Better together

TELWilson — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 00:51:59 +0000

Today I’d like to share my experience with pair programming. I will admit that it was something I was not looking forward to when I began the boot camp experience. Years ago I was part of a group project that went horribly awry. I have had many successful group experiences since then, including at least one for each of the classes I completed for my MBA, but that one awful experience has left me dreading group work. I am happy to say that the pair programming experiences I have had during the Tech Elevator boot camp have given me the opportunity to see just how awesome pair or group work can be.

We have had several smaller pair exercises so far as well as having completed our first mini capstone at the end of our first module of learning (C#). We actually begin the mini capstone for the end of Module 2 tomorrow. The first advantage to the pair work is that it provides an opportunity to form a stronger connection with a classmate in this virtual environment. While we all keep our video on during lecture and participate in a chat, I definitely appreciate the opportunity to get to know people in a more one-on-one setting that is a bit absent in this virtual experience. The pair work allows for feeling a bit more connected as we work our way through the boot camp experiences.

Another advantage to the pair work is that everyone seems to learn the concepts a bit differently. In every pair I have worked in so far, regardless of if we started the boot camp on equal footing, we have been able to take turns leading the work and gotten things done in a smooth and simple manner. Whenever one of the pair got stuck, the other partner had a slightly different understanding of the concept and was able to get us back on track and past the snarl. It has been a learning process that has allowed me to learn new ways to think about the problems encountered as well as to learn more about myself and how far I have come on this journey. Just over a month ago I had never seen a line of code. At the end of the first module, I was able to build a fully functioning catering/vending machine software with a pair partner. Tomorrow I start working on a reservation system utilizing SQL databases. This is fun and I can’t wait to get started!

Console.WriteLine(“Hello World!”);

TELWilson — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 00:25:30 +0000

Console.WriteLine(“Hello World!”);

I’m Leslie and I’m currently enrolled in a C# boot camp with Tech Elevator in Columbus, Ohio. This is also the first blog post I have ever written, so lots of new things happening at once! We have just finished up our first module on Object Oriented Programming and I am starting to feel a bit more comfortable.

It is probably useful for you to know a bit more about where I am coming from. I have a Masters in Business Administration along with undergraduate degrees in Equine Science and Veterinary Technology. Prior to enrolling in Tech Elevator, I had never taken a computer science course or seen a command line. My MBA included an IT course that focused more on networks and that is the extent of IT knowledge I brought in my arsenal.

The next natural questions are, why coding and why a boot camp? I will deal with them in order.

I chose coding after evaluating multiple options. There are so many career paths that are disappearing as technology improves and is able to perform those functions. I still anticipate another 30 years of working. I did not want to start something now and then find myself back at square one in five or ten years because that role was no longer needed. With the pandemic sending everything virtual, I whittled the options down to two - coding and cyber security. Ultimately I went with coding because I felt like cyber security would be more appropriate if I had a stronger computer science background. Coding seemed like the best starting point for me and I also felt like I could always add some additional knowledge in cyber security later on in my career if that was still an area of interest.

I chose a boot camp mostly due to the timing. I was between jobs, having just sold my business, and many local companies are currently going through restructuring making it harder than normal to get a foot in the door somewhere. I know what you are thinking here, but developers seem to be the one thing they are hiring these days! I had the time to do it now, so after some discussion with my family, I went for it.

The final thing I’d like to share in this first post is why I chose Tech Elevator. As I mentioned in the beginning, I’m only a few weeks into the program so far, so this is not meant to be a complete and thorough review. I mean only to share the deciding factors for me and how those have played out so far. Of course cost is a major one, and Tech Elevator offers lots of options and makes it very easy to research those options via their website. The two deciding factors for me were that the teachers all have backgrounds as developers, and the quality of the career placement program.

So far, I have found the teachers to be excellent and even more helpful than I had anticipated as I struggled to pick up concepts early on. They have been willing to jump on Zoom late at night or early in the morning to help me when I got stuck. The career placement program, called the Pathway Program at TE, has been outstanding so far as well. There have been steps every week to help us prepare -- preparing an Elevator pitch, adjusting our resumes for the technical roles we will be qualified for coming out of here, getting our LinkedIn profiles in shape, just to name a few things. Each week has also included a panel round with local people from the industry to provide us with insights and networking opportunities. In the coming weeks, there will be Employer Showcases and continued career planning and development. Towards the end of the boot camp, there will be an Employer Matchmaking event. The whole point of the boot camp, for me, is to come out on the other side with a job and between the training I am receiving and the career support offered at Tech Elevator, the future's looking bright!

DEV Community: TELWilson

Better together

Console.WriteLine(“Hello World!”);

Console.WriteLine(“Hello World!”);