My name is Diane Peshlakai and I completed an immersive 10 week coding boot camp in Albuquerque, NM in the year 2016. My coding boot-camp of choice was in the heart of downtown Albuquerque. Today there are five different boot-camps being offered by Deep Dive Coding. The boot-camps have programs focused on Digital Media, Full stack Web Development, Java/Android, and C#/.NET.Soon they will be adding Data Science. Most of the boot-camps run for 10 weeks straight and requires about 60 hours per week for assignments, projects, and practice. I chose this boot camp because it was close to where I lived. It was a lot of hard work and fun experience. It has prepared me with the skills to jump start my career as a full stack web developer. As you read through the blog post, here are some photos I took during the boot-camp. I wish I took more photos and share the amazing people I met.
The first interview after the boot-camp was a learning experience. The interview was with a local start-up and met the team along with a coding assignment. I got to meet the owner, the team and they got to know me personally. The coding challenge was for seven days. The challenge was to see if I could connect an email api (application programming interface) with any coding language and code editor of choice. I chose PHP and the Nano editor. PHP was the language I learned during the boot-camp and I still use it for Wordpress development. I didn't have much experience with Nano but I gave it a shot. I did not know at first what I was doing. I drew out a plan and ended up typing some pseudo code and hoped for the best. It wasn't my best code but I did learn from the experience. I came to terms that I needed to practice more, build more projects, and challenge myself skillfully.
Another interview was for a junior web developer position for another local start-up.The Interview consists of three employees including the chief technology officer. The interview went well and I mostly talked about myself and what I learned during the boot-camp. I didn't get the job but I knew what I needed to work on. During this time period, I felt like an impostor also known as impostor syndrome. I felt my skills weren't where they should be. I had doubt on whether or not to continue down the path as a web developer. I also at the time needed a job after not having one for 10 weeks. So I decided to get a part-time job that had no connection with coding in order to pay my bills. I decided I would work the part-time job, practice, and build projects for my portfolio on the side. After several months, I wasn't getting the time I needed to build and practice. It got more frustrating but I did take the time to really find out what I was going to do. I remember I took a whole day to do my portfolio website. From beginning to end, looking and remembering what I learned come into art. I found my motivation again to continue. I waited for the new year and jumped into freelancing. I was actively networking and being involved in the technology community but my health took a toll. The state of my health forced me to take the time to care for myself not only physically but mentally. I took almost a year off to get myself together. After my interview experience and taking the time off to focus on my health I follow these tips.
With my health much improved, I followed these tips to keep going and some I learned along my journey. I took extra time to attend networking events. I went to a coding meetup dedicated to projects serving the community and it was an opportunity to connect with other web developers. I attended and was put on a team where we worked on a Wordpress website for a non-profit. I met my friend and mentor Daniel. We still talk to this day and we are going to be building a web application soon. He is a computer science major and has quite a bit of experience. When I took some classes at the local community, he would help me understand the concepts on a programming assignment. His advice and like others were to keep practicing and build projects.
Next tip I believe is important in advancing your skill is to challenge yourself. During the boot-camp and after the boot-camp, I was always told to build something. It also helps with learning the coding language and/or the tool being used in the project. There are always something new to learned and in demand in the industry. So staying up to date on the latest coding trends can help to maintain and strengthen your skills. As an example, I would challenge myself by connecting a Wordpress website on the local host using Vagrant and learn PHP functions.
Another tip I learned is to eat healthy clean food. Throughout my childhood and teen years, my diet was not great. This led to my body to weaken itself. For a year, I focused on my diet and ate clean without processed foods and harsh oils, more so the paleo and vegan diet interchanging mostly. My energy was higher and my focus was more clear. I also started meditation and doing active workouts like running and walking. It's important to take care of your body even when our job requires to be at the desk all day. These tips have helped through some tough times but I managed to find a way that keeps me to stay on top of work and side projects. Keep coding, don't give up and challenge yourself. Here are more photos taken in the year 2016.
