Practical Courses for Developers
What to Prioritize in Your Learning and Why
Post Bootcamp Priorities
The period between finishing a Software Engineering bootcamp and landing that first job is difficult. There’s really no straight path unless you have a job lined up right away, which is rare. Part of the difficulty is prioritizing your time because there are many things to be done: applying to jobs, networking, creating projects for the portfolio, learning new skills, improving the skills you have, contributing to your Github, etc…
There have been plenty of times during my job hunt so far that I briefly ignored one priority to pursue another. I let a few too many days go by without a commit to my Github, and it wasn’t because I was being lazy. With that said, my career counselor stressed the importance of consistently committing to my Github, because it looks much better that way when recruiters look at it.
Two Birds with One Stone
We don’t necessarily have to ignore one of the priorities I listed earlier in order to pursue another. That’s why I like to find courses that guide the user through creating a project of their own. It allows me to learn/improve skills while I work on my portfolio.
The weeks that my Github didn’t receive the proper amount of attention were weeks that I sunk a lot of time into working through a tutorial without associated projects. These tutorials can teach the basics, but a practical tutorial with projects really hones the skills. These should be projects that you create for yourself on your own computer and add as a repository to Github. On the other hand many tutorials have the students code through small challenges in IDE’s, which is convenient, but I prefer to use my time completing courses that utilize the language or framework to build out bigger projects that I can showcase.
Overall, I think practical courses that teach through full projects offer two benefits. It’s not just a way to save time by learning while you work on your portfolio; I believe it’s the better way to learn a skill. It’s just an added bonus that I’m pushing at least five commits every hour I spend learning with a practical course.
If you want an idea of the kind of course that I’m promoting here, you should check out the React Native course that I’m working through right now. I try to find free ones, but sometimes the best courses come with a cost. This one cost me about $16. Please don’t ever pay for a course on Udemy when it costs $100. They have “sales” all the time.