Hi, my name is Tina! For the past decade and a half I’ve been working in the tech industry as a full stack software developer specializing in building websites, web apps, and mobile apps. Now, I’m trying to take that same passion that drove me to build a successful career in tech to the trades, where I am hoping to get into a trade where I can leverage my existing skills.

This blog is mostly a tool for my learning—a place I can formalize my notes and share the things I learned.

What you’ll find here:

  • 🤔 Learnings: I’m figuring this out as I go
  • 🗣️ Ramblings: I may go on a lot since when I learn new things that excite me, I often feel my brain is running 1,609,344 km/minute! 🇨🇦
  • 🤷🏻‍♀️ Possibly incorrect information: as I learn, I’m bound to make some mistakes here and there

What you won’t find here:

  • ❌ You won’t find perfection: I’ll probably fumble a lot, like saying the wrong term (e.g. voltage, wattage, amperage, power, current, live, hot, etc.)
  • ❌ No AI-generated content: I will not be AI-generating any of the content here, and that includes images as well as text. I try to take my own photography but sometimes it isn’t that nice or I can’t in a specific scenario or I forget to, and when I use stock photos, I also won’t be using stock photos that I know use AI-generated content and am explicitly seeking out stock photos from sources that allow me to exclude AI-generated content. If you think I may have included any AI-generated content by mistake, feel free to let me know.

I’ve spent a lot of time learning how to build, extend, and troubleshoot complex systems in software. I’m looking to do the same in the trades. I’d like to switch careers into a field where I can be on my feet more instead of on my butt in front of a screen, where I can leverage my existing skill set of designing, building, and troubleshooting complex systems. I’m a self-taught software developer. I initially taught myself basic web development in high school and then kept learning new things about programming since then. I’m a fast learner and tend to move at a fairly quick pace when I’m learning things. I have a daily goal to learn something new every day.

I have an interest in a variety of trades, including Electrical, Plumbing, and HVAC, and after making a charcuterie board once, I also discovered I like Carpentry, but I’ve also heard that becoming a Millwright might be something I should explore since I have fairly broad interests and want to be able to fix anything that breaks. I haven’t settled on anything yet as I find quite a few trades interesting, and I also haven’t made a decision about the sector I want to work in either, as I find construction, industrial, and commercial interesting.

Tech and software development have been absolutely amazing for me for the past 15+ years. I continue to find success in the field working for companies as well as doing freelance projects for clients. I am, however, excited about the potential to grow my skill set and learn to do more things in the physical world. I’m not running away from tech—even though it can be tempting with everyone’s obsession about AI recently—but rather running towards something I find exciting. Is this a “grass is greener” situation? Who knows? I’m willing to take the leap and see what the grass is like on the other side!

Given that going into the trades would be a second career for me, I’m ready to leverage my existing skill set, resourcefulness, and ability to learn quickly on my own and with mentors. I feel like I’m ready to jump straight into an apprenticeship in either a compulsory or non-compulsory trade but I’m also very open to taking some pre-apprenticeship schooling if the timeline works for where I currently am in life (as a grown adult with bills to pay).

As I’ve enjoyed open-source software thus far in life, this blog is my open-source journey as I explore this new path and learn about the trades where I share my path to learning with the world. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

If you’re curious about this website, it’s developed in WordPress. I built a custom WordPress theme that is mobile-first responsive and supports both light and dark modes. It’s a fully custom theme I made especially for this blog.

If you’d like to work with me in the trades, please feel free to get in touch!