Week 4: commitment and balance
This week I took the plunge and and paid the deposit for the coding bootcamp. I had an hour-long call with a good friend of my brother’s who moving into programming after an IT graduate scheme at a well-known retail firm. After his rotations he chose IT engineering, and it was interesting to hear about the work he’s done, his journey with coding, and his thoughts on learning and bootcamps.
When my brother mentioned his friend was a developer, I thought twice as I’d spoken with others already and I wondered how useful it would be; it turned out to be really useful, and I picked up a couple of nuggets that I’d not thought about already.
Dan had initially been in the team working on the app, using SWIFT. He currently works on back-end development, specifically the search engine on the company website. He said, despite being seen by some as less glamorous than the front-end (what the user sees), he finds the back-end more interesting (“If you’re much more into data processing, concepts around performance, platform stuff… you’ll like back-end development in my opinion”).
Other ‘back-end’ insights from our call included:
You’ll be a better back-end developer if you understand what the front-end needs
Most of what he does isn’t coding, but working out what’s going wrong and fixing it
He currently works with Kotlin, which is like SWIFT with some semantic differences
A couple of his colleagues have transitioned careers and come from a (different) coding bootcamp with a good reputation, which they seemed to have found to be a good experience. I mentioned the pair-programming that forms a big part of the first few weeks of the bootcamp I was considering, and he said that this was useful as, where he works for example, they spend a good deal of time programming in pairs.
He also mentioned looking at Docker; one of the platforms for testing and deploying applications used by enterprises. In other words, it’s another piece in the “full-stack puzzle”; I’m slowly figuring out the different parts and how they fit together. He also gave me a couple of things to think about when it comes to the job search and interviewing.
I attended an online ‘Info sessions and Q&A’ on the web development programme I’m considering.
At the end of the week, I finally took the plunge and paid the deposit, confirming my place. I was sent the mandatory pre-bootcamp prep work which I’ve already started thanks to an article I found online. I’m continuing my journey with Codecsdemy’s Ruby course, as well as a book on Ruby on the Kindle; essentially, I’m trying my best to embed the Ruby concepts in memory so that I can engage with the bootcamp as efficiently as possible.
As well as Ruby, the pre-work also involves getting through the equivalent Codecademy courses in HTML, CSS, Javascript & the Git framework.
So, I’ve officially committed to this path going forwards. With that decision made, I can focus on the programming. A little apprehensive, but excited now for the bootcamp to start in 3 weeks’ time.
Over the weekend I’ve mostly given myself a rest from the laptop, though I have read some of my Ruby book. I had dinner with my brother and girlfriend's family yesterday, before him and I went to the cinema (re-living 'The Dark Knight' on the big screen). Today the two families went for a walk and had lunch and afternoon tea together.
I listened to an 'indie maker' podcast episode for the first time in a while; I’ve been taking a break from these for a few months after my own creative business didn’t work out. As a developer (it feels cool to think of myself as a developer already), I may well work on my own side-projects; though, the priority is learning to be good enough for a full-time job.
We'll see what happens. On the one hand, I am still enamoured with the possibility of being free from working for anyone. On the other hand, I’m conscious that I’ve chosen a tech-oriented path, but I still want to make sure I’m giving myself time to live and breathe away from the world of screens. I also don't want to neglect other parts of my life (e.g. friendships, hobbies, being 'social') at the expense of work and work alone.
Anyhow, with the decision on the path I'm pursuing now made with committing to the bootcamp, all there is to do now is to study, practice and trust the process.
Hello, web dev world.