Andela Bootcamp: How I Made It To Week Two

Helen J
Helen J
Jul 10, 2017 · 4 min read

Two stories back, I wrote about my most challenging experience ever. What I did not know at the time was that my most challenging experience was at the brink of change. If I had to rewrite that story today, the Andela Bootcamp experience would most likely top my previous challenge. So we are all grateful for our unlimited pages of Medium, we always have another chance. This is my story on how I made it to two weeks in Andela Bootcamp.

I applied to Andela to fulfill a lustrum passion to be a programmer. You see when you have been passionate about something for over five years, you feel like you are ready and nothing can slow you down. This was the feeling when I was invited to Andela bootcamp. I had the passion, the motivation and the commitment. I had been learning gradually on CodeAcademy and FreeCodeCamp and the time was generally right since I had explored on all my previous passions that always pushed programming down my to-do list. Then I got to bootcamp and realized I needed more than all that. I needed to top up all that by 100% and more if I had to make it in Bootcamp.

Starting with the soft skills, a lot has changed in the past week plus. The 7 Cs of communication became an important part of everyday. I had to be Clear, Concise, Concrete, Correct, Coherent, Complete and Courteous (read more in this article). All these sound quite easy individually, and some of them are things I was already practicing. But a combination of all became a bit challenging; how do you stay Concrete and Concise when communicating? I always imagined that if I had to paint a picture to someone, being Concise was not necessary since I have to give you a beautiful picture(maybe I just loved telling good stories). All that changed in Bootcamp. If I had to communicate effectively, then the pictures must be given in as concise manner. I am learning and it has been very helpful in getting answers.

And then, there was professional writing. This skill aligned properly with another passion I have. I loved writing and did most of my writing in my head or on word documents on my laptop, never to see the light of day. Reason? I just did not have the encouragement or need to publish anything I write. Until I got to Bootcamp, then I had to open a Medium account and write. I must confess, this has been one of the best times in Bootcamp. To take a break from all that coding and just write something, it has been therapeutic in helping me calm my nerves.

How about project management? This has been another important aspect of my Bootcamp experience. I had to open a Trello and Pivotal tracker account. I found this learning very important because I have been opportune to work in an environment where projects were not taken as they should; the project start and end or everything in between is simply communicated by one person who makes all the decisions. In such cases, you only know that there is an ongoing project, but you have no idea where you are on the project. Not anymore, I have learnt the importance of project management and keeping to it was crucial in making it to second week of Bootcamp.

Moving on to the technical skills. This was the tough part and there is so much to learn. First the tools; Git, NodeJS, CSS, Bootstrap, Express, Postman, Postgresql, eslint, these are some of the tools I have encountered so far. Needless to say, this has been the most challenging part of Bootcamp. There is so much to learn, and all of it contribute to the final project, you cannot learn just one and leave the rest. First I have learnt that if you must be a programmer, then Git is very important for version control. Then I created an account on Github. Having this has shown me the importance of version control and I agree that every developer needs it.

Prior to the bootcamp, I had basic knowledge of using Html to build user interface. But I had to learn more to catch-up on Html, CSS and bootstrap to build the user interface for my project. Easy as it may sound, this actually requires a lot of work and design mindset. This contributed to some of my sleepless nights and hard work.Well, I think the end product was worth it. Working on the back-end of my project is next up. I doubt this sounds easy to anyone, but the adrenaline is pumping. I know I can do this, and I have the great support of the bootcamp assistants and fellow bootcampers.

Nothing prepares you for Andela Bootcamp if you have been invited, not reading articles or suggestions or any feedback from people. The only real preparation you need is to read your homestudy material, join a great online learning environment like Codeacademy and Freecodecamp and pay attention to instructions. More than anything, you need to be motivated, commitment is a must and you must be ready to adapt very fast to changes. It is a fast-paced environment and you must be ready!

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