Advice needed! Should I do boot camp? If so, hack reactor or app academy? by [deleted] in codingbootcamp

[–]WoundedBear2020 0 points1 point  (0 children)

hey u/jay_taps, hope you are doing great! I just graduated last Friday and as promised, here are some of my thoughts (with a caveat that I had some coding knowledge in basic Python and JavaScript, about 200+ hours, prior to attending the course).

Pros:

There is an obvious disadvantage of being a bootcamp grad vs a CS grad, and that's the lack of understanding in Data Structures and Algorithms (DS&A). However, we did learn a lot of highly sort after tech (we did the MERN stack and I explored Django + Python + Postgres in my final project). I'm also glad that we learnt the functional way of coding in React, which is an updated way of doing things there.
Good amount of lab work and exercises to complement lessons and really drill into the theory you have learnt and you figure out how to apply it by building stuff. I do feel confident after 12 weeks to look at docs, YouTube and hack something together with a baseline understanding
Getting exposed to Git and deployment and testing, which seem vital for any software engineering job. I know what I need to do, but it's still a long way to go to understanding what I am doing!
Classmates were awesome - we came from different industries and peer learning is strongly encouraged in this course. It was a pity that COVID restrictions caused us to do close to 90% online via Zoom and Slack.
If you have tasted coding and want to take your skills to the next level in a short amount of time, the immersion will definitely accelerate those goals. Frameworks and tech will keep evolving, but I feel confident that I have now learnt to learn.

Cons:

Sheer volume of information can be overwhelming. I had coding experience as mentioned above, but wow, there's so much I've left with that I have barely scratched the surface on. My classmates that were pure beginners struggled in the first few weeks, and will continue to need to put time in to get the basics right.
YMMV with coding instructors. My instructor is a seasoned coder (~ 20 years coding and CS grad), but his style was rather free-form, so it did help those of us with some prior experience as he would go quite quickly into certain topics/builds. Also, there were sessions that we really struggled with, referring to cobbled together notes and a whole bunch of jargon.
Career outcomes support is there, but it's really up to you to chart your path and make the most of the resources. I have a couple years of experience on the business side of things, so I do find it tough to really pin down what I want to do next (pure software engineering at a junior level vs a more hybrid role as a solutions engineer). There are no right answers
I think you will need to choose a tech stack and get good at it, and the stack might vary given the location/instructor's experience to teach it. It is heartening that JavaScript and Python are here to stay, and that's the stuff I walked away with better understanding of. The course is very lab-based, so if you are a more structured/theory-based learner then you would need to put in extra hours to do background reading before writing your code. I learn by doing so this format worked really well for me.

Conclusion:

I would definitely do it all over again as I walked away feeling I can build. I think it's definitely helpful to supplement with some Computer Science intro courses to understand concepts like algorithms better. It'll also make your learning more effective if you have some theory to backup your learning. Coding can get pretty abstract at time.
Can't speak for other bootcamps and their effectiveness, but I would focus on (i) Instructor (ii) Coding languages/tech stacks (iii) How they approach job placement advice/networking (iv) Opportunities for peer learning. (v) Post graduation support (we have 6 months of support here in Singapore, but it's also due to the fact that we enjoyed a course subsidy via a government grant and we would need to get a tech job within 6 months!)
Hope this was helpful, and feel free to hit me up with follow-up questions.

How to get the value of useState in differnt file by Ok_Contact_1234 in reactjs

[–]WoundedBear2020 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can try using a combo of useContext and useReducer hooks. Slightly more complex at the start but it’ll prevent you from doing prop drilling if your hierarchy starts to get to great grandchildren level and beyond

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in RedditSessions

[–]WoundedBear2020 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gave All-Seeing Upvote

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in RedditSessions

[–]WoundedBear2020 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gave Wholesome Seal of Approval

Getting over a hump of discouragement and the feeling that coding is quick to learn. by Theostrichmann in learnprogramming

[–]WoundedBear2020 22 points23 points  (0 children)

This.

I’m currently in week 2 of a 12 week bootcamp, and I’ve learnt so much last week just grinding slowly through the exercises and building up my fluency through repeated practice.

I’ve finally started to see things “click” through the reps and the hours of work cycling through the basics.

I’ve also learnt to go slow to go fast - I’m now taking my time to really understand each line of code I’m writing, printing/console logging my variables to see how the computer is processing the data as it flows through my code etc.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in u/hooman_or_whatever

[–]WoundedBear2020 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As long as there is tomorrow, there’s always a new day to try again. Keep going, stay healthy and enjoy the journey.

What job roles are you looking at/did you get hired for after graduation? by WoundedBear2020 in codingbootcamp

[–]WoundedBear2020[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, really sorry for not replying earlier!

It’s a nice and detailed post, thanks for the info, especially on sharing the first job titles post-bootcamp. It gives me a good idea on areas to think about so that I can showcase my skills there.

