“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

Thanks to my amazing employer, Three, granting me a sabbatical, I recently became a student with the amazing Makers Academy which is a 12 week intensive coding bootcamp (plus 4 week pre-course). I started this blog to record my journey during the course and beyond.

In a way I feel like I have imposter syndrome (albeit in the other direction), because I already have a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Electronic Music (2001) and have previously been employed as a developer (2006). But years in technology are like dog years, so that was basically 70 years ago.

In coding terms, I’m extinct.

Why Makers Academy

I chose Makers Academy because:

• they’re selective. They’re not just in it for the money. They’re serious about moulding talented people into developers. You have to prove your passion and potential to earn a place. I knew that if I got in, I’d likely enjoy coding with my peers and have a great set of contacts after the course finishes (not just my cohort but the whole Makers alumni).
• they teach you about software engineering principles and how to think like a developer. They do test driven development and pair programming from day one. The languages (right now, Ruby and JavaScript) are secondary. The emphasis is on learning, collaboration and self-sufficiency, not just course completion.
• the course is updated frequently to meet changing industry demands. In dog years, Makers grads are puppies.

Makers grads are highly employable. How could you resist?

• it’s a live (though fully remote) course with face-to-face interaction every day. There’s no way I could do a pure self-study course. I don’t have the discipline (for that kind of extended period) and I’d be lonely. And I couldn’t afford to attend their campus-based equivalent in London.
• I love their management philosophy and aspiration to be a Teal organisation. They’re a purpose-driven company that embraces full transparency, self-management and evolution. They set their own salaries! I find this absolutely fascinating.

I’m going to leave it there for now, as I have a history of writing overly-long blog posts. I’ll tell you more about why I chose to study coding and how it’s going later on.

Thanks so much for reading. Hope to see you again in a future post!

Frances x