Journey through GA

Devesh Patel
Nov 3 · 3 min read

I completed nine out of the twelve weeks here at general assembly. It has not been easy, but I have learned so much within those 9 weeks. When I first entered the program, I was expecting the flow of the program to be smooth and easy. Instead, it has been challenging and engaging. The material they teach us is what all companies look for when they are hiring candidates, and the way they teach it is very hand-on. The program is designed to guide you to pursue front-end, back-end, or full-stack. If you are unsure which you want to pursue when you start, I guarantee you will when the twelve weeks are up.

The course teaches you languages and frameworks all the companies are working with. Some include JavaScript, Python, ExpressJS and Django. Express and Django are back-end frameworks used to get information from APIs, which I have taken an interest in. The first unit was just the basic JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to get people introduced to front-end development. Although I enjoyed this unit, I felt it was not right for me. HTML and CSS require a creative/ design focused interest, which does not fit me as a person.

The next unit was an introduction to back-end. The focus on this unit was to use REST routes to display what each webpage should do. At first, I was confused and shocked because this was a big step from what we were doing before. So, I was struggling with most of it, but after studying some more and reading more about Express, I quickly got the hang of it. And after doing mini projects, I heard my calling. I enjoyed everything that back-end had to offer, I finally got to understanding how these routes work and why they are so important. For this unit’s project, I created a simple full-stack app where users can add and keep track of their favorite artists. I was not able to link the Spotify API, which was my original plan, but going forward I plan to integrate it.

The third unit was ReactJS and was probably the most confusing for me to get a grasp on. React is a front-end framework and so far, the most popular. When we first got introduced to react, I was excited since this was something I have been wanting to learn for a while. I was eager to see what they hype was about this framework, but soon after learning it I was not a fan. Every aspect seemed confusing about it and it was hard for me to catch up and understand the lesson of the day. After a week of React we were formed into groups to create our first full-stack app with react.

When we were starting out, we all were thinking about the big picture on what we wanted our idea to look like. Realizing this is a big step, we decided to take it on one step at a time. We divided the work between two people doing front-end, and the other doing back-end. Me and another groupmate were responsible for making the front-end and it was not easy. But after some help and guidance from out instructors, we were able to get a better understanding of how react works. In the end we designed an app where we call yelps API to search bars that have the least reviews (hole in the wall). To search for bars, you enter a location and would return 25 bars within the area. Right now, there are bugs that need to be fixed, but the app works.

We all were very happy to see that our app worked and were able to work together. This was the first time we felt how a job feels to work with others