DEV Community: Stefan

Career Resources for Veterans, Spouses, and Service Members

Stefan — Mon, 09 May 2022 07:46:12 +0000

Hello! Blog piece I am writing today shares a special place in my soul. The topic today is to share some resources I have come across that may be useful for you in your time of transition or search for the next step in your career.

The resources range from transitioning, mentorship, fellowships, hiring job events, and hiring boards. I'm an active duty service member who understands the excitement and nervousness of the unknown future.

Hopefully, you pick something up from today's blog, and if you ever need to reference back to it, do give it a bookmark!

If there are other resources you recommend, comment below and let us know!

ACP - American Corporate Partners

"American Corporate Partners (ACP) is a national nonprofit organization focused on helping returning veterans and active duty spouses find their next careers through one-on-one mentoring, networking and online career advice."

ACP hand selects a mentor for every individual to be mentored for a year-long experience.

You can find weekly events, job postings, and an abundance of resources for your career transition.

Here's a podcast episode that was released in April 2022 talking about ACP.

Check out ACP - American Corporate Partners

HOH - Hiring Our Heroes

"Hiring Our Heroes (HOH) connects the military community—service members, military spouses, and veterans—with American businesses to create economic opportunity and a strong and diversified workforce."

Hiring Our Heroes resources to include:

Hiring Events
Fellowship Programs
Job Board
Education & Networking
Military Spouse Resources

Check out HOH - Hiring Our Heroes

Veterati

"Join thousands of Service Members, Veterans, and Military Spouses in setting up free 1-hr mentorship phone calls with successful professionals. We’re the only Veteran Mentorship Platform to let you choose your own mentors and as many as you would like; our average member selects 4 mentors, and some mentees have 25+ mentors! Create a free profile at Veterati to get unlimited access to thousands of volunteer mentors: CEOs, recruiters, entrepreneurs, managers, Veterans & civilians alike."

You are able to connect with mentors that can assist in insider job tips, coaching, and personalized advice.

Check out Veterati

Candorful

Candorful is a veteran-made business created to help military members and non-military members practice interviews to help you build your confidence and interview skills.

Check out Candorful

Department Of Defense Skillbridge

"The DOD SkillBridge program is an opportunity for Service members to gain valuable civilian work experience through specific industry training, apprenticeships, or internships during the last 180 days of service. SkillBridge connects Service members with industry partners in real-world job experiences."

At no cost, service members are able to work in the industry while still receiving their military compensations before their end of terminal service.

Check out DoD Skillbridge

Apprenticeship.gov

"Apprenticeship.gov is the one-stop source to connect career seekers, employers, and education partners with apprenticeship resources. Discover apprenticeships across industries, how programs are started by employers, and how to become an apprentice."

Simply, seek, discover, and find apprenticeships happening around the USA.

Check out Apprenticeship.gov

USMAP - U.S. Military Apprenticeship Program

"Find apprenticeships based on your current occupation to make the most out of your military experience."

Checkout USMAP

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the resources I share with you today! Check out my latest articles about my coding journey, fitness, and JavaScript! If you know of other websites that you find useful, do share!

My Blog

Resource

https://soldierforlife.army.mil/

Why Am I in 100Devs Learning How to Code?

Stefan — Mon, 02 May 2022 15:10:57 +0000

It has been a HOT MINUTE since posting a blog…almost three months!

Where I talked about learning JavaScript.

I want to bring myself back to January, the beginning of the year. I am placing myself in the 100Devs cohort, class one with the community and Leon Noel.

Yes, click those links to unlock hidden potential in you.

The question I asked myself then and continue to ask myself every week is:

Why am I sacrificing my time to learn how to code in 100Devs?

I thought this through time and time again and always came up with the same results:

Money
Quality of Life as a Software Engineer
Endless Opportunities for Growth

The Money

Wealth is the ability to fully experience life. -Henry David Thoreau

It is no secret you can make a decent living working as a Software Engineer.

There's a reason folks, including myself, leap from (insert lucrative career field with no stability + not enough pay + hate + tired of) to become a Software Engineer.

Still not convinced? You can find this information with a quick google search:

There's money to be given to people who put in the hours to learn the art of code. Why do I believe money is my motive?

