Last year, in May 2019, I had just completed a four month coding bootcamp. I was pregnant at the time. In this article I will share my experience of the bootcamp and how I secured my first role as a Front End Developer. I hope that this article will help others who are thinking of taking this route into the tech industry.
Background
After resigning from my job as a primary school Teacher, I began doing supply work. This gave me the time to really think about whether I could see myself teaching in the long-term. The fact was that I didn’t. I knew I had to change my career. I always had an interest in coding and started looking for ways into the tech industry. This wasn’t easy, many of the routes into tech involved spending a lot of time and money.
Enter…the School of Code
By chance, I came across a post on Facebook about the School of Code (SoC). I saw that the bootcamp was free (didn’t quite believe this at the time!) and applied — the process took no longer than 10 minutes. Following this, I was asked to complete a short task and attend an interview day, which included completing various problem solving tasks. From over 400 applications, 23 people were chosen.
More about the School of Code
The SoC offers a 16 week intensive bootcamp for absolute beginners. Founded and run by Chris Meah, the aim is to help people get into the field of tech regardless of their professional background, ethnicity or social class.
What makes the school of Code so different?
- It’s free. Yes, that’s right! Truly free — no hidden costs, no hidden agenda, no signing your life away.
- No pre-requisites required — you don’t need any prior technical skills to gain a place on the course.
- It teaches you the soft skills needed to work successfully and collaboratively with others.
- Diverse — the aim of SoC is to help get more and different types of people into the field of tech.
- Learning is not limited! Not only did we learn the basics like HTML, CSS & Javascript. We also explored a range of other languages and frameworks such as, React JS, MongoDB, Node JS and ViroReact.
- You get to work on REAL projects. Throughout the bootcamp we worked practically. This was to get us ready for real world work and to learn about the whole process involved in creative project work. From the ideation phase to wireframes, to testing, coding and evaluating. We had the opportunity to complete a project for the bootcamp sponsors — Santander.
- You get the opportunity to network with prospective employers. For the final project, each team worked on a project that was showcased on demo day in front of over 100 tech employers.
Life after the Bootcamp — The Results
After finishing the bootcamp, I began focusing on preparing for the arrival of my baby. I decided that I would go to a few interviews to get some experience of the process. To my surprise, I was offered a job as a Front End Developer on my third interview. I was heavily pregnant at the time and was not expecting to secure a job before I had my baby. Not only was this the perfect role for me but it was within an amazing company (The Developer Society) who build web projects that make a real difference to the lives of people in need.
I started my new role in December and have been working for over 7 months now. I have a 10 month old daughter so this can be challenging at times. However, at DEV there is a high focus on offering staff flexibility, support and ensuring there is a work life balance.
Final Thoughts & Summary
I hope this article has been useful, especially to those of you who are considering doing a coding bootcamp as a route into tech. Becoming a Software Developer is possible. The School of Code literally changed my life! The ultimate aim of the School of Code is to help people secure jobs. Two months after the bootcamp had ended, 90% of us had already secured a job. This was not only a great achievement for the bootcampers but also Chris who worked tirelessly to place people within the right tech companies. Since then, another cohort has also had similar success.
Further information
The School of Code applications are now open for the next bootcamp. This time 48 people will be chosen with the aim of helping to combat the unemployment as a result of COVID19. You can find more information on their website here.
The Developer Society are a not-for-profit digital agency, working with NGOs. To find out more about the amazing work they do to help others, visit their website.
