Hello

21ˢᵗ of March, I received an e-mail from Makers Academy, which congratulated me on passing the interview. What it means is; I was able to secure a place in July 2016 Ronin cohort to become a fully-fledged web developer at the end of 12 weeks! 💘🎉💃🏻💪🏻😎

Before choosing Makers Academy over the other bootcamps in London 🇬🇧, I tried to read all of the blogs written by previous graduates, that I can find. Nearly all of them were positive 🕵🏻. As a result, I decided to apply to the Makers Academy in rush, especially when realized most graduates got accepted after their first interview. My initial thought was; this will be a piece of cake 😏!

I was wrong 😳. Very, very, very wrong 😑…

My acceptance process took 2 months and included; 33 e-mails, 3 interviews, 2 phone calls, 1 taster day and 1 postcard.📥 📝 ☎️ 🔬 ✉️

Just in case it wasn’t clear enough, I got rejected 2 times. First one with an e-mail, second one by a postcard.

However, both rejections encouraged me not to quit and study much harder for the next interview to secure a place in my preferred cohort. As you can guess, I listened the advice and it turns out, third time was the winner! 🏆

The point is; for some reason, I couldn’t find anyone who has failed their interview like myself and wrote about it. Maybe, they were scared or ashamed. Maybe, I just didn’t search enough, but then again, who goes to second page on a Google search! Whatever the reason I couldn’t read about any other failures, I wanted to assure future candidates that everyone can’t make it on their first trail (nor second) and it is OK. ✌🏻👍🏻

The rest of the writing is a summary about my own interviews, so you can have a better understanding what might happen in yours. However, keep in mind, the length and context can be very different for everyone.

1st Interview

After filling the application form, I got an e-mail on 7ᵗʰ January and booked my interview for 21ˢᵗ January. The e-mail said; there will be a few logic games and short pair-programming exercises. Also, requirements before the interview were completing at least the first 8 chapter of Chris Pine’s Learn to Program book and Codeacademy’s Ruby course.

I made a foolish mistake of reading the book without spending much time on the exercises and completed only half of the Ruby course. Now, you ask; “Oggie¹, why haven’t you done the required work!?!”. Well, before my interview, I completed many of the Javascript courses on Treehouse, which gave me a false positive on my programming knowledge (or lack of it). When I went to the Makers Academy for my interview, two Codewars problems were given and rather than being able to solve any of them, I started a staring contest with the screen, which was far from the objective of that interview…

Next day, I got my first rejection via e-mail. 📥

2nd Interview

On 29ᵗʰ January, I booked my second interview to take place on 3ʳᵈ February.

When I went to the Makers Academy, the interview was completely different than my previous one! Firstly, there was a logic game to be solved on a scary whiteboard. I was able to solve only half of it, due to the limited time. Secondly, there was a basic problem very similar to the one I have solved many times in Chris Pine’s book. However, after failing my first interview, I convinced myself to believe that the problem must be much harder than it looks (compared to the ones on my first interview). As a result, I was thinking about all the complex solutions in my limited knowledge, which had nothing to do with the problem…

Next day, I got my second rejection via mail. ✉️

Taster Day

Before booking the third interview, I was asked to participate on the “Be A Ronin Student” taster day, which was going to be on 21ˢᵗ February. It started at 10:00 (10am) and continued until 16:00 (4pm). All I can say is; it was what I needed!

Taster Day helped me to realise I was over stressing. After it ended, I felt like a 10 year old, who can’t control his giggles like Jimmy & Lionel, because of how much fun I had.

3rd Interview

With the relaxation of the Taster Day, I went for my third interview on 17ᵗʰ March, which turned out to be the last one. I was able to solve all problems, even a simple Javascript one.

Four days later, I got my acceptance e-mail. 📥🎉

What’s Next?

A to-do list, which includes books and online courses, before starting my pre-course: Don’t Stop Me Know

Finally, I would like to thank to the Academy for letting me to be the part of the July 2016 Ronin cohort!

You can follow me on Twitter or my Ronins N’ Roses publication. Also, feel free to ask any questions!