Aug 29, 2021
Maximizing Your Code School Experience
Code School Book — Morgan Lopes and Tim Whitacre (8/30)
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If you wait until everything makes sense, you’ll never get started.
I started my career before code schools became popular. In hindsight, I struggled more than was necessary. The opportunity to accelerate learning and become immersed in an intensive experience can shave months or years off the learning process. I benefited from helpful friends, but so much of my time was spent parsing through outdated techniques and fumbling around the internet. Code schools have emerged alongside the natural maturing of the internet. There have never been more opportunities to learn than now.
Your Expectations
It’s about more than just the school experience. Riaz Virani emphasizes the importance of preparation before starting code school. Today, Riaz is a Chief Technology Officer at a startup and organizer of Atlanta’s local Ruby meetup. He’s also a code school graduate. Riaz advises, “Focus more on what you should do before starting a coding bootcamp. I’d recommend doing a boot camp after you’ve already attempted to learn via Udemy, Udacity, FreeCodeCamp, or other online resources. It’s tough to start from scratch and get up to a level where you can be productive within a few months. We’ve hired two boot camp graduates recently at our startup and both spent three to six months of their free time learning before they started boot camp. It seemed to really help them succeed. The boot camps are great accelerants of learning but there are better ways to get your feet wet.”
Whether you’re preparing to start a course or your program is underway, the following behaviors will help you make the most of your experience.
Own Your Own Experience
Code school is not a magic bullet. The information doesn’t always flow seamlessly from instructor to student. A tremendous amount of effort and mental flexibility is required to maximize the opportunity that code schools provide. Between your instructor, community manager, and peers, a wealth of knowledge exists but it’s up to each student to make the most of it. The students who own their personal experience and take it seriously gain the most.
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