I crave the ability to travel the world with my family, afford to buy a house in the next five years, and keep up with the cost of living.

Before having kids, my wife and I would take trips around the United States. New York, Toronto, Miami, and LA, are a few cities we explored.

What was the result of those trips? Spending A LOT of money on food, lodging, and activities.

Tack on having two more kids = uptick in spending.

With growing a family, I want to own a home and not live as a renter my entire life. It's not worth it, in the long run, to pay for someone else's mortgage.

I'm not even going to get started on inflation because we all know the current event.

Quality of Life as a Software Engineer

Movement is life. Life is a process. Improve the quality of the process and you improve the quality of life itself. - Moshe Feldenkrais

This quote hits deep because I feel everyone in the world can do something out of their comfort zone to improve their way of life.

From the outside looking in, the lifestyle of a Software Engineer looks FABULOUS!

Want to work remotely? Software Engineers can do it.
Want unlimited PTO? Software Engineers can do it.
Want to work with a company with flexible hours and high $$$? Software Engineers can do it.
Want the ability to work with many companies? Software Engineers can do it.
Want to make a positive impact on millions (possibly billions)? Software Engineers can do it.
Want your job to pay for your new laptop, phone bill, and cell phone? Software Engineers can do it.
Want to attend incredible conferences paid for by the company? Software Engineers can do it.

I can go on and on about this. These are a few perks of why I am excited to transition from the military to tech.

Unfortunately, you will not have any of these benefits serving in the Armed Forces.

⚠️ If you are a Software Engineer in the field and disagree about these perks, let me know why its not always greener on the other side

Endless Opportunities for Growth

In my journey in #100Devs, I realize this profession requires you to learn...like. A LOT!

Take a peek at the technologies presented in the 2021 Stack Overflow Developer Survey for technology and developer roles.

If you are insane and want to learn about every language in the tech world, go for it. What is stopping you if you wish to transfer to a different role?

My point is that there are many roles, languages, and software to be learned that, thankfully, there will never be enough developers to fill the gap.

And I can see why those in the field are recommended to take their time with the learning. It reminds me of my favorite quote from Leon:

Go deep, not wide - Leon Noel

I believe when you are learning something you have a passion for, it becomes a fun journey worth living.

Conclusion

If you made it this far, cheers to you, my friend, and thank you for reading! Today, I discussed the three reasons I am in 100Devs learning how to code. Comment below if this possibly inspired you to share why you are in 100Devs.

Better yet, blog about it!

The Beginning Stage of Learning JavaScript

Stefan — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 15:00:36 +0000

Winter is coming.. - GoT

The inevitable has arrived..

Javascript!

The beast of a language I tried learning on my own this summer. The language that pushed me to defeat. The language that humbled my ability to learn the wilderness. The language that drowns you in the trough of sorrow.

With the support of my family and 100Devs community, I'm confident in my ability to not give up on learning JavaScript.

I am ready to put my pride and ego aside to ask for help in any assignment we are thrown at the next upcoming classes.

Variables

What is a variable?

The entity we use to store a value.

With variables, we are able to declare it and set a value.

We can use three keywords to declare variables:

let - modern way
const - like let, except value cannot be changed
var - old school

Good practice when naming variables is:

Use camelCase
Name it to be understandable by all

I did not feel much struggle when learning about declaring variables with the help of Leon's explanation.

Functions

What is a function?

The main building block of code in a program, allowed to be called many times without repetition.

To declare it, we can do so by:

What I noticed when learning functions is that I find it difficult to implement in real-world problems. On one hand, it's a bit easier following an example given for me to learn, but to create my own function off of a task is a tad bit harder.

I trust the process of learning and doing, but it still hasn't clicked yet for me.

Confession time.

It was functions where I stopped learning JavaScript in the Summer and fell in the trough of sorrow. At the time, I was learning the fundamentals through The Odin Project, and reading from javascript.info was the exact website directed to learning it.

Now, reading it again with a new mindset has changed my view on learning. Also, Anki is clutch.

What's the goal with JavaScript in 100Devs?

