My first week at coding boot camp felt like jumping into the Tardis and going into a brand new world.
Four weeks ago I quit my job of 12 years as a sales rep to learn to code with Coder Academy. Just as the world of social media was coming to terms with a female 13th doctor I finished week one, having undergone one of the biggest drastic changes in my life.
So how did I end up here? Well, I’d worked weekends for 12 years in a commission only sales role. I was a qualified teacher but I’d had a career break to raise my children. I volunteered at school and helping students to code was always my drawcard. I researched IT courses but they didn’t seem to be as half as advanced as some of the games the students were playing. That’s when I found Coder Academy. I had no coding experience; I’d only played a few coding games. But I didn’t want to play; I wanted to create.
I applied, I was accepted, I quit my job the following day. My work colleagues were fully supportive; many thought I already was a ‘“digital geek” as I would tinker with their tech problems all day. But fixing I Phones and Microsoft issues was the extent of my technical abilities and I knew it wouldn’t fool people for long.
I knew I would be challenged; and I have been everyday. I learned that just like my previous sales job you get rejected, time and time again. The only difference is it’s the computer doing the rejecting. In fact, the difference between success and failure can ultimately hinge on how you handle rejection. My main lesson this week is that each failure should be considered as a learning opportunity for what doesn’t work and why.
As Edison had said when he attempted making the lightbulb. He had tried a thousand different elements and all had failed. A colleague asked him if he felt his time had been wasted, since he had discovered nothing. “Hardly,” Edison is said to have retorted briskly. “I have discovered a thousand things that don’t work.” If he was alive today he would have said “welcome to coding.”
One week down and we have already covered creating Ruby files, terminal, hashes, arrays, interpolation. Initially, when the code was written on the board (that seemed so simple to everyone else) it looked like hieroglyphics to me. I started to learn that almost any answer for the quandaries of writing code was online, and instead of being considered an act of cheating or plagiarism, you are encouraged to build off of the work of others.
The style of bootcamp is real-world, experiential skill building. Very much a practical, learn by doing (and failing) style. The instructors are industry professionals. They are supportive coaches who guide you to where to find the answers.
I encourage all of you, whether old-timers or newbies, to be a newbie in something — learn how to code, or play golf, or make a meringue— something that will give you a chance to fail over and over again, so that feeling becomes familiar and you are no longer afraid.
What I do know is if I don’t fail, I’m not doing something right.
