I'm Silvia, Front End Developer.
I love building beautiful and accessible websites.
I'm based in Barcelona, Spain.
{...skills}
Here's what I've used so far:
JavaScript
TypeScript
Git
React.js
React Router
Redux
HTML 5
CSS 3
Jest
styled-components
Tailwind CSS
C
MySQL
Figma
{...about}
Economist by university, Developer by passion.
In 2022 I graduated from a bootcamp, where I discovered the beauty of coding and programming. I started working for a software company shortly afterwards as Front-End Engineer, diving deep in JS, TS and React. The journey has been lovely so far, and what started casually as "I'll study a bit of this and let's see" turned quickly into a passion.
Before this, I've worked for several years in international teams and projects in the pharmaceutical industry. I cherish this past work experience as it taught me a lot about how to effectively cooperate and communicate to reach results. Check my LinkedIn to know more.
I'm currently learning...
- JavaScript, TypeScript and React... Yeah, this never ends ;)
- Testing, as it's clear to me the importance it has in building solid applications.
- Foundations of computer science: as Economics graduate, I love understanding why things add up, so I figured some programming theory wouldn't hurt.
- Web accessibility: this is becoming an essential area for me. There is so much power and information on the Internet right now, we simply cannot forget to make everything we build accessible for everyone.
My philosophy is...
- Divide and conquer: break the problem into smaller ones, have clear the input you're receiving and the output you want to serve.
- Investigate: I want to understand how things work "under the hood", and I don't reuse pieces of code I don't understand.
- Improve: as I progress with learning and I get more and more exposed to other people's code, I try to improve my own code, and leave it cleaner.
- Teach to learn: I enjoy helping others to understand concepts I have already clear. It puts my learning at 10x speed.
- Make it accessible and usable: it's our responsibility to create universally usable applications and to make our corner of the Internet just a little bit more awesome (quoting the great Kevin Powell)!
TL;DR
Deciding to change career was a good call. I've been truly enjoying being a developer: I love learning and building something every day!
I'm just a tiny step ahead of fellow career changers looking for their first developer job, but I'll always advocate for junior career changers. Check below my arguments' list for hiring a Junior Developer - if you are trying to break into tech, it's all yours :)
{...projects}
MWC22-4YFN Hackathon
Single Page Application built for the Mobile World Congress 2022 - 4YFN Hackathon, which ranked 6/79 for the Front End challenge.
Read more...
The application is a profile creator with form validation entirely built from scratch; it collects user data and generates a profile page with the same information. It contains also an avatar generator (consuming data from Dicebear API). It contains three screens (welcome page, form, profile viewer), and uses LocalStorage API to save user's data. As mentioned, the application scored very well in the challenge (based on: user stories, code quality, and documentation), winning a participation to the in-person group finale.See my learnings...
✔ prioritizing features and coding efforts when time is scarce, is really vital ✔ writing consistent documentation is essential yet also time-consuming ✔ form validation has a steep learning curve, however once you understand one, you got them all ✔ accessibility is an important topic for me; it wasn't a requirement in this case but I tried to keep the app accessible ✔ it was surprisingly good participating in a hackathon!Built with React.js, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, React Router, API, Styled Components
Speed Typing Game
Simple Speed Typing Game built during the React Bootcamp course on Scrimba, adding extra features I considered useful or necessary.
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When the user clicks start, they should type in as many words as they can; at the end of the timer, the program counts the valid (English) words inserted and displays the score in words per minute. I added some features to the original task: checking if words are valid through an API, making time allowed editable by users, saving the best score in words per minute, the reset/restart button, and some checks to discourage cheating :)See my learnings...
✔ behind a "trivial" application there can be a fair amount of logic, as in this case ✔ keeping a usable and consistent UI is not an easy task, even in a simple app ✔ adding features that I deem necessary or nice-to-have is a true creative task ✔ it was also nice for once, to build something to play withBuilt with React.js, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, API
Portfolio
Yeah, this website :) I particularly liked the final result, so I figured it earned a place in this section.
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To be honest, at first I didn't want to include it in here, it felt a bit like an infinite loop. But then, I developed it completely from scratch (no templates - minimal dependencies), and I challenged myself with the form validation, the email sending, and a CSS framework I had never used before. It was also my first time deploying with a custom domain. I'd love to turn this into an open source project for other developers and add my blog section, so eventually I think it deserves to be included here.See my learnings...
✔ the journey of developing a website at your liking can be extremely enjoyable ✔ always get the design (mobile, desktop) ready before coding ✔ I prefer to code my own forms rather than use libraries ✔ being able to program instead of using templates, it's an extremely powerful tool to make things that you really like ✔ never say "I'm almost done" because that "almost" can easily approach infinity ✔ a developer's portfolio often reflects their personality. As in, could you tell I like colors and writing? ;)Built with React.js, JavaScript, HTML, Tailwind CSS, EmailJS
Reactube
Single Page Application built as last assignment of the IT Academy bootcamp. It was built without watching any tutorials.
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This application is an home-made clone of YouTube, allowing the user to favorite their videos and to keep a record of the last searches and the last videos that were displayed. It consumes data directly from YouTube API and uses LocalStorage API for saving user's data. This was my very first time dealing with a React application more complex than a counter or to-do list. I was quite proud of the result, considering the point I was at in my developer's journey!See my learnings...
✔ YouTube API has an incredible complexity, though the docs help a lot (this is generally a rule for APIs) ✔ writing reusable and clean code greatly reduces the "nightmare feeling" when you have to refactor it later ✔ starting to code without a clear idea of a design means complicating the development ✔ the logic behind a search app is not as simple as it may seem!Built with React.js, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, React Router, API, Styled Components
{...contacts}
Let's connect! How, it's totally up to you:
Email:
LinkedIn:
connect with meGitHub:
visit my profileTech Twitter:
follow me{...dulcis in fundo}
As much as I love writing, I couldn't let you leave without sharing some fun facts:
The very first time I wrote some (elementary) code was back in 2018. I was getting married and we wanted to setup a webpage for our international guests. My husband, who's been a lovely software engineer since forever, declared he would never ever use a template. But that wasn't a task for one person only, so I started learning CSS and Bootstrap. Eventually the website was cool, with a user area, an interactive quiz, and all the info needed about the wedding! I want to update it and make it a template for other devs, it's on my to-do list.
I like hiking, and I did the Camino de Santiago 4 times. It was a great experience and I made some good friends there. Totally recommended!
I was a pro swimmer when teenager, backstroke being my favorite; later on, while attending University, I worked as swimming trainer. It was a beautiful side activity, and I still love this sport; sliding in the water has a soothing effect on my mind.
I've been living abroad for more than 10 years, but I'm Italian. Guess my favorite dish? Yeah, you got it... PIZZA!!!