One of the hardest things after finishing a full-stack boot camp is trying to re-adjust to a routine.
I admit I am one of those people who can't stick to a routine, stay motivated, or even disciplined enough to follow through with anything, this is a challenge all in itself.
I was very surprised to learn that there is a large and friendly community out on the web for post-boot campers like on Twitter, Dev, YouTube, and even Podcasts. It might require some digging but there is a thriving community.
CodeNewbie is also one of those spaces that exist for post-campers. I heard about them by chance one day searching for a podcast channel that talked about career transitions into coding. I fell in love with each episode as they touched upon really diverse and wide topics that mattered. They also felt extremely welcoming which was quite rare.
Recently, I found out about their CodeNewbie Challenge 2021. There are 4 categories you can choose from:
- Start Coding
- Code More
- Write More
- Get a Job
Since I just finished my full-stack boot camp, I felt that I needed more experience, and exposure to build and deploy more before applying to anything, it felt like a great way to hold myself accountable.
My goal is to definitely code more. There is so much to learn and never enough time in the day to get to learn even a fraction of what is out in the world. What I realized about myself when it comes to learning, is that I learn much better when I dive right in and actually build. I have a learning disability that delays my brain's ability to process words and makes it hard to grasp concepts but I can click ideas together if I apply them to something practical and see how they work. I'm happiest when I get to build (or break apart) and see what makes it tick. I figured out a way to trick myself to stay motivated was to watch videos that fed my creative curiosity like creative coding and finding video tutorials that reinforced what I already learned.
Another way that helped me learn, was having my classmates to rubber-duck, or bounce ideas off with each other. I don't think I would have finished my projects without their support.
Sometimes it can be hard especially if you are not sure what it is that you want to work on, or the opposite, having too many choices to choose from. Even when you do have a project in mind, it can be massive, or it requires you to learn a ton of new tools that eats up your time to code.
Reflecting on my experience made me realize how beneficial planning can be when it comes to using your time wisely without burning out.
My long-term goal in the next 6-12 months is:
- Learn Three.js, Java, Kotlin, Swift, GoLang
- Learn UX/UI
- Learn more about building for A11y
- Build my Portfolio
- Revise and Deploy my solo and group MVP
- Refresh Python syntax
- Build and deploy diff projects with different stacks
- Learn and create more with creative coding
My Short-term goals in the next 5 weeks:
- Get better at CSS Responsiveness
- Learning how to build reusable and clean code
- Build small completed projects at least once a week
- Prep a plan for a project and work on them one task at a time
- Reinforce the concepts I learned by building components
- Find when do I have the quietest and alone time, and dedicate it to working on coding
- Use creative coding as a way to de-stress
Let's see how this goes!
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