This is basically a quick story of what I’ve been up to and how I led up to quitting my job and how I’m not enrolled in one of those coding boot camp things. To be honest, struggle might be a bit of an understatement, it’s more like…. feeling like banging my head against the desk while simultaneously lurking through pages and pages of Stack Overflow where it feels like all answers to questions you’re reading are at a level that’s way beyond any beginners comprehension.
There appears to be a gap, a very large gap, between what you have available to learn online for free, and the real world. It’s incredibly intimidating to be honest. So far my journey with coding has been an interesting one I have to say. I got started with Udacity, but I wasn’t too fond of their teaching style until I ran into CodeAcademy. I dig the way they teach, it appeared to be the most straightforward. I completed many of the languages in CodeAcademy, including Python, Ruby, and SQL. From there a friend of mine suggested C# which I’ve decided to really dive into, but I have to admit, C# is a total bear compared to those other languages I just mentioned.
Then once completing lessons in CodeAcademy, or Udacity, or any of the other online learning things, the question becomes how do I start applying this to the real world. A day browsing through Stack Overflow will enlighten any noob coder to the vast depths of coding knowledge that they’ve merely begun to scratch the surface on. My thoughts about this point, after completing free online learning, were “How do I actually apply what I’ve learned to a real life scenario?!”
To be honest, it seemed kind of hopeless, except for one resource I’ve found to be very helpful, HackerRank. This site gives you PLENTY of practice in several different languages, but in particular I found it to be a great resource to learn C#, especially if you do their beginning 30 Days of Code challenge. Even after getting through that, there still appeared to be a big gap in what I knew, and how to go from that to a fully functioning website.
The final step I’ve taken to seal the deal on my coding learning was signing up for a coding boot camp, of which I chose Epicodus. It’s based in Portland, tuition wasn’t totally insane, and of all the people I talked to about different code camps in town, they all tended to recommend this one as the best. There was another spot I was looking into in town called Thinkful which offered a lot more in terms of night school options, which meant I didn’t have to quit my job. When I laid it all out on the table though, I felt Epicodus would be the best option, because the financial commitment of quitting my job would put me in that kind of situation where I have no option other than completing it. I felt like night school would have been far too ‘optional’ in my mind. Now that I’m in school full time, the struggle is in full effect, and every day it’s a grind, a good one, to make sure we’ve learned PILES of information about C#, Unit Testing, MVC frameworks, and just now we’re getting into database tech and code. I think I’ll write soon about what I’ve learned.
Victus 