Hi, my name is Steve, and I’m fairly new to software engineering. A few years ago, after a lot of thinking and chatting with my girlfriend (now wife), I realized that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in sales or sales management. Not that there’s anything wrong with sales; financially, it was great for me, but I don’t want to look back on my life when I’m old and see that is what I contributed to society.
What I wanted to contribute, I wasn’t entirely sure, but my family has a long history of teachers in it, I went to Spain shortly after graduating college to teach English, and when I returned to the states I worked at an educational tech company, TopHat, for awhile as well. I saw a lot of the shortcomings in online education, as well as higher education in general. I knew that I wanted to build an app or website to address these shortcomings, but I wasn’t sure how I could get there.
In the fall of 2017, I researched my bootcamp options and decided on FullStack Academy due to it having an in-person component in Chicago, and its job placement rate. Starting in January of 2018, I began the pre-requisite courses online, I tested into the program in October of 2018 after a rigerous process, and started the Foundations part of the program online. While FullStack Academy is a great program, I found myself trying to memorize answers instead of truly learning becaue of its intense, test-focused curriculum. While it certainly works for others, I couldn’t balance my curiosity with the constant need to pass tests. It was at this time that I realized I needed to make a change in how I wanted to learn. I wanted to be in coding because it excited me, and most improtantly, I was very curious to figure out how programs work.
When I started looking at other programs, I came across Flatiron School, and one of the first things the Admissions Counselors said was that they don’t put a heavy focus on testing because they don’t feel it creates the best learning environment. He said they focus on projects and labs to help you build your portfolio. Suddenly, I felt excited about learning again.
Something else came to mind at this time: why hadn’t I considered online courses? Flatiron would be an online course, and I am a pretty disciplined person, so being able to learn on my time at my own pace really worked best for me. I think I was worried that others may think I’m not really in a good school if I took classes online, but that perception has slowly been changing in my mind.
I knew I would do whatever it took to get into Flatiron’s online cohort because it provided additional technical support for online students, and it still provided a classroom of 20 students that you’d be paired to program with on a weekly basis. I completed all of the necessary pre-work as efficiently and effectively as I could, and finally, I was in!
Long story short, my lesson here is to know yourself and how you learn best. Online, in-person, heavily tested, portfolio-based, or whatever you choose, it’s about knowing yourself, and how much you put into the program.
Happy coding!