How to survive coding bootcamp

Maybe i’m not the best person to write this blog as I have been limping through the Flatiron School bootcamp, but I am almost done. I’ve had no experience in coding and I didn’t even know how to do a screenshot when i first started. Now I find myself with a little over three weeks left of school which is wild to me. Here are a few tips that really got me to where I am today.

Don’t compare yourself to others

There will be people joining bootcamps with prior experience and there will be others who join with absolutely no experience. The key is to not compare yourself with everyone else. I know thats easy to say and hard to put into practice but just remember everyones journey is different. If you find yourself behind other people it’s very easy to be discouraged. Just focus on yourself and your progress. Think about how much you learn week to week and give yourself some credit.

Set up your desk.

Buy all the toys that will keep you at your desk. Ultrawide monitor, apple trackpad, ergonomic keyboard. Whatever you need just get it. In the end it helps. You need to really stay in front of your computer for as long as possible even when it hurts. New toys help. Find a credit card and fill it up. The number one toy you will need is a second monitor in the least. I started with just my 13' Macbook air and no wonder I struggled mightily in the beginning. There are too many moving parts and bells and whistles to just have one teeny tiny monitor to sort through it all. Buy all the toys you need but especially buy another monitor.

Be open to group projects and pair programming

It’s so easy to work by yourself and never ask for help but sometimes having an extra pair of eyes on your code can really save you a lot of headaches in the long run. From corrected syntax errors to finding a more conducive way of writing code, a partner can really help you talk things out and make coding just a little more fun. There are a number of ways to pair program. You can share your screen and one person can talk out loud while the other codes. It can also refer to working on a shared project but with each team member having ownership of different parts, with both programmers working separately but sharing and updating on their respective code base in the project. Or, lastly, it can be the simple process of sending your code to a friend to look over and debug. Whichever it is be sure to try it.

Learning to test as you go

Early on I was afraid of testing my code. I would try and write out the entire code before a first attempt at testing it out to see if it works. Wow this became a terrible habit to break early on. This would lead to many bugs in various places, and made determining where to begin the debugging process a huge headache.

Delete Tinder

Well delete everything that could be a possible distraction. Bootcamp is all day. From morning to night you will be coding, thinking of code and dreaming of code. You need all the screen time you can get especially if you’re behind.

Write blogs

Probably my least favorite. Write blogs. Yes they help.