My experience at Ecole 42’s sister, Codam.
I went with a different purpose than most people but ended up learning the same core principles as everyone else did.
After my last dev article, I actually felt like making changes and discarding unnecessary things out of my life.
With my less nice experiences in Web Development, I was at a point where I didn’t feel excited anymore.
In the meantime, my interest in design was rekindled. So every day I’d focus on design instead. Later on, it felt like I had finally made up my mind, and that design is the thing I’d like to spend the rest of my life doing.
However, then I came to a realisation; did I lose interest in Web Development because of me, because I was sick, or was it because of the shitty experiences and highly incapable and unprofessional people I came across?
I had to find out. And the only way I could was at this new school in Amsterdam, Codam.
Introducing Codam & the Piscine
After the success of Ecole 42 in many different countries and after meeting its founder, Ms. Vigreux decided to found her own — Codam. With the same principles and the same ideas as its bigger sister, Codam officially opened for business back in September 2018 to help people ages eighteen to thirty kickstart a career in the fascinating field of Programming. Learn more here.
Great thing was that this school is different than any school I have attended in the past. They advertise that the school is free and that is actually the case. On top of that, they pay for your travel expenses if you ask and even arrange housing for students to stay at. Which is something I think a lot of universities and other educational organisations can learn from and implement.
No teachers are involved whatsoever, and the only evaluation you get is from your peers and from this thing called Norminette. The whole experience, right off the bat, was much more interesting, organised and challenging than the bootcamp I went to last year.
And yes, those rumours you heard about 42, apply to Codam as well — being part of the community and experiencing the Piscine is the best thing ever. During the Piscine you won’t be able to do things you enjoy, hang out with family, friends etc. — they want you to be committed for a whole month, which means no weekends and no free days. Because of this, the building itself is open 24/7 for students to come and leave as they please (by checking in and out with a white key-card).
My experience swimming in the Piscine
It might sound counterintuitive to what has been mentioned above, but this was the hardest thing I have experienced voluntarily. In fact, so hard that you are guaranteed to go home and cry the first week. Sadly, you’ll probably be too tired to do so, so you suck it up and keep going.
The Piscine is not like other bootcamps where things start off easier and get harder. It’s hard from the start, it’s called the Piscine for a reason. Imagine you never swam before and you’re pushed into a pool without knowing how to stay afloat. If this happened in real life you’d be inclined to panic. Which a lot of students seemed to do. But bit by bit you realise that your body floats on its own. You determine when you realise this and it’s up to you to decide when you’ll actually start swimming forward.
I was part of the first batch that started in September. The building itself was still under construction, which meant constant drilling, hammering and other sounds for the biggest part of the day — even during exams. They did, however, provide us with basic earplugs though. On top of it, we had to deal with extra people and reporters coming in because Codam was still working on being discovered. As someone that’s very sensitive to noise, I had a hard time focussing at first, but later, I couldn’t even hear the drilling anymore. The provided 27-inch iMacs have been set up in such a way to have students facing each other. So the occasional hand bump when grabbing your mouse and awkward glimpses at each other cause you to start talking eventually.
On the first two days we learned the essentials of Git and the Command Line, and on the third day, we started with the C Language itself. Preference went to Vim and Emacs because these are text editors that are distributed with most Unix-based systems, hence giving students a more rounded understanding of how things work and getting adjusted to them.
The schedule was impossible. In my opinion, it has been made with Prioritisation in mind;
• Monday to Friday we had daily assignments.
• Each week we also had a bigger individual assignment.
• Fridays we had exams.
• During the weekend we had a group assignment.
• Of course, we had to keep in mind to assess our peers and vice versa as well.
Something I noticed by the end of the first week was that despite going with a calm head, I was having a really hard time telling what day it was. My ability to remember things and sleep were really bad as well, and I was having constant coding nightmares. By the end, I was having constant stomach problems, probably because I wasn’t eating as I’m accustomed to.
Throughout the Piscine, there were things that kept my fellow peers and I wary most of the time. For example, the rate at which people were dropping out, the grading system and the paranoia staff members instilled into us.
All was done in a joking manner, of course, so we all got some great fun out of it.
My Advice to new Codammers
I advise anyone interested in coding to give this a try. Yes, it’s crazy challenging, but at the end of the Piscine, you’ll leave with more than you expected.
If you don’t have any experience prior to this, it’s fine. Right before the bootcamp, there’s no need to go study either, especially the C Language. However, to save you some time throughout, I say take some time to go over the basics of Git, the Command Line and your text editor of choice (Vim, Emacs). Oh, and while you’re at it, read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams since these people are just obsessed with it, you’ll see.
It’s also important to keep calm since the system is designed to fail you. Take breaks often, stay hydrated, eat well..and rest as much as possible when you’re not at Codam. At the end of the day, it’s not like you have an option, your body just shuts down on its own. You’ll have coding nightmares, but it’s fine, they’ll help you come in stronger the next day.
To me, Codam wasn’t just about programming — if you look at my posts about the bootcamp I went to in Amsterdam earlier last year, I was devastated when I failed. But now, as I am writing this a few weeks later, I am still mind-baffled by the whole experience. And if I had to compare the two, that bootcamp wouldn’t even come close to the experience I got at Codam.
This time, when I got the email I spent two weeks waiting for, I smiled. I did not get in, but I had a blast and I learned a lot.
And as someone who used to be a perfectionist, I had the opportunity to apply the biggest lesson I learned this year;
“I have to be okay with the thought of my work and performance being mediocre. I have to admit that I am doing the best possible I can in the situation at this specific moment.”
There’s a difference in realising and accepting that your performance is mediocre and deciding to do something about it, rather than not seeing it and settling for it.
Accept that you are human, accept that you automatically don’t know everything and accept that you will fail. It’s all normal, it’s all part of life.
Without practice you can’t be good at something. So work on your craft, improve if you feel that that particular thing is something worth improving for. If not, look for something else and do the same.
If you’re excited about what you read above, sign up, apply and feel free to drop me a line or ask some questions. I’d be glad to help you #WriteYourFuture.
Thanks for reading, have a nice day! 🖖
