Graduated from the Iron Yard Atlanta. It was worth it.

This summer has been one of change in my life. I quit my job managing at a Guitar Center to go back to school and learn to code. I didn’t understand at first how much work was required to learn it in just three months, but still I progressed.

Now I’m graduating (!!!) and it is the start of another change. I have to find a job!

Let’s digress though.

The Iron Yard may have been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I loved working in the Front End Branch. While not all of my classmates with whom I started the program ended up graduating, those who were willing to stay long hours to delve into something they didn’t understand ended up by my side this last day of class, recieving the certificate for completion. The Iron Yard forces you into a good work ethic to succeed. It gives you the tools, the direction, and the spark needed to get you to dive into a field in which you have no background, and come out not only knowing any related esoteric language, but you finish with a legitimate ability to succeed in that field.

It was frustrating to see people in the class fall behind after being warned time and time again that we needed to be willing to put in hard work. Not out of annoyance, rather from the perspective that I knew that I was sacrificing time with my wife — time with my daughter — to learn something that I wanted to use to better all of our lives; I couldn’t stand seeing people acting as though they were going to get the concepts without sacrificing something. Even those in the class with a background in coding — we had someone whose background was even Front-End — had to put in many hours a day completing and learning assignments.

It has been a long time since I went out and worked my tail off at something. I don’t know that I’ve ever worked as hard as I have over these past three months.

For those of you interested in TIY, when you sign up, come ready to work, and you will not be disappointed.