Sick of jobs rejections? This is what a web developer did!
Now Marseille may remind you of sunny beaches and lovely soaps. But it has rocking ladies as well. Fazia has one hell of the story to share from quitting highschool to founding her own web agency after she was so done with the system. As Shirley Chisholm said : “Ladies, if you are not offered a seat at the table, bring a folding chair”. Fazia Bouheraoua literally did that.
How did you become a web dev coming from a literature background?
I quit high school before getting the final year. I did many kinds of jobs, waitress, bartender… After 3 years, I regretted that I didn’t finish high school. I studied on my own and passed the high school exam. Afterwhich, I got into a university in Modern Literature as it was a topic I really liked. After 4 months, I felt a bit annoyed by the studying lifestyle. I guess after working and breathing the air of financial independence, it’s harder to be in the shoes of a student. So I quit and started doing different jobs again. Then I was looking for training in IT, because I liked it since I was a child. My mum ran a cyber-cafe where an IT engineer, Sameer, worked. I used to sit around for hours just watching him setting up the desktop computers and installing software.. I ended up discovering code and started practicing on Codecademy and OpenClassrooms platforms.
After that I looked for bootcamps where I could learn more. I saw an advertisement for a 6-week course to be a full-stack developer. I thought it’s too good to be true. Hence, I decided to invest in a 9-month training with Simplon. I applied and was accepted in training where our promotion was 100% women. They chose to do that because of the lack of women in IT.
What triggered you to found “LaChaisePliante” ?
During and after my studies, I applied for many jobs (PHP developer, Javascript developer, Full Stack, Front-End developer) and even « HTML developer » (Yes there are some people believing that HTML is programming ‘sigh’) but I was receiving the same rejections : No replies or emails where they point my lack of computer science degrees. They didn’t even give me the chance to come and take technical tests to prove my worth. When I talked with the other women whom I studied with they told me they were receiving the same.
It bothered me because we did not have a classical path or an advanced age. The women I studied with and myself did not find work in the field in which we wanted to evolve in.
We studied hard. We were motivated. We wanted to work, but that wasn’t enough for companies.
That’s when I heard what Shirley Chisholm said: « If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair ». That’s exactly what I did. I founded my own web development company. I named it La Chaise Pliante which means the folding chair in French.
You’re not giving us a seat at the table, or even an access to the tech scene?
No problem, I will break in and bring folding chairs and place them around the table, prove that women have their place in Tech in the same way as men. LaChaisePliante’s ambition is to give work to women who were denied a hiring chance and thus place qualified hundreds around the table.
I strongly believe in my project and I hope to change the tech sector in my city, Marseille. I will not stop until the women have the same rights and access a job in IT. I want young girls who are living in underprivileged neighbourhoods to see the horizons offered by IT.
Did you encounter any obstacles in launching your company?
When funding a company, problems will be thrown at you. I had a problem that even prevented me from sleeping and put me down for a while.
To protect a trademark in France, you must deposit your official company brand with the National Institute of Industrial Property, INPI.I have my trademark registered but the registration process is still ongoing. The fact that it is registered, protects it and prevents it from being used without my consent.
However, there was an opposition case filed from a protesting brand which paused the process of registering my brand. Hence the search for an amicable agreement. The other brand has partial similarity to my company’s name but it’s not in the tech industry, operating in a totally different field. In opposition cases both parties set out their arguments and at the end of the INPI statute either in favor of the applicant or of the opponent.
“It was inconceivable for me that I would lose this name which has a strong sentimental value and which represents the very essence of my company without having fought for it.”
I didn’t take no for an answer and did my research, contacted some intellectual property lawyers (some of whom told me to give up because I quote: “you have no chance of winning. » and contacted again the INPI,
I refused to give up !
Advised by a jurist, I ended up contacting the cabinet in charge of the opposition cases. I explained to them my situation, my good faith and proved that the purpose was not to confuse the consumer by sending screenshots of google searches on our names, and also of SEMRush (an online visibility website). That we are not even competing because our sectors of activity are different. That my name had a story and explained it to them.
For the moment the procedure is suspended and we have until the end of April to find an amicable agreement.So yes, I had some obstacles and it was complicated to keep the faith sometimes, I will not hide it. But I do not complain. On the contrary I am grateful. I already have customers. I have the chance to be supported by my family and my mentors Karine Sorba and Jerome Pouey who are here for me, who believe in me.
It keeps me motivated when I see them all pushing me, helping me when I have doubts that any entrepreneur will encounter in her path.
I have faith in the future, wish me luck ;)
Any personal tips on where to start to become a web developer?
For learning programming, you have many ways :
* Websites : Freecodecamp, Codecademy, OpenClassrooms, Courses on Udemy and EDX.
* YouTube channels : Traversy Media, Clever Programmer, CS50(Harvard), Coding Tech, Programming with Mosh, Academind
If you’re more into books :
* The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
* The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth
* Clean Code by Robert C Martin
* Programming Pearls by Jon Bentley
* Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, and Clifford Stein
* Cracking the Coding Interview By Gayle Laakmann McDowellYou can also attend a bootcamp or even apply for a computer science degree.
Join some hackathons, meetups. Become a member in some groups of programmers like in reddit or discord. You will feel like you’re a part of a community where people have the same motivation, love of coding and where you can help each other. It’s a good way to improve your skills too.
The most important thing at the end is to practice and to not give up from the beginning.
Programming is hard for everybody.
You will be stuck sometimes (we love Bugs). It’s normal, it doesn’t mean you’re not cut out for it or not good enough.
We all go to stack overflow or google ( which will become your best friends ! ) and it’s ok !Don’t forget developers don’t reinvent the wheel !
I think Fazia’s path is very inspiring. It doesn’t matter where you come from in IT. What matters is how much effort you are going to put into learning. Whatever is your type of learning, it’s always important to prototype and showcase projects as well as joining supportive communities.
We wish her best of luck in her legal matters. Feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn.