Functions, Loops, Variables, and Conditionals will lead you to success in the long run. - Leon

These four concepts are important to Leon because he knows with experience will land us jobs in the future, and learn any language with hard work and discipline.

Conclusion

It's only the beginning of learning JavaScript, and I feel great going into the programming language. I can't get ahead of myself or be too excited because it's only the basics. The rule of thumb I'm going with:

Trust the process and take it one day at a time - my head

Will it get harder? HYFR! Is there an entire community to turn to for help? YES!

If you would like to talk about your JS experience so far, reach me on Twitter!

Cheers ~ Stefan's Blog

Sources

https://javascript.info/function-basics#function-declaration

One Month Recap in 100Devs

Stefan — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 14:57:34 +0000

The Intro

It’s been a fast moving journey into becoming a Full Stack Web Developer. Just a little over a month, we established ourselves as “Software Engineers”.

Because we created code onto a page, we were knighted the honor by King Leon (unless you live in Canada, sorry).

Fast-forward one month later, we now have the skills and tools to create responsive web pages for clients! Today, I want to reflect and give my thoughts on each project we were assigned in the last month.

Beginner Assignments

BBC

One of our first assignments we were tasked with is re-creating the BBC webpage only using HTML. For some, this was their first time throwing down “bad code”. For others, a piece of cake. I was humbled doing this project because it brought me back to the first time I wrote code, through The Odin Project.

TechCrunch

I thought this would be a difficult webpage to re-create, but the way Leon explains how to approach building it made the beginning easy.

Khan Academy

Last but not least, Khan Academy. This may have been the most basic assignment to build. In this lesson, I was able to learn how to practice using buttons but did use anchors because it's easier.

I write bad code.

The Floats

This is where the pain began to kick in. I feared learning floats because I learned flexbox first through The Odin Project. I thought, “Why do I need to learn something that's old?”

You might join a company, and have to convert legacy code to modern flexbox. This is why I teach floats first. So you can appreciate how easy it is today. - Leon

Simple Lab Site

Creating Leon's about me page was difficult during this period of time. I recall how difficult it was to wrap the text around the image, and was trying to get it pixel perfect to the real thing.

If I were to do this layout today, definitely would complete it in less than 12 minutes.

15 Minutes of Pain and Layouts

Creating layouts from scratch with floats was realistic, 23492 hours of pain. As you see below, we had the chance to work with using basic math + floats to make our boxes stack.

This was also the first introduction to media queries, which I used in the last part of the gif.

Floats will always push to the top, and either left or right, depending on the value you give.

The Epic Layouts

This was where all our developer trough of sorrow begins. We knew it was real when he gave us two more weeks on top to complete all the web pages.

All the reading we did with Shay Howe and the homework we submitted were going to be used to build layouts Leon provided.

On top of creating the BBC, Khan Academy, and Tech Crunch using HTML and CSS, we needed to build The Level Ground, Source, Restaurant, and Hair Salon.

Disclaimer: I did not do the hair salon or add media queries to the pages, yet! BAD CODE ALERT!

Level Ground

Floats were not my best friend, diving into this layout. I struggled to try to find the spacing for the nav. If I did it with flex, for sure complete it in seconds, but I wanted to work on my floats.

Source

My confidence grew when creating the layout to Source. Floats clicked when I was able to space the features section correct.

Restaurant

Doing this project, I re-did it TWICE. The first time around, I hated the way I wrote my HTML and assigned classes. I thought of reading through the code, but ended up deleting it.

I also used flexbox because why not?

What I still need to review is the background-image in CSS. The image always comes out blurry or doesn't fill enough of the page when I input the correct value. I will need to dive into this soon.

Hair Salon

This was the last layout I did not start. Do I feel regret or “behind”? Just a bit, but I know I will learn along the way with 100Devs.

Conclusion

The journey of becoming a Full Stack Developer has been amazing. I have connected with many folks, made online friends, and networked with professionals in the industry. On top of that, I am learning a skill that will always be in demand.

Let's connect on Twitter!

Stefan's Blog

How to Ask For Help

Stefan — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 12:11:24 +0000

Welcome back my friends to blog #6 for the #2Articles1Week Challenge! Today's topic is a special one for the folks in the #100Devs community.

