Ninja training starts tomorrow

James Hughes
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

It’s the day before the official start of the Full Time course at Makers Academy, an intensive 16 week coding bootcamp in London…

…pause for deep breath as I mentally picture what the next 12 weeks have in store. It’s a picture of late nights, plenty of beard scratching and my mind nearly exploding from all the new things I’ve been learning. It’s a picture of hard graft, mixed with table tennis & coffee and hopefully with strong friendships forged through shared common adversity.

For the last 4 weeks, I have been on the Pre-Course. It has consisted of challenges and tutorials designed to get this coding novice into shape for real training! The Pre-Course has been a real learning experience. We’ve covered the fundamentals of the Command Line, using GIT and have come to grips with Ruby by means of a couple of projects. Probably the greatest lesson I’ve learnt is the value of other people. Makers places a real emphasis on pair programming- working with someone else to work through coding challenges, either face to face or through some screen sharing app like Screen Hero. Pairing with others has often been instrumental in unlocking some information that I was struggling or stuck with. I look forward to growing with others through the course.

I must admit it, I have found it very challenging. There has been a lot of information dumped into my brain and I’m hoping that it all sticks. My worry is that I’m not ready for the full time course. Experience however has taught me that a position you find yourself in is usually a shared position with others around you. So I’m probably not the only one feeling like this but that has not been able to completely quell the slight worry that is nagging me.

My journey towards becoming a coding ninja is well on its way. I’m so excited about what the next 12 weeks and so totally amped for some heavy training.

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