Post-Boot Camp

My Bootcamp

For about 6 months I endured the LC101 Bootcamp in North West Arkansas, let me tell you, it was not easy, not only because it was truly a challenge but in my particular case I had to stay after work in the office to attend classes since there are no internet providers where I live.

I must say this was a great experience with so many takeaways, so much new knowledge, met some amazing new people, got motivation to pursue a better career and life, all of this without putting any money from my own pocket. Truly insane. Could not be more grateful.

All of these things were possible because of the LaunchCode foundation, all the companies and people that contribute to them and from a personal point all the incredible teachers that brought this out of the charts energy to push us to limits we did not know we have.

There were 2 teachers per group, one of them is amazing at writing and sharing experiences right here in dev.to I highly recommend following him and reading his blog posts I promise you will not regret it, he is the one and only JC Smiley a guy with one of the biggest hearts I've met.

Thanks to all of the planets aligning, putting some effort in and my fellow student's help I made it, just about a month ago, this bootcamp was over. A very hard to explain experience which I shall try to dig into the best I can.

So what now? At this present moment we had the opportunity to follow up with a second program called "Liftoff" where we are mentored to excel with our resumes, interviews and basically be the people that you want to hire.

Part of this is developing our own project, which I thought to myself ok this shouldn't be that bad right? I just got through the course and I'm good to go.

Well guess what, I was very mistaken, in fact I feel like the ground where I stand just crumbled because I realized that I honestly don't know as much as I thought. So now I have to put some hardcore time and energy to keep learning what I already maybe should have known and expand my horizon.

Before I go on, let me say this, coming out of a bootcamp does not mean you are a pro, you are taught a lot of things in a very short period of time, creating a foundation of knowledge, it is entirely up to you to keep learning, practicing and investing yourself otherwise this was all for nothing, you will loose what you were taught and bam even worse of a learning curve ahead of you.

Right now I'm in the stage trying to balance my life with learning, regular life stuff and all the things that are involved in making a career change. Not easy at all. Maybe for some it is, this is not the case lol.

I believe that in this life only the hard things with big sacrifices are worth it and this is one of them. Even though I'm struggling big time, I will continue down this path because at the end it will pay off, maybe it takes me longer than others, maybe I don't even make it but I know I tried and every night that helps me sleep, knowing that I didn't quit just then.

Little Advice

As a recent graduate I'm fresh with the issues that come at this stage so here are some basic pointers:

1. Keep learning by yourself no matter how small
2. Put in the time, create a habit of it
3. Stay focused on the end goal. Why are you doing this?
4. Take needed breaks knowing that they still contribute to your path
5. Life is life, things come up, but still try to stay on track, perseverance is key to everything