#doyoubootcamp

MY EXPERIENCE GOING THROUGH A CODING BOOT CAMP

Add this to the long list of blogs out there about this style of schooling but I hope my experience can help others determine what's best for them as so many others did for me.

I started my journey and interest in coding as I've always been a builder, whether that be building tiny houses, field camps, connections to other humans or software and web applications.  So I started learning on my own via freecodecamp.com, Udemy, and the list goes on.  The common thread for me was how hard it was to really buckle down and do the coding on my own.  I'd run into road blocks and spin on them for  hours with little resolution or I wouldn't be able to utilize the lessons to do anything outside of what they were walking me through step by step so the skills seemed less applicable.  I recognize these were all valuable tools but I was struggling to truly utilize them without a little more structure.

So I started planning and researching to attend a 'boot camp' style education.  The reasons behind this direction have more to do with where I am in my life than who I am.  I knew that going back to any schooling at age 35 was going to be a challenge, but having a mortgage and bills like anyone else I recognized that I had two options, go the traditional route and take night classes over the course of the next few years or save up all I could and jump in head first for a short but intense study time.  I know both have their own pros and cons but for me this was the better direction to changing my life on a shorter timeline.  I saved for 2 years and settled on a local program with a solid reputation and good schedule that included an internship at the end and the Ruby on Rails track I was hoping for.

I have the fortune of a best friend who happens to be a self taught professional Ruby developer.  He's an amazingly patient and awesome teacher but I had always, and remain still, hesitant to abuse his friendly offerings of help.  He had strong recommendations for the school I attended as well as resources to help along the way.

I was able to take a night course version of the Intro class in my program first.  While this did give me a taste of it before fully committing it was a hard transition into the full time afterwards.  I would recommend going all in if you can swing it.  For me it meant less time I had to take off work and a little less in the total cost.  A school at this price bracket does have a little less support in the learning structure of the courses but is also WAY cheaper than a fully supported version.  Pick what's right for your time and your wallet.

The biggest lesson coming out is that I had hoped to graduate code school around 80 or 90% ready for the job market when in reality I'm coming out around 50%.  As someone going into code school with nearly zero experience I recognize this is a lot to ask of any program, but beware that while advertising for such schools do not promise quantifiable results they certainly do allude to such goals.  If you have some prior experience or can pick up new languages in general you will probably excel at a faster rate than myself.

In the end the really important thing if you are like me and have problems really soaking in new information at the rate it will be thrown at you in this type of program there are some things to consider.  Below is my list of thoughts before, during and after code school.

Leading up to school:

• Cancel your real life, no seriously... plan to study all hours of all days.  It sounds crazy, even to someone like me who is very self care oriented.  Yes you will need to take some time for yourself here and there.  But know that any time you're not coding you're not learning.  So strike whatever balance is right for you, for me it was more coding than life.  But this is your investment in you, so make sure you utilize it to the best of your abilities.

• Get a meal service.  If you can afford it this will take off the real world pressures of making food.  If this is your outlet or release of stress then by all means but otherwise it's just less time to focus on more important things.  And for me this was really a life saver, I found a local friend who does her own service so it wasn't overpriced or over processed food.  You have to stay healthy through this all!

• Let everyone you love know.  These people will be your support group but more importantly it's nice to have some accountability for your plan.  And it's nice for them to understand that you really won't be available much to hang out for a few months.

• Make a budget and stick to it.  This is important as in my case I wasn't able to work and do school.  Some may find time but it's nicer to be able to focus and not get too distracted.  Real life still happens so in your financial planning give yourself some buffer in funds and/or have a backup like driving Lyft/Uber for some fast funds if you get in a pinch.

• Be organized! Yes, this coming from an organization nerd but it's important to have things arranged to make your life as easy as possible while you are putting most of your energy into learning.  Cancel extra bills, find regular times to set aside for things you need to do for yourself.  Put in the hours to set up your digital work space properly.  As well as thinking through project setup and layouts instead of just moving ahead blindly.

During the insanity:

• Invest in the folks  you're in code school with.  These are the REAL folks who will understand your journey.  You will forge bonds quickly and spend more time with them than your actual friends.  Soon they will become friends.  And after school they become coworkers, references and nerds you can build stuff with!  And the ones you struggle to work with, those are lessons on how working in a real office is, do not discount those and use them as tools to grow.

• Go to meetups and nerd groups.  This IS studying and furthering your education.  You will meet awesome people who do what you want to do.  And if you're like me you'll actually learn what jobs there ARE in the tech world.  Job titles, descriptions, actual shop talk.  It's super helpful when you don't know where you're going to fit in after all of this.  I also learned what the company culture is of a lot of small and large tech firms this way.  This was one of my large motivators to get into tech to begin with so it was positive reinforcement to see my assumptions about some of the work culture I was jumping into were correct.  For me it's about family and support to make great things.  There are many ways to do any one thing, but what are the best ways so that we all understand one another's code and intent, this is what you learn as a coder!

The real work is after code school ends.  You need to read some of the awesome blogs on how to keep coding after school, how to refine your resume and github etc.  I've found and posted some awesome resources over the months on my LinkedIn.  Feel free to comment or share more if you find them.

Beyond the formal education:

• Have a post school plan.  If you have the funds and time to do it I highly suggest not going back to work, giving yourself a week off and then setting a plan and goals for what you do after code school is finished.  Mine is in a README file here at my Github.  It's not polished by any means and there are lots of examples out there but this is an example of where to start thinking about what, how, when etc.

• Really work on your presence.  Some employers won't even take the time to research you, but the ones worth working for certainly care about who you are as a person, a coder, a teammate and generally as a human.  Make sure to brand yourself thoughtfully as to why you got into this, your story and real life experience.  Some may disagree with me on this but don't be afraid to also be a real person.  I don't waste to much time editing my life for profession, I make sure my professional sites are polished and have a similar story and verbiage across all platforms but otherwise if someone wants to dig into my personal life then so be it.  In the end if they don't want to hire me because I do house projects, love dogs and enjoy being silly then I probably won't fit into their office anyway.  If you have a dirty underground that's fine, keep it behind private profiles but do not be ashamed of it or repress that side of you, just know that's not appropriate for work space.  You are allowed to be a somewhat different person at work than at home.

• Continue your education.  Expose yourself to different types of learning, blogging is a great outlet to share where you are in the process.  Reading code theory and best practices is a different learning mechanism than doing.  Have many forms to learn from.

• Get out there!  Once you have a presentable Github and Resume work on code challenges, read, code as much as you can.  Start applying to some of your smaller jobs on the list before tackling the big fish.  But know that every fail or success is the continued learning process in your journey.  Now I know there are plenty of folks out there who will do better in school than myself and have other help available, if that's you I'm stoked for you, so do it and get the next awesome steps in your life as a dev!  This is advice for folks like me who can barely afford the time and space to make this happen but want it just as badly as I do.

So I find myself struggling to continue learning without the formal structure of school.  I am sure to not be alone, but I keep reformulating my plan and setting aside the time.  The biggest asset you have is time.  Make some for yourself but also know that doing more coding is the only real way to get better.  The biggest thing you learn in code school is HOW to learn and what resources to utilize when you get stuck, formulating thoughtful questions for help when you need it and being able to learn from the process.

Unlike some I must go back to my real job and code in the evenings and on weekends but am still so excited about the journey!  Will update after my internship as well as my road beyond.  Best of luck out there and know that you can do this!