Looking Back and Moving Forward
We did it. We completed the Software Engineering Immersive Course — a 13 week boot camp with over 400 hours of dedicated learning on everything from programming languages to databases to libraries and frameworks to version control and team workflows. In the time I’ve been at General Assembly, we covered JavaScript, jQuery, React, Python, Node, Express, AJAX, MongoDB, Django, PostgreSQL, and GitHub, and I even managed to teach myself Phaser, Bootstrap, Material and a bit of UX Design along the way. Looking back, I can’t believe how far I’ve come.
A Recap
Throughout the program, starting from my very first project — a Jeopardy game with horror movie survival trope trivia — I can see the passion and dedication I had for programming. Every project was an opportunity for me to show my skills and create something that I wanted or needed but didn’t see available anywhere. The Jeopardy game was a chance for me to flex my creative muscles and design something fun and entertaining for my fellow horror movie fans, and I was blown away by how much attention and love it received both in person and online.
I’m particularly proud of my second project: a website designed to compile pop up events in Atlanta and give the user the option to filter those events by neighborhood and pop up type. It was my first full-stack application and my first time using a MEHN tech stack and I loved how it turned out. I also loved that it solved a problem that I had identified: the difficulty of finding out about pop ups from companies that you don’t follow on social media. I can’t wait to revisit this project — I have plans to redesign it using a MERN tech stack and third-party API so that the site will actually have current pop up events in Atlanta rather than data I inserted.
For my third project, I wanted to try my hand at making a site for “Fashion Vera” — an online fashion store that I envision as an alternative to the current Fashion Nova and Instagram model culture. I already had an interest in fashion before I came to General Assembly and this was my chance to provide a positive contribution to the industry. This was also my first time using a MERN tech stack and I can officially say that it converted me to the benefits of React. This project marks the moment that I realized — though I am a full-stack developer and will continue to be for the foreseeable future — I have a knack and love for Front End Development. I can’t wait to revisit this project and use my background in videography and creative content production to shoot my own footage for the landing page.
Lastly, my fourth project with General Assembly: MenT. This web application is designed to provide users with career information, resources, and potential mentors to reach out to. The idea for this came partly from my own experience and partly from talks with friends trying to navigate their own career paths; we’ve all struggled to figure out what we want to do with our lives at one point or another and the websites that we went to for some insight into a particular career field all lacked one thing: actual day to day experience in the field. With MenT, that issue is solved. Users can peruse mentors and reach out to any that seem like a good fit, or they can read about that particular mentor’s experiences on the job through the mentor’s blog posts. This was my first time implementing a third-party API — CareerOneStop — and I am so happy with how it turned out.
All of my projects have been a culmination of hard work and the wonderful support of my instructor and the rest of my cohort — I’ve always liked working on teams but this was my first exposure to Agile workflows and it’s been invigorating. My classmates encouraged me, challenged me, and inspired me, and I know that leaving this boot camp I’ve created a network that I will have for life.
So what’s next?
General Assembly did a lot for me. Everybody made me feel welcomed and appreciated from the Front Desk Associates to the Student Experience team to the Outcomes Career Coaches. I started this course feeling like I’d lost the wind in my sails and left with a renewed sense of purpose and value, and I don’t want to lose that feeling.
So I’m continuing to push myself.
General Assembly provided me with a strong foundation but there are still plenty of things for me to learn. Java has a strong presence in Atlanta’s tech scene so it’s the next language on my list to tackle. I’m delving deeper into Python I’m designing new full-stack web applications to add to my portfolio — the first of which revolves around one of my other loves: video games. I’m revisiting the projects that I already made with General Assembly because, while it’s ingratiating to see how much I’ve improved, I want all of my projects to reflect my current skill. And I’m carving a place for myself in the tech community, attending meetups and keeping abreast of the latest tech news so that I can become a thought leader in my own right.
So this is my official debut. I can’t wait to dive in!
Check out my portfolio here
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