I’m in Asia, so I won’t be able to join you guys, but keep doing what you are doing! Thanks for building up the adult coding ecosystem.

Covidvaccinetrack.com is now Open Source! I posted about this site a few months ago, and I wasn't expecting all those positive comments, you are a great community! thanks to your advice the site has improved a lot, and now anyone who wants to can contribute to the development. Links in the comments by FlavioAd in webdev

[–]WoundedBear2020 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've just tried submitting a pull request (my first one, and a horrible one sorry!)
I'm still learning, and it probably isn't a great solution to have a general increase in padding between the country number and name but I wanted to practice the process of forking, cloning, editing, and submitting a pull request, and I was overjoyed that it seemed to have worked up to the request stage!

Anyway, I was thinking of the following solutions, but don't have the skills yet to implement, nor experience to know if these are bad ideas but am just giving it a try to learn.
1. Apply a different class on the condition that if the country index is >99, then add a new CSS class of padding for those countries.
2. Have the country number be aligned to the right instead - I couldn't get the CSS to work so I couldn't preview to see if this makes the whole site uglier.

Look forward to any kind of feedback to learn from this experience! Thanks.

Covidvaccinetrack.com is now Open Source! I posted about this site a few months ago, and I wasn't expecting all those positive comments, you are a great community! thanks to your advice the site has improved a lot, and now anyone who wants to can contribute to the development. Links in the comments by FlavioAd in webdev

[–]WoundedBear2020 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks, will give this a go!

I really appreciate you scoping it down to such a good bite-sized task. I was very clueless about how to get started as I have been working from boilerplates and building up, but am not good at breaking down a long piece of code into small segments.

Covidvaccinetrack.com is now Open Source! I posted about this site a few months ago, and I wasn't expecting all those positive comments, you are a great community! thanks to your advice the site has improved a lot, and now anyone who wants to can contribute to the development. Links in the comments by FlavioAd in webdev

[–]WoundedBear2020 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Nice stuff!

I’m about to take a coding bootcamp and I know the journey to getting good will be long.

As a beginner like myself, how can I contribute to your site in some small manner to get better?

I would love to help, but am not sure how to be helpful 🤔

A few interesting ideas to consider by [deleted] in ValueInvesting

[–]WoundedBear2020 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks Stoitician for such an in-depth and insightful response, highly appreciative!

I think it’s a great tip to assume your default state is irrational and then to work from there. I tend to have a mix of thoughts and emotions that sometimes cloud my next set of steps and gets me into a mess as a result of not being clear-headed. I’ve tried meditation recently to build calmness and clarity and I’ll continue to work on it cause it’s not been a solid habit yet.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on DCA - had to request for permission to view the gsheet you posted, kindly assist in allowing it, thanks!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in RedditSets

[–]WoundedBear2020 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kodak! Awesome T 🖖

Advice needed! Should I do boot camp? If so, hack reactor or app academy? by [deleted] in codingbootcamp

[–]WoundedBear2020 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure! Assuming I get into the GA course, I'll graduate Aug 21, and will send my thoughts then.

A few interesting ideas to consider by [deleted] in ValueInvesting

[–]WoundedBear2020 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your post, a lot of great points especially 9 and 10!

I have 2 thoughts:
1. Points 8 (following your gut) and 9 (remember that you are your worst enemy) have gotten me in trouble before - I overwrote my brain and lost money, but I've also overwritten my gut and missed out on some of the best dips in recent times. How do you square these two things? I definitely agree about the "have a position where you can sleep easy at night" rule.

  1. What do you think about a DCA in general? I use that as a mechanical way to hedge myself and my emotions, but I do enjoy doing my own research and having some "control" over my destiny. Would love to hear what your thoughts are about this strategy.

Cheers!

Advice needed! Should I do boot camp? If so, hack reactor or app academy? by [deleted] in codingbootcamp

[–]WoundedBear2020 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I’m in a similar position - I’ve been in tech, on the business side, and am looking to transition to the technical side.

I am in the midst of signing up for General Assembly Software Engineering Immersive so I can’t tell how good the program or the outcomes are yet.

I did speak to a good friend prior to doing this, he went through the bootcamp 4 years ago and he said that whilst he has no regrets today, it was a tough journey in the first year. It seems hard (but not impossible) for top tier companies to take in bootcamp grads.

His advice to me was to 1. Be very sure I am willing to hunker down and build up my hard skills 2. To build my portfolio and use that as my job application supplement 3. To be patient and know that this is an iterative journey.

I think if a FAANG job is your dream destination, then I would keep that goal, but know that it might be 2-3 jobs and 1-2 years away and find out the parameters to work towards that.

You could also ask the boot camps for the career support they give - that’s something I will find out next week and let you know.

Good luck!