We are going to learn, in under 3 minutes, how to ask for help when google and stack overflow do not have the answer.

Without further ado, let's begin!

Introduction

Since starting the journey to become a Software Engineer, we will at some point in the trough of sorrow start to ask questions. It's major key to ask well, thought out questions to save you and your fellow friends time.

Overall, helping them helps with great questions helps you at the end of the day!

How to Get Help

Understand Your Problem and What You Need

Without rush, read through your code once more to fully understand what you need help with.
Try a quick google search.
Don't skip the two steps above. Developers get paid to google and solve problems.

Explain your Process

Sharing how you approached the problem displays your attempt to solve it.
Those helping will know to attack the issue from a different way.

Share your Code

Screenshots of the issue you are working on assists others to see your point of view.
Post your code using CodePen, Glitch, Replit, or your personal preference.

Provide Updates

If you managed to solve the issue, inform others, so they can continue helping other folks.
Share your code and approach on how you were able to come up with the solution.

Celebrate

Thank them for their time! Because they are helping out of the goodness of their heart, do appreciate the effort they are putting in to help you.

Conclusion

Well, as I promised, short, sweet, and simple!

I hope you found value in learning how to ask for help in as little as 3 minutes! Do share if you know someone who can utilize these tips.

~ Cheers

I Attended My First Virtual Meetup

Stefan — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 12:09:57 +0000

IT WAS AN EYE-OPENING EXPERIENCE

Before we begin, I would like to say you are reading blog #5 for the #2Articles1Week Challenge. I am participating in. Today, I write about my virtual meet experience with 100Devs and Developer Happy Hour event.

Thanks for reading!

🤫 Shhh no new friends tonight! #100Devs
— Leon Noel 🔥 (@leonnoel) February 8, 2022

100Devs Experience

This week, 100Devs was thrown a fast curveball that nobody expected. We were to conduct, for many like myself, our first virtual meetup event, practicing our introduction and charisma in a safe, nonjudgmental environment.

For many social butterflies, this was a piece of cake. You can spot those who network so often that their pitch rolls smoothly off the tip of their tongues. For others, this may have been their first time since the pandemic doing any form of live voice social interaction with anyone.

The tremble, stutter, and shakiness in one's voice was easily heard. But you know what, THAT'S OKAY!

The objective for the class exercise was to network with the 100Devs community, practice our pitch, and most importantly, make friends.

Developer Happy Hour Experience

I was fortunate to attend a virtual meetup based in Denver, CO called Developer Happy Hour at the very same time the 100Devs networking event was happening. The purpose of Developer Happy Hour is to connect with tech professionals with various backgrounds to make new friends, share expertise, and maybe, casually find a job.

I took Leon's advice by using meetup.com and searching for a city that was closest. With a little patience, I was able to find the Developer Happy Hour to attend.

I sat in my car during lunch to hop into the Zoom meeting. From there, various cameras and microphones were enabled. This was definitely not their first rodeo in a meetup. I was the only one out of 30+ without my camera on for a moment.

Everyone was casually talking about their day, life, and anything under the sun that came to mind.

The real nerves set in a little when the breakout sessions started. To define, breakout sessions are when a few people out of the group up to ~4-5 are placed into their own group to network with each other.

The breakout session rotated every 15 minutes.

At this moment, I knew I needed to enable my camera and microphone so others and myself can have that face to face connection.

Since I was out in broad daylight across the world in Korea and wearing my Army Uniform, many folks immediately asked about me and where I was at. Soon as the questions broke out, I found it simply easy to deliver my pitch.

Hi, I'm Stefan, a Soldier stationed in South Korea transitioning into the tech industry to become a Full-Stack Software Engineer in the Denver Metro area.

Although I am 2 years ahead in my journey to working full time as a SE, I am attending a boot camp called 100Devs and I'm here to network, make friends, and learn about your experience working in tech.

Overall Lesson Learned

Attending the two meetups brought to light that others are participating in meetups for possibly the same reason as you. Simply chatting with other people who have the same common interest in you is a feel-good human connection that you should experience for yourself.

What I learned is:

Genuinely, make friends with the people I connect with.
Don't overthink turning strangers into friends.
Don't be nervous and be honest with my experience. Others want to listen and learn my story.
This is a journey, not a sprint.
DO MORE MEETUPS!

