Hi, my name is David and I just failed a tech bootcamp entrance exam. I know this is an odd way to start an article but for me, failure is an opportunity for a new start.
The pass mark for the exam was 85% and I missed it by 2%. I was gutted. Failure is never pleasant and I was even more disappointed considering that I was so close to success. One of the reasons for applying for the bootcamp was to have some accountability as there would have been ample opportunity for mentorship. I believe I need that extra bit of discipline for the up-skill journey I have decided to embark on going forward. However, since plan a didn’t work it is time to adapt, which is a theme that is sprinkled all over my career history.
When I am not annoying my amazing girlfriend, I spend my time as a database developer, who is currently transitioning into backend development. Most of my corporate life was spent writing and building with the Oracle SQL tech stack. A few years out of active corporate work has been spent freelancing – this has afforded me the opportunity to dabble into a diverse number of projects, eventually making me a generalist of sorts. I have worked on legacy IT projects, attained proficiency in different languages to build products, worked in product management and more.
I want to keep learning, so right on brand for a database dev, I always have a backup plan…this!
Since the ‘straight forward’ way hasn’t quite worked out the way I imagined, I want to dedicate myself to documenting my skills development journey as I figure it out going forward. My hope is that it not only keeps me accountable but also educates other techies like me on what their journey might look like and how they can attain success even if they do not take the popular course of action. I will be writing about random thoughts as well as documenting solutions. There will be lots on Oracle – the stack that will always have my heart. Going forward I am also looking at Java as a backend language to adopt or upgrade my PHP skill level.
I am focused, determined and ready. The plan is to post bi-weekly, so stick around for the ride – it might be a wild one.
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