Hi, I am Lara olde Bolhaar
Animal Scientist 🐓 | FrondEnd Dev 👩🏼💻
I've been crazy about animals all my life. Thought becoming a vet
was the way, but a quick high school internship made me rethink that
plan. Then, I stumbled upon Animal Sciences at Wageningen University
& Research. Instead of fixing up sick animals, this field is all
about stopping problems before they start — totally clicked with me.
Did my bachelor's and master's in Animal Sciences, eventually
specialized in "Adaptation, Health, and Welfare" and "Global and
Sustainable Production." Animal Nutrition also grabbed my interest
big time and ended up being my job for three years post-graduation.
Before my first official job, I went on a wild ride with
volunteering. Packed my bags for Canada and teamed up with WWOOF for
six months. Learned tons about organic farming and what it takes to
live completely off the grid in Rose Harbour, Haida Gwaii. The whole
trip was such a life changing experience...
Once I got back from Canada, I landed a job at ForFarmers, an animal
feed manufacturer. Within the company, I was responsible for
everything laying hens. I really enjoyed the preactical aspects of
the role, however, navigating the realms of product management and
collaborating with the sales team posed challenges beyond my
expectations. I'm all about growth and learning, but it felt like I
was the only one in that zone. Everybody seemed set in their ways,
and I slowly learned that the work environment was kinda toxic. Long
story short, it led to a burnout. I'd heard about burnouts but never
figured I'd hit that wall. Let me tell you, it hit hard, and
bouncing back took way longer than I thought.
During my downtime, I did some serious thinking. I had a lot of time
to reflect. It dawned on me that the people I worked with weren’t
big on change or improvement, which signaled another burnout waiting
to happen. Plus, the company was heading for a reorganization —
didn't sound too promising. Our values just didn't match up, so I
made the call to move on and find a place more in sync with what I
believe in.
I owe my desire for growth and improvement a big thank-you for
pushing me toward coding. Front-end development, to me, breaks into
two key components. The visible side (HTML/CSS) aligns perfectly
with my creative and detail-oriented nature. On the flip side, the
more concealed part (JS) satisfies my inner nerd. t's funny how it
never dawned on me that coding could be my thing, but I'm really
glad that my mindless Instagram scrolling led me to the SheCodes ad.
For anyone who wants to start learning to code, this workshop is
very interesting. You will be challenged with differen exercises,
and everything is well explained, homework and deadlines are good
for keep focus
P.S. I designed the logo for this website myself! 😌
