We have entered the final stage of my coding program. Writing cover letters and technical narratives has me reflecting upon my journey from a counselor to software developer, and it feels sorta like the last week of senior year of high school. Bittersweet and relieving.
I started the prep course for my coding program in February (around the time Trump knew more about the coronavirus than he was willing to share with the rest of the class), and it’s funny to look back now cause my now senior instructor (hi, Josh!) was the TA. After passing prep, I began bootcamp at the end of March which aligned perfectly with quarantine and, ya know, getting laid off. In bootcamp we learned:
- AWS Console
- Higher order functions
- More advanced object manipulation
- Recursion
- This keyword
Rose: The time I presented on functions and Tiger King was topical. The positive reception this presentation received gave me the confidence and inspiration to continue making these concepts personal and more importantly, fun to learn.
Thorn: Relying on my partners and not feeling like I was contributing and recursion.
I took bootcamp a second time because I wasn’t ready to move onto pre-course, and honestly taking it a second time was formative of the rest of my time in the program for a few reasons.
Firstly, redoing the bootcamp projects made me realize just how much I had learned in those previous 5 weeks. I understood the material quicker, like higher order functions, and I was even able to be the “senior” in our paired programming projects and teach my classmates the more difficult concepts. As someone who loves to teach, this was a good feeling.
Secondly, and maybe this ties into the first reason, I felt spending 10 weeks with the same material versus just 5 weeks allowed for a strong foundation to enter Precourse. Having completed 8 years of higher education, I was used to having a long time spent with concepts, and I am not the type of person who can pick up difficult concepts quickly, so I appreciated having almost the equivalent of a semester with the bootcamp material.
Thirdly, and above all, I absolutely adore and am so glad to be completing this program alongside my cohort. ❤
Alas, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk Precourse.
In pre-course we learned:
- Git and how to use Github to work on group projects (git workflow)
- HTML and more advanced CSS, Jquery (lol!)
- More recursion, advanced higher order functions (e.g., shuffle, memoize)
- How to write mocha/chai tests
Roses: Experience with design and styling. Improved time management.
Thorns: Learning Jquery and then hearing it isn’t used much in the field anymore.
They asked me to take the Precourse again, but this time it was mostly because I was using a very smol Lenovo Ideapad and there was a serious lag during the exam. I studied recursion and higher order functions like a madwoman for the second exam, and drank champagne when I passed!
Junior Immersion began two weeks after the exam, and we hit the ground running. We learned:
- Advanced data structures (Linked Lists, Hash Tables, Binary Search Trees)
- Frameworks: Backbone, Angular, React
- Servers: Node JS and Express
- Authentication: Local (with cookies)
- Databases: MySQL, Sequelize, Mongo, Mongoose
- Restful APIs
- Webpack configuration
- Deployment
Every two days we got a new project and it had to be completed, along with weekly blogs, presentations, and toy problems. Though it was exhausting, I formed bonds with my classmates through the shared strife of the program. We were in the trenches together.
Roses: Learning how to build an app and deepening friendships during a time when most people don’t have much social interaction.
Thorn: The grueling schedule.
As per tradition, I took the Junior technical assessment twice. I failed to pass props down through components properly, so they gave me a second chance to take the exam. For that, I am very grateful.
Senior Immersion began just days after the exam, and so far has been my favorite phase of this whole experience because I have enjoyed the unstructured work days, and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with my teammates.
We were to complete three projects: MVP, Legacy, and Thesis. We’ll start with MVP.
My team was called The Hanging Chads, and we developed a web application called MyVote, aimed to provide voters with information on the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election, such as candidate information for building a ballot and links to voter registration and ride share services.
We employed: React (Router, Hooks), Node JS with Express, Mongoose and Mongo Atlas, Google Authentication, and Material UI for styling. I was responsible authenticating users with Google Strategy and did most of the page styling.
The Hanging Chads then took on our Legacy project, which consisted of adding three features to a project a previous cohort had made. We chose Trailr (shoutout to Daniel, Peter, James, and Grant for making such an organized and easy to translate app!), which was a web application that connected users to trails in their area. We added a weather forecast, a constellation star map, and I added a journal feature where users could write a travellog.
Before the travellog, I attemped to utilize the Spotify API to allow users to search tracks to listen to while they are on the trails. However, I was unsuccessful in authenticating our client credentials, and spent too much time trying to figure it out over fleshing out a more polished feature than the travellog. This was an experience I learned a lot from.
Roses: Understanding the original developers’ code was easier than anticipated because they wrote it really well. I also enjoyed styling the travellog.
Thorns: That I wasn’t able to figure out the Spotify API. I have plans for a personal project to utilize it. I am determined!
Unfortunately, new teams were created for the thesis project, and I had to say goodbye to my Chads. We had some great times together, and I am really grateful to have had the chance to work with wonderful developers for these two projects. Cheers, Chads!
For Thesis, I joined The Bedheads.We developed a web application called Goldilocks which was a room swap collective aimed at connecting users looking to travel and swap rooms at no cost. It was sort of AirBnB meets The Holiday.
I was responsible for creating a local authentication system with JWT, a multi-step sign up form using Material UI, and a review system for users to rate and review each other after a swap is completed. Local authentication was a challenge with the web tokens, but I welcomed the challenge as my last two projects had utilized Google auth. Developing the review system also proved to be a challenge as our database had many relationships between the users, listings, availabilities and distinction between guests and hosts because all users ultimately became both as a result of the swap.
Roses: My team was incredibly dedicated and we vibed really well which made the long hours together super fun and a reliable environment to turn to when things got tough. This project aimed to be inclusive of the LGBTQIA+ community too, which is a personal touch to this project for myself and I am happy to share this project with prospective employers.
Thorns: The database was very involved and many relationships depended on each other when making Axios calls. Oh! And we dealt with our power and internet going out because of Hurricane Zeta. What a trip.
Thank you is in order.
It’s bittersweet to submit the final project and spend less time with these folks. I am going to miss our stand ups and sharing little details of our every day lives. There is a comfort in knowing you have people to talk to when otherwise you are quarantining in a pandemic, so I suppose graduation comes with a grieving period of the loss of time spent with friends that is dependable, especially when they are so great.
I feel this way about The Hanging Chads and The Bedheads, and also about my cohort in general. Yall have made me a better software developer and have been a grounding presence the last 10 months. For that, I thank you. ❤
Special shout out to my work husband, Larry. ❤
Thank you to Ryan (RyGuyCoder), Kaelyn, Ali, and Josh for being wonderful instructors and supporting this long journey. I hope we can all stay in touch and I wish you all the best in wherever your careers take you!
This isn’t my last blog ever, but it is the last blog for this era. I am not good with goodbyes, so until the whim moves me, see ya next time.
