Hello Friends!

So here I am, the Final Mod. It's hard to believe that in 2 more weeks I'll be out applying for jobs and trying to be a real developer. It's both scary and exciting! Out the gate and into the real world!

Mod 5 - A 3 Week Project Sprint

I've seen 4 groups of graduates pass through Mod 5, and I am not expecting it to be easy. Mod 5 is a 3 week period where you build a full-stack web application (similar to Mod 4) from scratch and GRADUATE. Here are the project guidelines (taken directly from the handbook):

Backend

Your project must use a non-trivial Rails backend. Consult the following list for examples of things to include. You do not need to include all of these things, and the final decision of what must be included will be up to your project managers.

[ ] Auth
[ ] Tests
[ ] Multiple has_many_through relationships
[ ] Seeds from a complex data set
[ ] Custom routes
[ ] Custom controller/model methods
[ ] Basic database query optimizations
[ ] Background jobs for slow actions
[ ] Sockets or email integration
[ ] One significant refactor
[ ] Validation

Frontend

Your product must use a React based frontend. Consult the following list for examples of things to include. You do not need to include all of these things, and the final decision of what must be included will be up to your project manager.

[ ] Auth
[ ] Tests
[ ] Interacting with a complex API
[ ] Redux
[ ] Custom CSS
[ ] One significant refactor

My Mod 5 Project

I spent this past week brainstorming ideas, drafting up views, and preparing project pitches. Our official project start was Wednesday, and our Minimal Viable Product is due this upcoming Wednesday ( giving us a week to build out an MVP ). I had lots of ideas, so I had to spend time eliminating them down to one before I could pitch it to others.

How I Came Up With My Idea

What Problems Do I Have? I tried to think of all the things that irritated, frustrated, confused, or exhausted me. If my web application could help alleviate the pain from the problems, it would most likely resonate with others.

Do These Problems Already Have Solutions? If I have a problem, usually I'd Google the problem and see if there was a solution. If there was, I'd download it and use it and see if it could be improved. Or maybe if I couldn't find a solution I'd focus on those problems.

Would I Really Use The Solution? Making an application that is a demonstration of what I've learned is cool (and has been my status quo for the last 4 projects I've built), but I wanted to make a program that I'd ACTUALLY use later down the road. A 3 week period is long time to not like a project you're working on, so I'd wanted to be excited to USE it and BUILD it.

Is Solution Scaleable Is the solution complex enough where you can add to your project later, or can other people contribute to your project. Does it have stretch goals? This is important for long-term projects in my opinion, and was on my mind.

In the end, my program was a workout tracking app that would educate regular people (non-athletes) on how to exercise and help them track their workouts.

I call it... FlexABLE.

In the upcoming two weeks you'll hear more about my progress on this project, but I want to briefly touch on my bootcamp career coaching process.

Career Coaching - My First (and Second) Meeting

In Mod 5, we kick off our Career Track by connecting with one of Flatiron's Career Coaches. A Career Coach reviews your

• Job application documents (e.g resume, cover letter etc.)
• Your online presence (e.g LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, Youtube, etc.)
• Your interviewing skills (e.g technical and behavioral)
• Networking strategy (i.e where to look, how you show up etc.)

They do not find jobs for you. That's a common misconception. Flatiron still has a very very high job acquisition rate, and that's in large part due to their career coaching program.

That being said, I had my first two meetings with my coach, which were very helpful.

First Meeting - Introductions

The first meeting was meant to let us make introductions, talk about my career goals, interests and give the coach an idea on what kind of communicator I am. My career coach provided very positive feedback, and laid out the full scope of how we'd be working together. We set up a second meeting to review my resume. Flatiron's Learn.Co platform tracked our progress.

Second Meeting - Resume Content Review

The second meeting was focused on reviewing my resume content. This was incredibly helpful. I had a previous resume that was from my power systems engineering days that we completely redid to make it a software engineer's resume. I was provided with feedback and we set a third date (in two days) to do a couple more things:

• Review My Final Stylized Resume
• Do a Mock Technical Interview through Skilled
• Review my online presence

If you're wondering "Wow, all this happened in a week, do they always move this quickly?"

The answer is no. Career coaching moves at the pace of the student. There are still members in my cohort who haven't had their second meeting, and may not be until after our final project is over. I am trying to be proactive and lay the groundwork for job applications BEFORE I graduate.

That being said, I will be very, very busy working on my final project and all the career stuff with my coach.

I'll be sure to tell you about both!

Good luck with your own endeavors,
Shawn