I Dedicate 2019 To Code
I wish I could learn everything and when I say everything I really do mean everything, but for 2019 I’m gonna learn everything I can to become a software engineer. So, what exactly am I going to learn this year? Well let’s break it down.
Holberton School of Software Engineering
Full-Stack Software Engineer
After taking a leave of absence from the University of Hartford I recently got accepted to Holberton School of Software Engineering located in New Haven, CT. Here is where my journey really starts. The first nine months is all Holberton where we’ll be learning C programming language, Unix, Python, Linux, front-End, Back-End, databases, devops, and much more. It’s peer-learning and project based which I really love because I learn best by doing and applying the knowledge. The curriculum is rich and rigorous, but I’m taking the initiative to do some of my own learning on the side. One of the mentors I met at the open house told me to make my room into a creative space. A place where you can work on your own projects and ideas so that you can better apply the tools you learn here at Holberton. Learning to code is only 50% of being an engineer. You have to be able to communicate and collaborate with others and Holberton emphasizes peer learning. Here we’re learning how to learn and that’s important in this field where technology is constantly changing. After the first year I’ll be looking to find an internship and then go into a specialization track for the second year doing AR/VR.
Web Development
I picked up these books a few months ago to learn front-end development. I highly recommend these to anyone who wants to learn web development. They are very well written and have graphic illustrations to visually help you grasp an understanding on the topic. I’ve done HTML and CSS in high school, but my first real in-depth introduction to it was in my web development class at UHart. I have my portfolio to those projects on my GitHub.
What I might actually be looking to do this year is build websites for friends, family, and even local businesses for free just to practice and work on my skills. This would also give me a chance to grow my portfolio.
Github link to Web Dev class projects.
Definitely can not wait for PHP & MYSQL by Jon Duckett to come out. I’ve already finished the HTML & CSS and just got started with Javascript and Jquery. Beyond these books I have also enrolled in some Udemy courses that go into both the frontend and backend of web development.
Learning iOS Development
Android eventually
I’ve always had a strong interest in mobile development. Everyone has a smartphone now a days and just being able to create something that billions of people can use motivates me to dive into this field. Just being able to have an idea go from your head to the palm of your hands is what motivated me to start exploring ideas and trying to learn iOS development. While I’m attending Holberton I’ll be teaching myself how to use Xcode and swift. One valuable skill I’m learning here at the school is how to learn and so far it is working out for me very well. After learning how to navigate the terminal, basic commands, permissions, redirections, shell, and now C language, I feel like there is nothing I can’t pick up and learn. So far I have been just following YouTube and Udemy tutorial, which is not bad, but at some point I have to just start building an app of my own. Normally I follow video tutorial on YouTube or Udemy, but to really get good at it I’m gonna need to build it on my own. The two books below by Simon Ng Appcoda are very useful and start you off very well on the Xcode IDE and Swift programming language. As of now I can’t get into iOS at the moment until maybe Spring. The curriculum here at Holberton is intense, but very fun. As for Android? Eventually, I will dive into Android development either continuing learning Java or Kotlin.
My next moves
After the first year of Holberton the goal is to land an internship and quit that Dunkin Donuts job I have. When you’ve worked in fast food as long as I have your mind starts to lose it. So definitely making 2019 my last year working in that industry. On the side I’ll be working on my Vers app and furthering my skills in iOS development. You can read about Vers in my past articles I’ve written. That project was outsourced to another developer, but now I’m looking to modify and build it myself. After the internship the second year of Holberton will be the next step as I’m looking to go into the VR/AR concentration track. VR/AR is definitely on the rise and I want to make sure I’m at the forefront of it all.
I’ll be documenting my experience here at Holberton Scool because I believe it is an experience worth writing about and I’m not much of a fan for writing. I have never been this excited to go to school and I can only imagine the type of engineer I’ll be in the first year attending this school.
