Bangkit Academy 2022….thank you

What a program, but still need a lot to improve tho

WRITER'S NOTE: This blog was written in August of 2022 after I finished the program and I republished it on dev.to as I migrate to it

It was the third year of this program, and I expect a lot from that after hearing a lot from my friends about how it is worth the time, a lot of things to learn, bla bla bla much that I’ve asked about. Then in November/December I decided, that maybe I’ll join the program anyway, it's free so I have nothing to lose.

My Course Credit(SKS) is more than enough and only need for *Kerja Praktek *and to be honest, I just try to do it easily no need to push too much, check the page from Google then I see how many hiring partners they have and I thought maybe I can get an internship from this.

After doing a simple test, and doing a registration I got accepted although need to wait on the waiting list(maybe this one is a bit unclear, I don't know how their system works), then do some admin stuff to get a conversion credit to my uni(my uni is Universitas Gadjah Mada and good god their admin stuff is simple).

We are placed on a Discord server!!! A FREAKING DISCORD SERVER!!!

The team was cool enough to listen to our demand on what channel should be made, we got meme-channel for meme stuff but it's a general now, we got JP channel for weeb stuff, KR channel for kpopers stuff, and discussion for….more important aspect.

meme-channel is the place where the active bunch or rather the degenerate one gather, weebs, chuuni, even a furry is there, but even with that ‘uniqueness’ they’re so smart, there’s someone who has their own startup already, and there’s someone who has knew so many tech stacks that made scoob and shaggy jealous

All Done GIF - Munchies High Scooby Doo - Discover & Share GIFs

Click to view the GIF

tenor.com

Impostor syndrome is there but you are in already, so suck it up

In Bangkit Academy you basically have a few things, there are self-paced learning, Instructor-Led Training, and Capstone Project….. let's talk bout self-paced learning first

Maximum Overdrive Plankton GIF - Maximum Overdrive Plankton - Discover & Share GIFs

Click to view the GIF

tenor.com

Self-paced?? more like speedrun-paced

This is where most of the time we did in Bangkit, we learn a lot from the courses we’ve been given, I’m a Machine Learning Student so I learn about Python, Linux stuff, Tensorflow(well it’s sponsored by Google), and other stuff.

There are a few specialization courses that we have to take

• Google IT Automation with Python

• Mathematics for Machine Learning

• DeepLearning.AI Tensorflow Developer

• TensorFlow: Data and Deployment

In those courses, we learn much about automation in general but also how to build and deploy a Machine Learning model, not only that we learn how to use things like Google Cloud Platform, Github, etc.

It's not easy and added deadline makes me more nervous than ever but somehow I'm always being ‘faster than anybody else’ bunch, but it maybe caused by myself didn't really have other tasks other than Bangkit(I'll talk bout this later)

Instructor -Led Training or ILT is….you can call it a scheduled class, where you are scheduled to attend, there are 3 types of ILT which are Tech(depend on your path, mine was machine learning), Softskill, and English. The English ILT is by far the most exciting to me and this is down to having an international instructor to teach us the professional side of learning English. Softskill ILT is also quite unique since the material is brought by real professionals talking about the real stuff in the working world, like time management, adaptability, etc.

ILT-Tech though, I would this thing is one of the things that the Bangkit Team should try to improve, the teaching is okay, it's not like it's boring or anything but the problem is down to the material. the material is like…we already learn in self-paced, ILT-Tech is like a recap to me since what they teach is like repeating everything we’ve learned in Coursera on a 2 hours session long.

Capstone, Capstone, Capstone….boy you make me happy and frustrated at the same time

Bangkit has something called ‘Capstone Project’ that I saw as ‘solve this problem and if it's good enough we might fund your project to become another startup’.

It’s very good in my opinion to give a chance to the Cohorts to solve a real-world problem, also since Capstone projects gave cohorts to build their own startup and spark their creativity, but the small problem is finding the right teammates since you are required to form a team consists of 3 Learning Path so Machine Learning, Mobile Dev, and Cloud Computing, but also there’s a restriction of people from same Uni so it forces you to find new guys.

This year, the capstone project is divided by 2 which are Project Based (the one that you make the idea yourself) and the new addition Company Based Capstone, for this one you build a solution for a company that has a specific problem that you have to build the solution.

I got the Company Based Capstone after making a proposal with the help of my 9-man team, the task we got is to make a chatbot for customer service, long story short the chatbot is functional but does not satisfy the company, but that’s fine since it's not my real goal in this program.

To me, the real gift from this program is the certificates, the experience, and the like-minded friends we got along the way

This program is very cool, I didn’t expect to get so many new crazy friends in this program, also having to meet some of them.

also, one name which is Lukas Purba W, help me along the way in this program, I dm him almost every week at the weirdest hour possible. I need to thank him because as a facilitator he’s been very great at what he did.

also, the Discord server itself is the best, without that the program will be super-stressful, boring, and most of all we can't have so much fun as friends.

Just because something works doesn’t mean it cannot be improved. -Shuri

There are a lot of Bangkit Teams that are needs to improve on this program

• The email seems to be using an answering bot, that thing is kinda weird in my case.

• ILT-Tech, man…that area is like a recap session to me

• English Session is very good, but having a Philipines instructor is…I would say reduce the challenge since we are fellow South East Asians and it's like having a local teacher, the familiarity is there. And this is hard since I don't want to sound so racist, but having a western instructor adds the challenge to eleven since we are not familiar with the accent, talking style, etc.

• The conversion isn't really universal, I don't know if it is from Bangkit or the uni side but it is what I saw

For those who want to join Bangkit Academy next year(if there will be one that is), I can give you a few tips to simply survive there

• Try to not have other activity in uni other than this program, not gonna lie it consume your time a lot with so many things to do.

• Don’t ever try to think “ah I’ll do it tomorrow”, if you can do it now then do it now since there will be things along the way that makes you frustrated, the deadline is scary.

• be active on the server, especially in meme-channel and the discussion channel, you need that “smart and friendly image”, especially for the capstone project since you need to know who to recruit in your team.

• keep learning English actively, exercise it, try to speak in ILT class, etc.

This is my first blog, I don't really know what I'm writing, I just writing my experience in this program, if you perhaps interested in this program but has a specific question you can get in touch with me on LinkedIn or maybe on Instagram