The Journey Begins: Navigating a 15-week Software Engineering Bootcamp

Welcome! I'm glad you are here. I'm Morgan Hobbs and I am a Fullstack Software Engineering student at Flatiron School. My journey as a student in a 15-week full-time bootcamp has begun in the middle of reading Andy Weir's first novel The Martian. As such, it seems the only appropriate and logical way for me to share my journey with you would be to use space travel analogies. 

 I will be your intergalactic guide as we journey to Mars (and learn some coding along the way).  

You might think the biggest challenge to overcome when learning to code is learning how to problem solve. You may be right. 

“At some point, everything's gonna go south on you... everything's going to go south and you're going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem... and you solve the next one... and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to come home.” ~ Mark "Space Pirate, Best Botanist on Mars" Watney

Be that as it may, for me the hardest part of learning to code hasn't been problem solving, it's been simply learning how to survive and take care of myself (and my emotions!).

 

Learning to code is a lot like learning how to survive on Mars. 

• You can feel alone.
• You can feel isolated.
• You can wonder if you had your head screwed on right when you volunteered for this journey. 
• Your may wonder if your one way ticket to Mars is refundable (it's not). 

On the other hand, if you are willing to look out upon the expanse of red, iron-rich soil, you can find beauty, wonder, and possibility. 

• After hours of stumbling through one problem after the next, there is indescribable elation following the 'a-ha' moments. 
• Once you accept that you won't know the answers right away you can find pleasure in working hard to find solutions. 
• Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Once you do, it becomes a lot easier to admit you don't know the answers (or sometimes even how to find the answers) and you can then ask for help. 

While problem solving in coding isn't life or death like it was for Mark Watney on Mars, I imagine the moments of joy in the successes are very similar.

If you are coming from a non-traditional path that can be easier said than done. In my previous career as a fundraiser I was luckily somewhat of a 'natural.' I was able to learn and find success relatively quickly. I assumed coding would be the same. Spoiler alert: it wasn't! 

I am not a 'natural' at coding. I have had to put in the work and the time. When faced with a problem I haven't seen before I've had to learn how to really break it down. You solve one part of the problem and then you solve the next. 

Over the next few weeks I'll share with you some of the insights, tools, tips, and tricks I've learned to make solving problems easier. 

Let the journey continue! 🚀

Concept for a set of future robots working together to ferry back samples from the surface of Mars collected by the Mars Perseverance rover. @nasa