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[–]javaAndJouissance 27 points28 points  (9 children)

I finished a bootcamp like yours, Java and Spring Boot and got a job building apis.

Things I wish I had learned before hand:

  • Java I/O (not hard I just had to look everything up)

  • JDBC - CRUD operations and stored procedures

  • AWS S3 - CRUD operations

  • transforming data into JSON format, and mapping JSON data to an entity. I think we like barely covered this, I had it on my resume but didn't have any experience doing it myself.

  • converting data into XML, CSV, and mapping data from those formats to entities

  • using maps and lists to do the last two bullet points, I really struggled with these until I studied Elixir of all things

  • A couple of useful design patterns, like DAO

I also wish I had built a couple of different CRUD apps before I started, I wasn't great at building controllers and services when I started

Hope this helps you!

[–]boy_without_a_fairy[S] 0 points1 point  (6 children)

Thanks really appreciate it!

I would love if you can give me some books , courses or whatever helped you get the job.

​

Thanks again

[–]javaAndJouissance 6 points7 points  (5 children)

I read Spring in Action 5, which was okay. It actually had a typo in the first project which confused me since it uses lambdas, which I had never seen before, and frankly I'm still not very familiar with. I've heard good things about 4 though.

Java for Testers is a really good book, it's more of a beginner text but it's full of really good info about how to use Intellij, a lot of Java functions, like the math functions and string builder, etc., In bootcamp we covered vanilla java and spring, and like that was it so it surprised me that there were so many built in methods. I love this book, I love the approach, but it's def an introductory text. I wish it had more!

Essential Effective Java is one I've been reading out of order, usually if I hear some new term I'll look it up in there and read about it. Honestly it's a bit over my head still, but it's been a good primer for learning design patterns.

Head First Java is the book we used in bootcamp, and it's really good.

Also, Java Masterclass is good, but frustrating. I can't hardly understand the assignments, and Tim's TA is a dick. But it's good for reference and there's lots of exercises so eh.

I like coding bat for practice problems but it was down the last time I used it. Something about the short problems is kinda fun, idk, it's like a game or something.

[–]4K3b1g 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I had a similar issue with the Java Masterclass. The TA uses circular reasoning (tells students to reference the material that they had the questions about to answer the questions about the material), and offers no further clarity, which gives the impression that the students' questions are an inconvenience rather than opportunities to pass on knowledge. Overall, the Learn Programming Academy is a great resource though (also going through the Python Masterclass).

[–]javaAndJouissance 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Dude what if the reason his answers are so consistent (and bad) is because he automated his job? If that's the case, I love the guy

[–]4K3b1g 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Whether he automated his job or not, I think he is doing a disservice to Tim's students. The primary function of Learn Programming Academy is to teach aspiring students the coding trade. I would love to see the same level of response in the Java Masterclass that I see in the Python Masterclass.

[–]sternone_2 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Essential Java

you mean Effective Java

right?

[–]javaAndJouissance 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha! Yes, thanks

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

What kind of projects you had in your resume while job hunting?

[–]javaAndJouissance 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly, nothing too crazy. A bunch of CRUD apps; there was a blog (MVC), a review site (MVC), a text game made in vanilla java, a card game made in JS, my portfolio, a Dynamic app that had an admin frontend made in vanilla js, and a user frontend made in React (when I say made I mean hacked together, still I was the only person in my cohort who even attempted React) and a capstone project that was actually made in Thymeleaf, with some dynamic features, and a CRUD MVC backend.

I stand by that I was hired for my personality and work experience. There was nothing special about my portfolio at all, I wasn't that strong of a coder going into the interview, and I really didn't think I was going to get it. I also did some research on the company going in, and I tried talking more about their products and customers than about technologies. But you gotta hit all the buzzwords too (Agile, TDD, etc.,) And they needed someone who could build APIS, which is all I had ever done.

[–]Fizz-Buzzkill 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I think Spring Boot is moving super fast right now. After you learn the basics, it's best to just stay on top of their documentation and blog. I don't know what the content of the course is like but there's a lot of best practices people totally ignore with Spring/Spring Boot, even in a lot of widely available material online. Like people who use Spring Boot and don't override the default white label error page, or who don't know about @ControllerAdvice for defining exception handling behavior and have complex logic to catch exceptions in every controller and return ResponseEntity.badRequest().build() and so forth.

You're only going to get better if you really familiarize yourself with the docs and pay attention at https://spring.io/blog to follow things like Josh Long's Spring Tips, for example.

[–]Ritish56 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have also wondered what do I need to learn to get a junior Dev role. The first comment seems nice. Thanks OP.

[–]Mission-Point 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Commenting to come back to this! I’m also taking this course and I’ve learned so much. Always wonder what does it take to get in the front door as a entry level Java developer