It’s Sunday following my 11th week at Tech Elevator’s 14-week coding bootcamp.
The lesson plans slowed down this week as students’ job-searches intensify. On Wednesday Tech Elevator hosted the first of two “Employer Matchmaking” sessions. In addition to my job search and school work, I’ve started putting a lot of time into my ‘passion project’ – read Week 9 to learn more.
Our classes this week focused on web development tools that can be paired with our newfound ASP.NET MVC 5 and JavaScript skills. It’s too bad so much of my time is taken by job interviews and my personal project because we’re learning some fascinating stuff. Hopefully I’ll be able to explore the topics in more depth later on.
We kicked off the week learning about JSON, XML, AJAX and APIs. Long story short, these are technologies that exchange data between a server and a browser. JSON is an acronym for JavaScript Object Notation and is often pronounced like the name “Jason.” XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and functions similarly to JSON, but looks more like HTML using angle brackets to delimit. JSON and XML are known as Data-Interchange formats; a fancy name for languages that exchange information between the browser and a server. AJAX, short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a set of rules and technologies that allow the server to exchange data with the browser asynchronously. This means the connection is maintained so data on a website will be updated without reloading the page.
With data-interchange and AJAX in our toolbelt, we’re able to connect our applications to APIs. Budding developers hear the term API all the time when talking to veteran programmers. At first I thought it would be an untenable coding task, but it turns out an API is simply a way of connecting your applications to other apps. The acronym stands for Application Programming Interface and is most often a set of commands and rules necessary to connect other applications to your own. You can go online and find APIs for just about anything; from returning random facts about Chuck Norris to giving you the local weather. APIs are a concept that’s shrouded in ambiguity until you actually implement one; I found it helpful to read about specific APIs I had no intention of using. If you’re curious, Google provides excellent documentation for their APIs; everything from Google Maps to Spreadsheets.
We also learned about SOAP and REST, which are ways of providing interoperability between the client and the server. I won’t go into much detail on these, but follow the links to learn more.
The matchmaking event on Wednesday was an unforgettable experience. I had seven twenty-five minute job interviews in a span of 5 hours. I started the day with two interviews back-to-back. After an hour break, I had five interviews in a row with only a five-minute break between each one! I prepared a lot by studying each company I interviewed with and preparing myself for technical questions; hopefully it paid off! Without getting into specifics, I’ve been lucky enough to move forward in the interview process with one or more companies, and I couldn’t be more excited about it! The final matchmaking event is this Wednesday. I only have three interviews, so it won’t be as intense.
Three weeks before the bootcamp ends I’m incredibly fortunate for this experience. I have absolutely no regrets about jumping into tech head first. However, I’m already feeling a little somber to see the bootcamp end. The last three months have changed me. I’ve made a risky career move, learned how to program, started a blog, and made a ton of friends along the way. I’m going to look back on this as one of the most formative times in my career and I’ve been having too much fun for it to end so soon.
With this in mind, I’ll take some lessons from the bootcamp into my career as a developer. The first thing to remember is that I love learning and never want to stop. This environment’s been fast-paced and constantly leaves me at the edge of my seat, and I can’t get enough! I need to remember to constantly challenge myself so I’m at my best. If my work gets the least bit monotonous, I’ll dive into a new project or development framework at home to stay sharp. I also need to remember that communication is key and there’s no room for egos in pair programming. If you’re not familiar with pair programming, it’s when two developers work on the same code with one of them operating the mouse and keyboard; you can read about some of my experiences with it in Week 4. In pair programming, your mind can go down a particular avenue making it frustrating when your partner disagrees or interrupts your thought process. But in my experience, you get much further listening to your partner’s ideas than insisting to use your own. Seeing my classmates partner up throughout this experience has taught me a lot about peer interaction and I’m very thankful. I need to remember how important it is to stay humble and actively listen to my teammates.
Though it bums me out, all good things must come to an end. Now I can look forward to an even more exciting career in tech.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading! As always, find me at joeosterfeld@gmail.com