My experience at completing coding Bootcamp at Flatiron

Hello, Back again with my final blog, and this time I decided to write about my time at Flatiron. In this blog, I just wanted to give a brief overview of my time during my full-time SE course online and a little about me.

I think I’ve had a pretty average life before coming to flatiron school. I had very little coding knowledge before attending this school and just worked a 9–5 job as a production worker making food. I was working there for about 2 years before they closed, and that's when I took the advantage of being able to change my career. This decision is what landed me on the flatiron website for software engineer Bootcamp. Growing up I always had an itch for learning more and testing everything on computers, I also really enjoyed playing video games growing up. I remember I use to try and see how the games were made by looking at the code and how the game actually functioned. So I put them together and decided on software engineer because that will give me the ability to create whatever I want. On to how the boot camp went for me.

First thing I want to say if you are thinking about coming to this school.

1. Try to know a little bit of code before coming into the boot camp. They have a pre-work you can do to see if you are interested and I highly suggest doing it.
2. Have a lot of time on your hands this boot camp takes a lot of motivation and determination, Make sure to at least have 50+ hours a week to work on the curriculum they give you.
3. Make sure this is something you really want to do because it is a little costly but with high graduation rates and job employment rates at 86%

My experience attending this boot camp is an easy 10/10. I loved every minute but definitely a roller coaster of emotions. This boot camp is very intense on the curriculum but you learn a lot more than you really think you do fast. There was the first mile where you have the first two weeks to complete the set amount of work then you would actually start. When I completed the first mile and got the paper for acceptance into the boot camp I was super excited, But that was only the beginning of a long determined journey.

After the first mile, you then have to pass 5 phases that are roughly 4 weeks each with a project and assessment to go over what you made and tested on your project. These for me were nerve-racking! but who doesn't get nervous before an interview? I passed the first 2 assessments and honestly, it's the best feeling of accomplishment ever. When I got to the third phase I failed and had to repeat the phase. When you fail you are allowed one repeat of the phase and you can't fail again for the rest of the phases or you get removed from the boot camp. My emotions went way down but at the same time gave me a lot of determination to finish out strong. I started really involving myself in the flatiron community and started connecting with people from around the states. Getting in touch with other people and reaching out when I needed help really made a big difference to push me to the end of graduation.

I want to touch on the flatiron community and the teachers of this school about how amazing they are. The cohort I was in was roughly 50 people and everyone was like family to each other, also very supportive people. If it wasn't for the flatiron community I think it would be a lot more difficult to finish out.

If you decide to enroll in this SE full-time course... I think you made the right decision. I hope this may have persuaded you into joining, I have truly learned so much in such a short amount of time and couldn’t be happier.