My Android Learning Community Journey (So far So good…)
It was a usual routine for a job seeker; I just returned from an interview which I believed I ace but the interviewer gave me the often dreaded word by job seeker ‘We will get back to you’. I returned home, was lying down on my bed, thinking of where I went wrong during my course of interview: I decided to visit the website ‘Nairaland’ to while away time.
While browsing through the site, I stumbled upon a thread talking about Andela Android Learning Community (Beginners and Intermediate track) by the owner of a blog. I was very skeptical on whether to apply because I am yet to fully complete any online course I have embarked on. I felt since I have nothing to lose; I applied and also shared the link with my friends.
The future is surely for those who invest in today — Anon.
I applied for the beginners track even though I am a CS graduate, the assessment for intermediate track scared me off with the close deadline. I took the online assessment for the beginners track and was upbeat to get a perfect or near perfect score.
When I received my score of 82%, I was like ‘Mehn! This is no funny o for a CS graduate’. I then made up my mind that this must not be among my failed learning project. I had once picked up Java to learn earlier but dropped it aside when jargon like ‘Method, Object and Constructor’ were becoming undefined. I learn that Python was the most easiest language, quickly I started learning Python but I soon realized it also has its own jargon, I was like ‘Oh My God! How will one overcome this programming wahala? Those doing it only have one head noww’.
A while later, the slack party hold and we were told, we will be group into smaller teams with facilitators; I was like ‘this will make sense o, at least there will be somebody you can look up to and ask question’.
Next was the usual bi-weekly meet-up and I eagerly look forward to each one. When the first one happen, even to install Android Studio was no fluke ‘I told myself na installation person dey suffer like this? How the programming wan be abeg?’ I engrossed myself inside the Udacity video because I was determine to cover much before School resume. We taught about layout in the meet-up and we runned our first android app ‘Hello Andela’. I actually told myself ‘if android programming na only about layout, oboy person don hammer be that’. Our facilitator really emphasize on layout.
During subsequent meet-up, the daredevil arrived: OOP. While our facilitator was doing justice to ‘Class, Object and Constructor stuff’, I was wondering ‘why this constructor wahala enter Android again’. During the lesson, I looked around and saw everybody giving a nod of understanding, I told myself ‘if this people really understand OOP, then I will not be an exception since we are in the same class’. Thanks to our facilitator, he really tried.
Quickly, I started my final project even before we were asked to start and I completed it even before the final meet-up. When our facilitator mentioned that based on our performance, we might be upgraded to the Intermediate track; I was really ecstatic.
The ALC program was the first project where I was always eager to learn quickly and deeply, it also exposes me to what teamwork really means (My team came first in the Easter Challenge from the North West region).
During the hackathon in the final meet-up, my team came last but the determination is as it was in the beginning. I have just started my journey to become a full fledge Android developer. I am not where I want to be but I am making progress; slow but steady.
Indeed, the journey was adventurous, I can’t wait to continue with the Intermediate track.
P.S: I am yet to get a feedback from my Interviewer till now. Please Andela do not relent on your kind gesture of customized T-shirt, as the atmosphere was wild and upbeat when our T-shirt arrived.
Big Thanks to:
Chimdindu Aneke, Abdulrahman Sulaiman, Ajah David, Shahid Sani, StartupKano, New-Team-3, Andela Kano.
The journey of a thousand miles which begin with a step has just started.
