Your Django Story: Meet Jordan Decker

This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.

Jordan is a 25 year old KU grad, currently residing in Lawrence KS. Professionally, she specializes in optimizing social media strategies for local businesses to obtain whatever goals they may have. Her dream has always been to be a Disney Princess  - and that hasn’t changed. Jordan has just modified it to involve wearing a suit instead of a crown, as she hopes to work for the corporate side of Disney some day. Her favorite quote? “Those who don’t believe in Magic, will never find it.”

 

How did your story with code start?

That story has a rough beginning that involves a lot of copy and pasting from Google. There was a situation where I was asked to make changes to an email campaign.. and the only way to do that was to manipulate the HTML. So, I Googled what I needed to do and copied, pasted, and rearranged the code that I found. A little while later, I built a personal website through squarespace, but wanted to manipulate the template, so I again went to Google. Can you believe at that time I didn’t even think it was possible for me to create a website on my own? The story gets better though! Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I went to the Django Birthday Celebration. Suddenly coding became more than just these letters I changed to make a black box appear. The possibilities that code presents are endless and I am now very excited at what I will be able to do with it in the future.

 

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

I’m not really a programmer… yet! I’m a social media and digital marketing master. I’m very interested in coding and want to learn it for my personal growth (I already do everything else in the digital realm, why not add this?). The fact that learning this will have a professional impact is just a bonus for me.

 

What do you love the most about coding?

I know this has been said before, but it’s like magic! If i can think it, I can create it, and I find that incredibly fascinating.

 

Why Django?

Django has a personality. It’s welcoming, it’s helpful, it’s contagious. It’s the first part of this coding world that didn’t feel like numbers and letters and incomprehensible data on a screen to me. I’m incredibly thankful to Jeff for letting me into the conferences during the Django Birthday Party, because if I hadn’t done that, I may not have ever found the Django community. Plus, I live in Lawrence, KS and worked for The Lawrence Journal World for the last 3 years - I think it might be fate?  

 

What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?

I’m a newbie, so I’m working my way through the Hello Web App book. I’ve made it through I think 4 pages so far. The book said before I proceeded I needed to have a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS. So, I have reserved several books from the library about HTML and CSS and plan to start that process this week! Once I get that down, I’ll return to the Hello Web App book and I think I’ll create something like a “Disney Character Search” as I teach myself Django.

 

What are you the most proud of?

My work ethic. I am constantly learning, practicing, and perfecting so that my clients receive the best products and services. I’ve created great professional relationships with clients because they trust me. And that’s all thanks to my work ethic.  

 

What are you curious about?

Coding! I tried to think of something else to say, but that’s what’s at the top of my list right now. It really bugs me that I can’t just sit down and do it! As I said before, I’m new to this world, and it fascinates me.

 

What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?

I travel, blog, play video games, read, think of costumes for conventions and Ren Fests, plan my future Disney trips, and now, learn Django.

 

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

Find the Django people who are available to help you through the beginning. (It won’t be hard to do, this community is amazing.) For me, it started with a conference. I was lucky enough to know someone who could point me in the right direction after that conference. Now I have books, online tutorials, and a phone number I can text if I get stuck along the way. Don’t be intimidated. You can do this!

Thanks Jordan! :)

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