When it comes to the flatiron fullstack web development program, I often got derailed, discouraged and set back. These set backs were not all because of the program itself; the lessons were pretty clear and doable. In addition, there was almost always a simple sollution to the road blocks I faced.
Not knowing how to do something outside of the actual lab When starting to code at first, things go smoothly as lessons assume you know nothing. Once in the program, there are some variables that are not one size fits all. For example, working with a local enviornment and linking to github. No longer do lessons pop up when clicking the “open IDE” button. I emberassingly got stuck on this for a week until I had a meeting with my cohort lead. In hind sight, I could have simply used the ask a question feature on learn as those answering are often if not always individuals who have already completed the program.
Falling behind I completed the self-paced program. However, I was originally enrolled in th part-time program. The way things are mapped out, weekly lessons and goals are set to be accomplished in about 20 hours. This is not a casual 20 hours of clicking through a few lessons. These are often labs that take legitimate dedication and focus. In college, there was a recommendation that per every credit the course was worth, should equal an hours worth of seperate weekly study. This was a reccomendation I definitely got by doing way less than the reccomended study time. Thus, I was under the assumption that the flatiron 20 hour reccomendation was simply a reccomendation. Nope! Once fully in the program and past introductary work, the 20 hours was actually a conservative estimation. I would set 20 hours aside in the week, but the difficult part is that these 20 hours have to be attentive hours and not watching some YouTube video or Netflix show in the background. As I underestimated how demanding the course would be, inevitibely I fell behind. In addition, the world does not evolve around me so the lessons kept coming. So one week behind quikly piles to two or three and then the cohort is already on the project. There are techniques to be more focused like being more routine, eating well and steady exercise. However, the main key to move forward was to accept that I was behind and be productive. Catching up is not the best way to learn, so accepting that I was behind and speaking to the cohort lead is what truly helpful. The fun part about asking for help from the lead is that they are programmers; they problem solve and look at things objectively, no judgement.
Being stuck on a concept The first actual coding concept that I got stuck on was during the first section, Ruby. I could not grasp what a yield was and was bothered by it. I did not have the best googling skills at the time and the documentation was not clicking for me. Iread the same things over and over and when I had a meeting with my cohort lead and asked about yields and blocks, he said “don’t get too caught up on it, those are not used too much and it’ll make sense later”. Those words could not have been more true; I studied biology in college and that information builds off of previous information; so not getting something now meant not understanding everything built on top of it. With coding, there is no one track progression, not knowing one thing is okay and likely, there will be a new way to do the same thing later. I had to unlearn previous formal education habits to start to understanding that it is okay for something not to completely click.