My Experience So Far
Pushing that last commit and submitting my last project for the Flatiron School boot camp was a bittersweet feeling. Although I haven’t graduated yet, I wanted to give my own personal experience I have had with Flatiron and the Software Engineering program overall. From working in a cohort with my peers to talking in study sessions over code, attending the lectures and getting help from the technical coaching, I’d say that my experience was a quite positive one! It was a long journey and even though I took the part-time path, it felt like programming was always on my mind in one shape or form. Though, it was another thing entirely to constantly be doing assignments, reading documentation or even working on my projects, I always had that gnawing in the back of my mind that I had to do something to work toward my end goal. And that’s all it is really, is doing the work, grinding it out and getting it done. Solving each problem one by one, step by step and continuing forward. I am not going to say I have an intense passion for programming or software engineering and I thought I required that passion to keep with it. It wasn’t until I started speaking to my peers, to alumni whom graduated a few months prior, that not everyone has that intense passion for the field. But they all had the work ethic and the drive to improve their skills in order to improve the world in some way.
And that’s what I want to tell others who talk about trying to do software engineering as it’s becoming a more and more popular field and the boot camp path being a more feasible option for many others. That it isn’t necessarily about intelligence, natural gifts, or passion for the field, it’s about perseverance. It’s about driving yourself into getting the work done, into constantly learning and improving and to looking forward to the next problem. Software Engineers are problem solvers, we aren’t always code-monkeys and that’s what I told myself anytime I got stuck on a problem with my code. That I had to look to google, to my instructors, to technical coaches, to stack overflow, to every resource I had available in order to solve my problem. And I gave up a lot, numerous times even, and I might still. But as long as you pick your feet back up and continue on, you’ll always be in better shape than if you were to stop completely. For myself, working with Flatiron was as much a personal journey as much as it was learning JavaScript or React or Ruby on Rails.
The technologies I learned at Flatiron might differ from you if you’re attending another boot camp, it might differ if you’re reading this a year or so down the line and Flatiron changed their curriculum. Teaching you the relevant technologies being used is a what they’ll do, but you won’t always work in the same language you were taught in. Remember, you’re being taught to be a Software Engineer, not a JavaScript programmer or a Ruby programmers. You’re learning how to learn, how to understand logic and how to read and translate code so that it’s more digestible. As a Software Engineer, you will never stop learning. Technology is constantly changing and you’ll have to adapt to those changes as well. Heck, even midway through my program, React changed how they did things and I had to learn to do that on my own since the current Flatiron curriculum didn’t reflect it. No fault on them of course, in fact I was surprised a lot of the assignments were current and made that same year that I joined. But that’s enough of myself and what I went through, if I were to speak on Flatiron specifically. I’d say that the reviews they get are warranted. I didn’t think I’d ever make it this far.
This was my first boot camp so I don’t have any reference, but from beginning to end, I felt that I was valued more as a student rather than as some paying customer to a business. Which, I thought was a great thing, Flatiron School wants you to graduate and they’ll do everything they can to help you on your journey. All the technical coaches were previous graduates or even instructors, and most of the instructors themselves were also previous graduates so they understand what you’re going through. The cohorts are large enough to feel like a community, but small enough to feel like you aren’t in the background. And be active in your cohort, I cannot emphasize that enough! Talk to your classmates, share your code, talk about your code, get out there and participate! The assignments and Phases that Flatiron uses felt smooth, they transitioned into each other and nothing felt too overwhelming. Though, it did feel like much at times, everything is broken up into segments and there is enough time to learn, digest, practice and then review. Flatiron goes through 5 Phases and they encourage you to blog about something you learned in each phase and to create a short video explaining your project as if you were talking to someone who’s never seen it and break down its features. Overall with Flatiron School, I can say that I am proud to have been in the program and while I wait anxiously for my last phase project to be reviewed, I can know that I didn’t make a mistake by taking the leap forward with them.
There is so much more that I want to talk about, and I am sure I will have more to say in the future, but I’d rather not turn this into a book. Learning software engineering has almost changed how I approach problems, even outside programming. And if anyone is curious about what it takes to attend a boot camp and learn software engineering.. Well, it will take patience and perseverance. You must constantly be learning and of course you will have your days off, but once you’re back on it, you get to grinding it out. Find some background music to listen to, find a quiet and calm place to stay focused and just learn and never stop learning. Remember, you can do it, and in Flatiron, you have an ecosystem of support and help. Just reach out someone will be there. What someone had to tell me constantly, was that I was always smart enough to do it and you are too. And if you feel this isn’t right for you, it might not be, but that isn’t going to stop you from doing it, you’ll always be able to. So go out there and start coding and remember to have fun with it! Thanks for reading and for all the support, take care and be safe!