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my blog today! If you participated in the 100Devs networking event, do share your experience in public. You will one day go back to your public post and reflect on that very moment and say to yourself, “It was not that bad at all!”.

Cheers ~

How to Network ft. 100Devs

Stefan — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 04:01:25 +0000

Hello friends to blog #4. This is the 4th article in the #2Articles1WeekChallenge. Thank you for stopping for the read, and hopefully you find something useful from the 100Devs cohort that you can apply in your tech journey.

Introduction

Applying to jobs will not get you a job ~ Leon

This is the class everyone from #100Devs has been waiting for. The moment of truth, elephant in the room, the scariest topic to talk about, NETWORKING! Below is a brief story about the probability of you landing a job by clicking apply vs connecting with individuals in tech.

TLDR: The police officer knows somebody who needs a web developer to create a website for them.

The funniest story Leon opens with is an eagle fly by and picks up the resume that was littered. The eagle drops the resume in the officer's laps. The officer thanks the trained eagle for the resume. The officer makes the effort to visit your house, attempt to arrest you, but sees HTML on your computer screen. He offers you a second chance by connecting you with their cousin to create their website.

Moving forward, going into week 5, we as the 100Devs community will embark our journey of networking with 3 individuals already in tech, and 2 coffee chats already in tech. In addition, we will be utilizing our skills of the past 4 weeks to re-create three webpages using floats and media queries.

source: Leon Noel Class 07

Making Friends & Networking

How to make friends

Read How to win friends and influence people to start making friends ~ Leon

This is the book recommended to the cohort to begin the friendship making stage. If you are a noob like myself at making friends, there are key details in the book that will teach you. The hard part is applying the knowledge to the real world.

To find people, the best place to start are meetups. Going to a meetup, you don't initially have to talk to anyone, but the pure essence of seeing an individual more than three times automatically establishes the two of you as an acquaintance.

Where to meet friends

The pure intention of saying hello and their name, creates the connection. ~ Leon

Since we are in a global pandemic, networking now is easier than before because of virtual meetups. No matter how far you are from a city, you can start networking. The process is overwhelming, but becomes easier over time.

Conferences

Conferences are the #1 place I made friends in tech. ~ Leon

Find a conference, input your favorite topic, and there something may pop up. The best ones are free, and you shouldn't need to pay for a conference. Now, there is a free way Leon recommends:

Be honest, tell them you cannot afford the conference. You will possibly get a free ride.
Volunteer. You will miss a talk, but be there for the rest of the time.

Once at a conference, do these tips to help you be successful:

Check out any discord channel they have
Go out to lunch with others
Don't go alone and go with a buddy

Community Groups, Family, & Friends

Find a community group thats good for you

If you aren't able to visit a meetup, joining a slack group or community channel on discord to network with others. There are also chapters in a local group where folks gather every week, code together, and connect.

Once you tell your friends and family you are a software engineer, you never know.

One of the easiest ways to connect and get your name out there is through your friends and family. They may stumble upon other folks who need a website built. You then will be the go-to developer to connect with.

Using the Sheet

Leon has provided 100Devs with a simple networking sheet to follow up with individuals in tech we are networking with. The networking sheet assists us in not trying to remember everyone, but a way to follow up with others.

The Pro Move

Today I learned that you can create an alert on an individual you encounter. You type in that person's name or email, and when they post some information, you can use that as an opener to talk to them. Whether it be about Pokémon or their company, invest your time researching on their posts, and talk about it with them.

Conclusion

Week 4 so far is my favorite week because it touched on a big topic that will be crucial to our success after 100Devs. The best part is, we are starting this process early in the boot camp. By the end of the boot camp, we should have had 50 coffee chats and 75 individuals emailed by week 30.

Thank you for reading and stay safe!

Balancing Fitness and Life

Stefan — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 11:53:22 +0000

Welcome back to blog #3 folks! This will be my 3rd article for the awesome #2Articles1WeekChallenge! If you missed the last two, I can point you to blog #1 and blog #2. Thanks for stopping by!

