What I Wish I Knew Before Attending a Coding Bootcamp

I recently finished the last project of Flatiron School’s online full-time software engineering course and am extremely close to graduating. Here are a couple of things that I wish I knew that would have definitely helped me out during the course.

Take advantage of everything that is offered

This is one thing that I wish I didn’t take for granted. When going through the course, I had a bunch of resources to help me succeed. There would be open office hours where you would be able to drop in and ask a question, and the cohort lead or other students would be there to help you out. Pod meetings are weekly meetings where your pod (you and one or two other students) would meet and be able to ask questions or review past material. We also had access to an educational coach that you could schedule meetings with. Everything is set up to help you succeed, so take full advantage!

You’re not struggling alone

Most other students in your cohort are at the same level as you are, and everyone’s in the same boat. Just because it seems like everyone has their ducks in a row, doesn’t mean that they do. Chances are that they’ve hit similar roadblocks and have run into the same problems that you have. If you’re having trouble with a topic, never be afraid to ask another student for help. If you’re open enough to go to them for help, they’ll probably feel open enough to ask you for help in the future as well. Everyone’s there to learn, so why not learn together!

Feeling completely lost is normal

Every time you start learning a new language or framework, everything’s going to look foreign. This is normal. For me, I remember there were many times where I’d look at course work related to a new language or framework/library and would just feel completely lost. It would feel impossible to learn at first, but over time it would gradually feel more and more doable. Things get easier, and the more you learn the easier it becomes to learn. Give yourself time. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Take notes, but don’t let it slow you down

This was a big issue for me when I first started the course. I would take notes on everything. Not only that, the notes would be incredibly detailed and in-depth. There were times where I was basically copying 80% of the course content into my notes. It would get to a point where it would slow me down significantly from continuing in my course work. I think that this was mainly because I was afraid that I would forget how to do something in the future. I felt that in order to be successful, I needed to memorize everything. Only later did I realize that this was completely pointless and a waste of time. Remembering syntax is far less important than understanding concepts. If you know what you need to do and why you need to do that thing, you can always look up how to do that thing in the future. However, knowing how to do something is pointless if you don’t know why or when you do it. In short, taking notes is great, but only write down the bare essentials.

Projects take way more time to complete than you think

When in the planning stage of a project I was always tempted to bite off more than I could chew. I would be determined to add a ton of extra features, only to realize halfway through that all of those features needed to be cut. This would often mean that I would have to quickly replan or remove extra code that I no longer needed. Starting with a minimum viable product (MVP) is absolutely critical when creating a project on time. Having a bear bones project with features that work is way better than a project with a bunch of half-completed features that don’t work at all. A good rule of thumb is to estimate how long it would take to complete the project and double that number.

Overall I learned a ton attending Flatiron School’s online software engineering boot camp. My experience will help me in the future in terms of project planning, note-taking, and much more. I hope what I shared will help future or current students going into coding boot camps avoid making some of the mistakes I made, and help them succeed!