From Financial Services to Full-Stack Dev: My First 3 Months

I spent 13 years in financial services — 7 at Discover Financial, 6 at Bread Financial — consistently finishing in the top 5% of my team. I was good at my job. Really good. But in March 2026, I enrolled in Coding Temple's Full-Stack Web Development bootcamp and started building. Here's what 3 months actually looks like from zero. Month 1: HTML, CSS, and Figuring Out Why Nothing Looks Right I started where everyone starts — HTML and CSS. Built a food landing page (FoodSpot) and a multi-page event site (EventHive). Learned Flexbox, Grid, responsive design, and why box-sizing: border-box should just be the default everywhere. What I shipped: FoodSpot — food landing page EventHive — responsive multi-page event site What I earned: ✅ Web Development with HTML & CSS (Coding Temple verified badge) Month 2: JavaScript, Then Python JavaScript clicked faster than I expected. DOM manipulation, ES6+, event listeners. Then Python — and honestly, Python felt natural. The OOP concepts made sense immediately. What I shipped: Python CLI Task Manager — persistent task app with file storage, OOP, exception handling Defeat the Evil Wizard — text-based RPG with multiple classes, inheritance, combat logic, and game state management What I earned: ✅ JavaScript Mastery ✅ Python Foundations for Software Engineering ✅ Advanced Python Month 3: React React was the biggest jump. Component architecture, hooks, state management, routing. But I got through it by building something real. What I shipped: FakeStore API — a full e-commerce SPA consuming a live REST API with dynamic product rendering, client-side routing, CRUD operations, and loading/error state management What I earned: ✅ Single Page Apps with React What I Brought From Finance That Helped People underestimate what non-tech backgrounds bring to code. Here's what transferred directly: Data analysis → Debugging mindset. I spent years finding patterns in account data. Finding why code breaks is the same muscle. Process optimization → Clean