Learning how to code and staying on track with your fitness goals are not the easiest things to do, especially juggling 1000 other responsibilities in life. I have experimented a couple ways on how to do this, and found what method works for me. Let's dive into how I balance fitness in my life!

The Mindset and Purpose

I don't like to coin the phrase “working out” because it's not what I'm doing. I “train” five times a week. Looking in the mirror and telling myself I train results in a purpose. I train because I want to relieve stress, improve my physical appearance, and most importantly, my performance.

Creating my why and purpose helps me to stay focused on the training program. If you approach anything in life with a purpose, you will build resiliency to accomplish anything.

Creating a Plan

I found my why, next step is creating a plan. This process includes setting the days I train at the gym and the program I am going to execute for the next few months. Currently, I am following a program called CrossLift by Obi Vincent, which incorporates a bit of Bodybuilding and CrossFit.

The program lays the foundations of guides, exercises, sets, and reps I will conduct. There are plenty of resources you can grab a program from. The hard part is finding that plan and starting.

Keeping Track

To track my progress, I keep it simple. Google Keep is my best friend when tracking my progress. Before every training day, I go into Keep and type the exercises I'm doing that day. No magic trick and no fancy app. You can find various workout trackers online. Pick one to your liking.

Consistency

I'll admit, the first week of the training program I am doing was hard. It involved finding my 1 rep max on compound movement such as back squats, bench press, deadlift, and front squat to name some examples. This is the period of, “Do I really want to do this?”.

Staying committed and going to the gym even on days I don't feel like it resulted in me feeling good the day after, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Making that small deposit of good habits compound into a big result at the end of the tunnel.

Finding FUN

If you don't enjoy the process of training, you won't have fun in the journey. If you don't enjoy forcing your body into a stressful situation of pressing weight heavier than you, you will hate the journey. I find enjoyment in squatting a heavier weight than I did one month. I feel happy when I'm able to conquer a difficult metabolic conditioning exercise such as burpees, rowing, and push pressing all in one set.

The feeling of seeing and feeling the fruits of your labor in the gym, is an addicting feeling.

Conclusion

Today, we covered some methods I use to stay on track with fitness and life. If you are able to take away something from this article, do share your thoughts!

Thanks for reading and let's connect!

Three Weeks and Beyond with #100Devs

Stefan — Sat, 29 Jan 2022 18:06:18 +0000

The Recap

Woah! We finally made it through three weeks of #100Devs Cohort 2, and are proficient to lay down serious vomity code to create a webpage with HTML & CSS. If I were to talk to my past self three weeks ago and say, "You are going to be able to create something out of nothing in three weeks. Trust me!", I would have laughed.

In today's blog, I am covering what I have learned so far in the past three weeks of #100Devs to become an employed Full Stack Software Developer.

⚠ Please, feel free to provide any feedback/comment/likes/dislikes on this or any blog I post. It can make me unlock the new potential to become a better blogger. 👍🏾

💡 "I want to help you become a Software Engineer for free" - Leon Noel

Week 1

Class one was the most hype and watched stream in the Software & Game Development category on Twitch...EVER! A total of 7K+ Software Engineers tuned in live to figure out if:

Is the #100Devs Bootcamp real?
What's the catch of a free Bootcamp?
Am I ready to become a Software Engineer?

If you answered "Yes" to all three questions, you faced homework the very first class:

The objective was to complete four weeks of learning how to learn in one week and supplement the course with Ali Abdaal's how-to-study videos. I discovered that I was learning new things wrong and that utilizing active recall and spaced repetition is the key to retaining anything.

Introducing Anki! Anki is an intelligent flashcard reader that allows you to create, organize, and study decks of cards. This is a tool that is meant to be used not only for the cohort but for life! The game plan is while you are reading/learning life, Anki is your best friend in creating your flashcards to perform active recall later, then do it again, and again...and again 😂

The second set of homework, which set me in the trough of sorrow (yes, you Shay) was:

[Learn to Code HTML & CSS 💀(https://learn.shayhowe.com/html-css/)
Intro to using MDN DOCS
BBC Website

