Why Thinkful is Working for Me When Other Resources Didn’t

This week was rough, but I got through it. Here’s why:

As I briefly mentioned in my very first post, I had gotten an account with Codecademy prior to Thinkful. What I didn’t mention was that prior to Codecademy, I had actually tried a few other resources: Hardvard’s CS50 class via edX and some courses on Lynda.com, in that order.

I would like to take the CS50 course again, at some point, but it was not a good place to start. As someone who was trying to get familiarized with the concept of “learning how to code”, the topics were a bit too advanced for me. I wasn’t very good at it and I quit after about 3 (out of 12) units.

Even though I quit, my interest in programming was piqued. I moved on to Lynda.com and found a beginner’s HTML course. The concepts were much easier to grasp! But the videos were a little outdated. The particular courses I found seemed to be more about learning for fun and not for serious career-changes. Craving something better-suited for me, I searched the internet for more resources. That’s when I discovered Codecademy.

At first, I loved Codecademy! I competed the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and Command Line courses. This was where I got a good introduction to the concepts of Front-End Web Development. I paid the $20/month for the “Pro” version, which granted me access to extra quizzes/projects. I was also able to open a chat box to speak with an advisor any time I got stuck. The only problem was the the curriculum was not in-depth. The concepts covered were only an introduction. That left me ill-prepared for some of the other courses like Angular. Once I started to get really stuck, the advisors weren’t as helpful. I felt isolated in my learning.

By the time I enrolled in Thinkful, a year and a half had passed since I had first started that CS50 course. During this time, there were many periods where I’d go weeks or months at a time without touching my computer. While some of these lapses were due to personal reasons, they were usually caused by discouragement. Getting stuck meant feeling overwhelmed, and feeling overwhelmed without support made progress virtually impossible.

Thinkful has provided two essential pieces that the other resources did not: structure and support. The structure has given me accountability as well as a sense for real-world applications to the concepts I learned. The support is much more personal as I meet with my mentor, Rachel three times a week. I am also assigned an awesome Program Manager, Robert, who helps ensure that I am staying on track. The mentors even have “office hours” where you can drop in if you have any questions. I can go on and on about all of the great tools that Thinkful provides. Instead, I suggest you check out their website if you’re interested in learning more.

The backstory was necessary to emphasize that if I was not enrolled in Thinkful, this week would have likely been another quitting point for me. I learned about testing and continuous integration for my Node apps. I got stuck a lot. Honestly, it was not fun. Rachel and my dear friend Elias were lifesavers. They kept me motivated and reminded me that I had many tools to learn what I needed to learn. It takes a village to raise a developer like me!

As of today, I’ve completed the introductory unit of Server-Side Development and will move on to learning about databases.

Please note that I am sharing my personal experience. I acknowledge that there are many ways to learn and that some of the resources listed above have likely helped many people advance in their career. But, if you’re like me and have a hard time staying motivated when you’re stuck, I highly recommend choosing a resource that provides a good support system.

Thanks for reading!