I started Microverse’s Fast Track program — 5 things you should know
Breaking into the world of software development can be hard. Sure, there are lots of free online programs and courses, or inexpensive ones available from websites such as Udemy.com. But knowing just what to spend your time on — and maintaining the motivation to keep reading and working on projects without anyone holding you accountable — becomes a challenge after the initial excitement wears off. There are solutions out there: coding boot camps offer the kind of discipline and atmosphere needed to see you through to the “end” of the journey (or at least a hireable point on that journey — no developer ever stops learning to code). In reality, though, such boot camps are only accessible to a small portion of the world’s aspiring developers, who happen to be located near one or able and willing to move to a new area. Enter Microverse, a new kind of boot camp where members work together remotely through pair programming. I joined their Fast Track program two weeks ago, and these are my initial impressions:
A day in the life of a Microverse Fast Track student begins with starting a Google Hangouts session with your programming partner. Paul (who lives in Canada) and I (in the US) typically discuss anything that we have thought about since the previous day, or any messages we have received related to the program. After that, we dive into solving coding challenges (algorithms) for an hour, to get our brains into coding mode and get practice for the coding interviews we will eventually face. The next four hours are spent learning coding languages — Microverse has so far directed us to The Odin Project, which has curated some of the best resources from around the web for learning Ruby and Ruby on Rails. After those fours hours, we break for lunch, and come back for three hours of open source contributions or freelance projects (depending on the day). This schedule keeps us from getting bored or stuck on any one thing, which helps keep morale and motivation high.
Once a week, we have a “lunch-and-learn” (kind of odd with everyone in different time zones), where a developer speaks to us about various topics and we get to ask questions. This allows us a glimpse into different perspectives and connects us with many companies and individuals in various positions.
Here are my top 5 observations about the program so far:
Pair programming can be amazing. The Microverse program is built around pair programming, and for good reason. Having a partner keeps you accountable to another person, and therefore motivated to continue to learn and work on projects. Not only that, but it’s unlikely that you and your coding partner have the exact same strengths — which means that you will learn from one another, and the teaching that you do will further cement your understanding of the concepts you already know. On top of all that, when you go to look for a job, the fact that you have spent considerable time programming remotely with another person will help show employers that are able to work well in a team (as well as work remotely, if that’s something you’d like to do).
Feedback is important. Another great thing about Microverse is that we have a mentor, Kevin, who is able to give us feedback on our projects. How many times have you completed a project on your own and wondered how good it really was? Or maybe you’ve hurried through a project to get it done, without reviewing it very well? We’ve all been there when trying to learn solo. Having someone to review your code and give you feedback means that you are not just finishing projects, you’re actually doing them well.
Open source projects offer great experience. Making contributions to open source projects can be intimidating for first-timers. Honestly, I don’t know if I would ever have made my first contribution were it not for the push from the Microverse program and the encouragement from working with a partner. Together, we were able to work through getting the local development environment set up and make a couple of successful contributions in our first week (to FreeCodeCamp and The Odin Project). This was very exciting, and really helped me understand how the GitFlow works on GitHub. I know the experience we gain from continuing to contribute to open source projects over the next few months will be extremely valuable and help us grow as developers.
Freelance projects are good for resumes, but hard to win. Alongside open source projects, freelance projects offer a great opportunity to grow our skills and reputation. Unfortunately, Paul and I have not been able to get any freelance projects yet. We have found that it is very hard to win a project until you have a reputation, and difficult to earn that reputation without more experience. Knowing what projects to look for and how to craft is proposal is half the battle, but we’re still lacking in the other half at this point. We have made several proposals, but none have been accepted yet. Which leads to the last point…
Our feedback is heard. One of the advantages of getting involved with a project early (like being a member of a beta) is being able to influence the final product. I’ve been able to see this in Microverse already. Some of the things we have run into issues with have already been changed. Just recently, a new piece was added to the freelance aspect of the program, which guides us through building up a project portfolio before we begin applying like crazy for freelance projects. It seems that Microverse is designed to be flexible in this way — giving excellent guidelines to follow, but open to change in order to fit the needs of the individual teams in the program.
My overall experience with Microverse’s Fast Track program has been wonderful. I enjoy getting up every morning (earlier than I was prior to beginning the program) and working with Paul to solve problems, learn programming, and create new projects. I am confident that by the end of these four months, I will have the skills and experience to truly be a full stack web developer. If you find yourself at that all-too-familiar point in the aspiring programmer’s journey, where you need a motivational push or better guidance/feedback in your path to becoming a developer, check out Microverse.
