Plesk Official Podcast

Women in Tech: Learning and Teaching Development with Carrie Dils

Episode Summary

They say those who can’t do teach, but that’s certainly not the case for Carrie Dils. Her path from Starbucks Barista to Frontend Developer for Fortune 100 companies is an incredibly interesting one that includes starting and leaving web development in hopes of opening a coffee shop, then coming back with a vengeance to learn WordPress development, work with some of the biggest companies in the world, and then teach WordPress Development.

Episode Notes

In this Episode: Learning, then Teaching WordPress Development

Carrie’s path to WordPress was an interesting one. She started in web development doing ASP.net, before quitting that and going to work at a Starbucks. She went there because she had aspirations of opening her own coffee shop, and thought on the job learning was the best way to do it. 

While she was there, her managed introduced her to WordPress. She started freelancing, and was easily able to replace her Starbucks income with freelance income. 

From there, she dove into Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning) courses to learn WordPress, and eventually started teaching there herself. Her approach to teaching develop is fantastic – definitely worth having a listen just for that! 

Key Takeaways

• One of the most rewarding things about being a freelancer is helping different companies work through a solution. By mixing up your client base and not just taking the easy jobs, you get to solve different problems. 
• When it comes to teaching WordPress (or anything), start with an assumption about the learner. What do they know? What do they need to know? What’s the primary outcome for the course? 
• Learn something like you’re going to teach it. Don’t just know how to do it – understand the “why” behind the “how.” Even if you don’t make courses or do talks, this skill will help you with coworkers and clients. 
• There’s a lot of knowledge to share! Don’t keep things to yourself for “job security.” 
• Use the tools that work best for you. For Carrie, VS Code, GitHub, and WP-CLI are invaluable. 
• Don’t just use tools because they’re shiny and new. Determine if you need them and what you need them for.  

The Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops Featuring

Joe Casabona

Joe is a college-accredited course developer and podcast coach. You can find him at Casabona.org.

Carrie Dils

Carrie Dils is a Frontend Developer and LinkedIn Learning Instructor