A Learning Journey with a Grow with Google Scholarship From Udacity
For me, 2017 was a year filled with many leaps of faith. The biggest leap was leaving my comfortable position as Creative Director at a marketing and advertising firm, to solely pursue web development. I had just landed a new developer job at the headquarters of a company called Fit Body Boot Camp. Every day at my new job, in my mind, I felt like it was a matter of time before everyone found out I truly didn’t know anything or that I had made it up to this point on luck alone. That same year, I had been on the fence about applying to University of Denver’s Master of Science in Information and Communications Technology with a concentration in Software Design and Programming program. I wholeheartedly felt I wasn’t ready or good enough.
Start of A Journey
Late that year, at the end of November, I applied for the Grow with Google Scholarship. As a LAMP developer, I assumed that making a leap to a second stack would not be too difficult. As I applied for the scholarship, I remember thinking to myself “If I can get through this program, then I’m not a fraud, I can do this.” Even though I had been developing since late 2013, I felt like there was so much I didn’t know. In all honesty, I could already build anything and usually debug errors fairly quickly, in my work and the work of others. But I figured it must have just been luck.
When I applied for the scholarship, I had limited knowledge of the command line, git, npm and React (which honestly felt like things built to keep JavaScript programmers busy). In retrospect, I can’t believe how far I got without those skills and how much harder life was because I lacked in those areas. When you lack in fundamentals, like using the command line, you work harder because you must compensate for that lack of knowledge. My goal was to strengthen my skills, pick up new tricks and gain confidence to keep pushing my career and education forward.
I’m a self-taught developer and applying for the Grow with Google scholarship was my first step in overcoming impostor syndrome and the foundation to new-found confidence in my skills.
What I Accomplished Along the Way
On January 10th, 2018, I remember receiving a congratulatory email from Udacity. I was so excited; I spent the remainder of my day, running through the 3-month challenge course. Twelve days later, I was working on the Pixel Art Maker, which was the final challenge course project. You can check my pixel art maker out here. I wanted my work to show that I was dedicated and committed to seeing this through, I wanted to make it to the next part of the scholarship. The premise of the challenge course was that out of the 15,000 admitted to the challenge course, only the top 10% would make it to the full nano-degree awarding program.
Part of the program had us communicating with other members in the course through Slack and the forums. At one point, there were over 10,000 of us on Slack. It was a magnificent experience, which allowed me to connect with hundreds of people. In my opinion, that was the best perk that this scholarship came with as it helped me break out of my shell. It helped tip the scale away from being a total introvert.
Personally, the challenge course set the pace for the rest of the program. The most powerful takeaway is, without a doubt, the friendships I made with other members. I was meeting with other members all throughout Los Angeles, from Korea town to Pasadena. It was tough, I have five children, I live a bit over 60 miles away from Los Angeles and I worked full-time. But my passion for web technology, fueled by ambition and stubbornness, helped me figure out how to make everything work. Meeting people who share your passion for something helps you stay as excited and passionate as ever.
In mid-April, those who made it to the second part of the program, to the full scholarship, got another congratulatory email. The second part is comprised of five sets of lessons: Web Foundations, Web Programming with JavaScript, Exploring JS (Objects, Tools and Testing), Front-End Applications and Building with React. Each set had projects to work on and the feedback that was returned after submission was very encouraging and useful. Having a large support group helped keep me on track, interested and focused.
Reflection on my Journey
A month and a half in to the course, I received an offer to interview for a position at a company I had wanted to work for since my college years. Just being accepted in to the initial challenge program had given me a boost in confidence and I decided to take the plunge. After being passed over once, I was called back to interview again, about a month later. I had thrown myself in to learning the command line, getting familiar with Scrum and getting experienced with Git. Once I was interviewing again, my group of newfound friends gave me enough confidence to push myself to take the plunge again. This time, I got the job. As I write this article, I’m heading in to my eighth month working at a software company called Esri. I couldn’t be happier.
The Grow with Google scholarship program was a well put together program that had something to offer to new developers and experienced developers alike. My all-time favorite project is project three, which is the arcade game. You can check out my arcade game here. I’m proud of all the progress my friends and I have made, of all the connections I’ve made and of all the people that took part in the program.
When you are self-taught, it’s hard to focus on one project and see it through. Being able to complete a few projects gave me a sense of accomplishment and it helped solidify the idea, that I might know what I’m doing. The only regret I have is the procrastination that overtook me when I got to project six. I was concerned with the details and I let myself become overwhelmed because React was new to me. Once I overcame the procrastination, I was done with project six in a couple of days. After that breakthrough, after I overcame that hurdle, learning felt easier.
After completing the program, I felt empowered and much more confident in my skills. I knew I was going to finish, so a month before completing the program, I applied for the master’s program I had been putting off. I’m happy to say that I was accepted in to the program, and in three weeks, I’ll be done with my first quarter. Being part of the Grow with Google scholarship has been without a doubt, life altering. I gained the confidence I lacked, my social skills improved and I gained invaluable new skills. I’m forever grateful.
