Hi! My name is Erin Platvoet, and I recently just embarked on a new chapter in my life. After nearly 14 years in visual merchandising, I decided I wanted to pursue an old hobby - coding! The way things fell into perfect place still leaves me a bit surprised, but I guess everything truly does happen for a reason! I, like many others in my generation, became familiar with coding in the Myspace era. Creating a new layout for my profile on a weekly basis became my new normal, and I soon began creating layouts for my friends. Spending hours upon hours plugging away at codes, inserting differnt colors, styles, images, etc. was my idea of a good time! I was enamored with the satisfaction of getting my HTML codes to work, but unfortunately put my hobby to the side as the pressures of being a full-time college student started to settle in.

Life continued on, and I went from being a full-time student to a full-time student working full-time, to a college graduate with a full-time job. Unfortunately, free time became harder and harder to find as time passed, and coding became "that hobby I had in high school and college." However, I was recently reminded of a question I had during a personal interview in college - where do you see yourself in 5, 10, 15 years? My answer: I don't want to set predictions for myself, but the only thing that matters to me is that I'm happy. Truly, truly happy.

I had the personal happiness, I was thriving being back in, New Jersey and being so close to so many people I love... and the beach! I found myself being happy basically everywhere except at work. I realized I needed to love waking up and going to work, and I unfortunately wasn't able to say that anymore. I began to remember the love I had for coding, the satisfaction of a working code (especially on the first shot!), the way I was able to have some creativity, and the way I was able to constantly learn new information. Something in the back of my mind was triggered, and I immediately googled "Rutgers Coding Bootcamp" - one of the programs I had briefly looked into back in 2013 before I had moved to New England. After a conversation with my husband, and hearing him say "I haven't seen you this excited in a long time- GO FOR IT!" I decided to apply, and here we are!