Iron Yard — Week 1

I just wrapped up the first week of a 12-week program at the Iron Yard in Atlanta. The Iron Yard runs coding “bootcamps” where students are deeply immersed in a particular technology with the objective of advancing from newbie to moderately proficient in three months. At their Atlanta campus, they currently offer three paths — Front End Engineering (Javascript), Rails Engineering, and Mobile Engineering (iOS).

I jumped into the Front End class and started the process with a decent head start. Much of the content in the first week was a review, so my objectives are perhaps a little different than others in the class who are starting from scratch. I made a personal decision last summer to teach myself web technologies and with this class I expect to fill in a few blanks. I don’t know if I’ll achieve mastery on the foundational aspects of web development, but hey — that is what I’m shooting for.

Joining the Iron Yard this quarter was a bit of a redirect. Two months ago, I met some Iron Yard students at a local Javascript meetup. They invited me to listen to their Demo Day which is basically where they get to present their final projects. I decided to go, simply because I wanted to network a little and see what they accomplished. I had no serious intention of joining the program myself. However, something happened to me that day. I was blown away by how much they accomplished and the overall caliber of the students. On top of that, I spoke with several students and listened to how passionate they were about their instructor and the team at the Iron Yard.

This was a Friday. I went home with a positive vibe. On Saturday, I awoke to a really strong urge to do this myself. It took a little bit to convince my wife, but on Monday morning, I made the call. I went through an interview process and immediately after the holidays, class started. Here I am now — and I’m lovin’ it!