do you like most about coding?
Everything is a puzzle. You can figure out how to make the computer do anything you want with the correct logic.
From what I understand you finished a coding bootcamp at home while taking care of your kids, this is amazing. Self-learning is hard, I canāt imagine what it is with kids. What gave you the motivation to enter this journey? What was your setup to make this all happen?
Iām currently attending bootcamp, and am scheduled to finish at the end of July. I used to work for a non-profit where I was the only developer, and while I learned a LOT, I always felt like there were holes in my knowledge.
I took a step back from working full-time after having my 3rd child, and focused on learning.
Balancing everything is a challenge, but I want to provide the best life for my kids, and Iām hoping the work Iām putting in now will pay off tenfold in the future.
Twitter Developers & Friends
I came upon your An Introvertās Personal Guide to Tech Twitter post, what was the greatest thing Twitter brought into your life?
I joined Twitter because I didnāt know anyone who coded in my personal life. Being the only developer at my last job was sometimes lonely - I didnāt have someone to help me solve issues or celebrate the wins of resolving a challenging coding problem.
I joined Twitter to communicate with other developers. At first my expectations werenāt high, but I quickly built relationships with developers across the world. There are several people I consider friends from Twitter, and we support each other not only in coding, but in other aspects of our life.
Back to work
The route of freelancing
Youāre actually job hunting. As a parent, what will convince you to join a company rather than another. What are you looking for and what will make a difference?
Iāve actually decided to go the route of freelancing for now, due to the flexibility and ability to work for myself.
I started my own LLC to keep me motivated, and Iām excited for what the future holds!
Taking things day by day
In this post you talk about the challenge of finding time to code with a family. For job interviews and home assignments, can you find time and energy to dedicate to this? Or is it also challenging?
I haven't had time to code yet today due to being a parent at home with kids. I'm trying to be happy for my friends who are succeeding, but today it's kinda hard, as my priorities are so much different and I don't have as much time to code (but have so much coding to do!).
— Sarah Shook šš (@shookcodes) May 3, 2021
I take things day by day. Some days I am able to code for hours; others I donāt have time to open my computer. My spouse is very supportive and takes care of our kids when I need time to focus on homework or my career.
Career-mode
What do you like most about being back in ācareer-modeā?
I donāt think ācareer-modeā ever left, it was just put on the backburner for a while. That said, itās become my main priority again (other than parenting, of course!), and I am grateful that I can try to be successful on my own so that my kids will have a great future.
Career & Parenting
Computer vs Kids
You make your family your priority, I love reading that. Working in tech, and having so much to do with side-projects, new things to learn etc., itās important to be reminded that āOur kids are only young for a while, and enjoying time with them is more important than focusing on coding/tech related stuff all day.ā Sometimes we tell ourselves āI will just finish this projectā, āI just try this thing and I stopā, it can easily become hours to the detriment of our family. How do you set boundaries to not do too much work?
One thing that's been hard for me to learn, especially as a parent dev, is not to take more than I can handle in regards to projects and goals. These days my short term goals are spending time with my kids & doing fun things w/them & finishing bootcamp.
— Sarah Shook šš (@shookcodes) April 5, 2021
I notice when I work too much and get too involved in something, I become short with other people (because all Iām thinking about is the problem or project on the computer, and I donāt want to be bothered).
When I get to that point, I know itās time to step back and take a break. The computer will always be there; like you mentioned, my kids wonāt always be young.
Freelance & Involved parent
What are your career plans? What would be the ideal plan to make you happy as a developer and a mom?
I took the plunge into freelancing, and while Iām not sure exactly where that path will take me, I am happy for the freedom it provides.
As my time opens up, Iām hoping my clients will grow, possibly leading me to form an agency. Working on my own time so that I can be an involved parent is my ideal situation.
Parenting
Time for yourself
Being a mom of 3, and having limited time, how do you take time for yourself? How do you avoid burnout?
Usually I take time for myself by going to the gym for an hour 3 - 5 times a week (though sometimes that is put on hold due to my husbandās work schedule or sick kids).
As far as avoiding burnout, I donāt get as much time to code as people do if they are kid-free or their kids are in some type of live schoolā¦ So while I do get tired of coding sometimesā¦ I donāt think itās as much as others who actually sit and code for 6+ hours a day (because I canāt manage that amount of time per day usually).
When burn-out does happen, I take a night to focus on one of my other hobbies.
Homeschooling
How do you organize for homeschooling?
The school we go through currently has a weekly plan set out. I read the weekly plan, then try to get my daughterās schoolwork done each day based on the weekly schedule.
While schoolwork can be completed at anytime, having a set number of assignments that are recommended to be due on a specific day helps me tremendously.
Free writing
Being a parent developer can be difficult, especially if you were career-oriented before kids, but then wanting the opportunity to stay at home with them while theyāre young.
I deal with depression and anxiety (which Iām open about on Twitter), and sometimes mental health can factor into my productivity, both in parenting and coding.
Many people deal with mental health obstacles, and thatās ok. What matters is that we take things day by day and try our best; first, to be a good parent, and secondly, to focus on our careers or anything else thatās important to us.
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