Readers, these testimonials are written as part of a reflection exercise from We Can Code IT coding bootcamp students on their final days of instruction. Students have given permission for us to share them as their gift to you. We hope this gives you an understanding of their experience, and will help prepare you for your coding bootcamp experience.
Dear Beverly,
I wanted to make it personal, so if you’re reading this, I named you Beverly. You’re just going to have to accept that because I’m not changing it.
My understanding, Bev, is that you’ve taken the plunge and started coding boot camp. GET EXCITED! I’m sorry if that startled you, but I really wanted to got that message. You’re at the start of something exciting and important. You can be nervous and jittery, that’s acceptable, so long as you’re excited. If other people in your life are doubting your decision or not excited for you, they are wrong and you should ignore their Oscar the Grouch attitude. This is going to rock.
Now that you’ve got a good level of excite going, I should probably mention that you’re going to have to work. Like, a lot. You are going to learn so many things so quickly, at a pace that you haven’t experienced in years, if ever. There’s not tons of homework or anything, but you have to absolutely commit yourself to learning the material. By the end of each day, you’re going to be exhausted. It can be intense, but if you’ve never learned this way before, be prepared to find every other education environment totally inadequate. It would take you at least two years to learn all this material in college. I’m writing this on my last day of class, so I can say from experience that the biggest downside to this is that it ends so quickly. I totally envy you because you’re just starting.
Okay, that’s all pretty standard stuff that you already expected, so here’s some insider advice from my own experience here. You cannot be too weird. I fully understand that an environment full of total strangers is where you’re used to playing it safe and hiding the weird, but I realized around Week 10 that people will respond to your most bonkers creative idea so much better than your safe ones. Swing for the fences.
The Time Timer just beeped, so good luck, Beverly. Go code stuff.
Sincerely,
Lucas
