How I arrived at the Software Engineer Boot-camp with Flatiron School: A journey into the world of Tech.
I would describe my relationship with Technology as a cagey affinity for the subject. Growing up I had encounters with programming games and simple applications such as forms to learning how to work with common software programs like Microsoft office applications. Having enjoyed these encounters I never really thought about making a career out of any of the computing/programming skills I obtained. Years passed and while I used many kinds of software applications my focus was making life better for children and I had a great career working in Social Services. I eventually migrated over to Customer Service and then into Tech Support. This is when I really started looking into the Technological career paths and going down this rabbit hole I learned about the field of Web Development. Now the fun beings.
I first tested the waters with sites like “Dash” and “Codecademy” that I learned about watching an interview about General Assembly through Huffington Post. I later learned about a company called “Skillcrush” that was created by two dynamic women who created this learning platform for people who wanted to learn new skills or had no experience with coding so I looked into their program and became excited and motivated so signed up for HTML and CSS course. From that point on I have slowly built on my knowledge of HTML and CSS and then into JavaScript. I continued to learn from “Skillcrush” and other online platforms like “Udemy”,” Codecademy Pro”, and” Coursera” things like JS libraries like React, Ruby, WordPress, and GitHub. I then began to look for groups that supported learning from others in causal settings like “Girl Develop It”, “GA”(General Assembly) workshops, and eventually, “Meetup”s. So with all this knowledge why go for a Boot-camp?
Originally I applied for this boot camp to see if 1) if I had what it takes to get into a program like this and 2) how much of the previous knowledge I have obtained has stayed with me. Now that I am here, however, I have learned that it’s not really about having to know everything instead it’s about learning how to adapt by knowing how to use the available resources to break down problems and work them out piece by piece.
So, so far this Boot-camp has taught me things that I have heard over and over again but never really put much stock in it and that is this feeling of being an “impostor” and that it is natural especially when you are learning a new skill. It does not mean that you are and it should not invalidate your successes along the way. The other thing I have learned is how you approach learning; are you a fixed mind learner or are you a growth mind learner. Understanding that you can create new neurological pathways when you learn helped me to become a person that learns with a purpose as opposed to just learning because this is how it was taught. At this point, I have a better understanding of the Ruby language and how it is for the most part an intuitive and friendly programming language that prefers convention over configuration when it comes to working with Rails.