Since learning from The Odin Project, I was familiar with adding HTML semantics to the BBC Homework Assignment. The trough of sorrow hit me like a train when reading 12 lessons back to back and creating various flashcards on Anki. Because I have not been in a structured learning environment in seven years, paying attention and staying focused was no easy task. Thankfully, I was able to complete the lessons using the Pomodoro Technique, or in my case, Animedoro.

so leon mentioned "animedoro"... sounds like a distraction but I won't knock it until I try it. 😂 maybe 35 on, 25 off with death note.

any #100Devs have a favorite anime series they recommend? pic.twitter.com/A0VFWmyUQA
— stefan 🍍 (@codewithfan) January 17, 2022

Week 2

💡 "Leon Noel is a Pokemon Master"

We made it out alive of the first week of #100Devs. Some were able to submit their Coursera homework on time while others were still catching up with Barbara.

For Class 3 - Tuesday's class, we reviewed the following:

Navigation

    <nav>
        <ul>
            <li><a href="#">Donate</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Login</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Sign Up</a></li>
        </ul>
    </nav>

Forms:
<form action="/my-handling-form-page" method="post"></form>
Input Types

In addition, we went over how Leon approaches a webpage if he were to create its HTML. The homework assigned was to re-create the Khan Academy, Tech Crunch webpage using only HTML, and learn how to do layouts on learnlayout.com.

Class 4, we dived into the nitty-gritty of CSS fundamentals such as:

Where should you style your CSS?
How do you link your HTML & CSS together?
The CSS Breakdown
Classes, IDs, and basic properties
Most !important

To conclude week 2, we were given the task to use HTML & CSS to create a simple lab site

Week 3

💪🏽 "We don't get got. We go get!"

Classes 5 and 6 are where we put our true learning abilities to the test. This week, we discussed:

The Box Model
created basic layouts

practice relationships selecting without using classes or IDs.
specificity practice

After completing the three layouts, the next objective is to read and dive into Responsive Web Design. From my foxhole, it means creating websites so they are accessible and viewable across all devices and platforms. Our resource is to learn from the superstar Shay Howe: Learning to Code Advanced HTML & CSS, but supplement with the MDN Docs as well. Once all understood, the goal is to make the three layouts responsive, like how Nicole did!

Day 19 of #100DaysofCode: #100Devs assignment today. @leonnoel said we needed to make it responsive. It's definitely responding. 😅 pic.twitter.com/zM56c8T6Zv
— Nicole Barnabee (@NicoleBarnabee) January 28, 2022

That's all friends!

No joke, this was difficult to write. Writing is an art I want to continue to practice while on the #100Dev journey. I will post a weekly recap of the lessons at the end of each week. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, feedback, do let me know. Until next time ~

This is where you can find me → Twitter, LinkedIn!

Transitioning from the Army into Tech

Stefan — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 15:39:37 +0000

My Short Story

Serving full time as a Soldier and teaching myself how to code is no easy journey to begin. The summer of 2021, a couple of youtube videos, and the weight of having another baby inspired me to make an early decision to change careers. Overall, the opportunity to work remote, salary, and quality of life was the hook to break into tech.

What is my journey so far

Choosing my path

Once I decided I wanted to break into tech, I researched, googled, and youtube what the easiest, lucrative, and high salary jobs. For a beginner, I decided to go with being a front end developer. I fell upon The Odin Project because the cost, FREE! I ended up making it to the JavaScript section in Foundations and felt discourage to continue due to the difficulty of understanding functions.

Now, I am currently engaged in the #100Devs cohort hosted by an excellent teacher Leon Noel. Leon is currently teaching a 30 week bootcamp for free for people that were affected by the pandemic or wanting to break into tech. I realized that I needed a course with structure, and this is my time to shine!

Finding a Village

Because I enrolled into the #100Devs cohort, I was able to connect with hundreds of other people who have the same mindset of not being satisfied with their careers and wanting to make a change for themselves. I discovered being surrounded by a village pushes me to work harder, not give up so easily, and help others around me achieve their goals. Once you find your village, there is no turning back!

Are you thinking about it

My overall advice for those on the fence, JUST DO IT! It does not hurt to dive into the abyss of the unknown like coding. You will never know if it suits you if you do not try. Start today, stay disciplined, show grit, join a community, and most importantly, trust the process.