According to their website:
DEV BOOTCAMP is an apprenticeship on steroids. You learned to ride a bike by getting on the bike, right? Same here. We focus on hands-on learning over old-school lectures. From day one, you’ll dig in and start coding. It’s the only way to learn.I have 4 tasks left, 2 of which are mandatory, out of a total of 15 tasks. Some tasks are time consuming and take 10+ hours while other ones are quick like creating a Hacker News account.
I have been posting a tiny bit about things I've learned as I've gone along on my Google+ page.
So I start July 15 and it goes for 9 weeks. That puts class going until September 13. I've heard from other people that there are 3 more weeks after that are optional. That would go until October 4. I will have a busy few months.
Every 3 weeks is a new phase and I heard they give you quizzes at the end of each phase and you can be kicked out if you aren't performing. I didn't read that on an official site yet so I'm not sure of the details.
I will be putting in 80-100 hours a week. On the faq page is says over the 9 weeks that leaves 500 hours to do whatever we want and they recommend sleep. If you do the math over 500 hours comes out to less than 8 hours of free time a day.... and I like to sleep for 8 hours so that could be problem.
Another thing is I won't be living right by campus so I have to commute. I will be taking the Caltrain and then the bus. I will either drive or ride my bike to the train station. My commute will be about an hour and a half each way. If I drove, I'd have to deal with parking and also have to drive, but my commute would take less time. This way I'll have almost an hour on the train to be productive in some way. I would count sleep as being productive. Sometime between now and July 15, Dave and I are going to do a practice run using the trains and bus and trying to arrive on-time so I'm not as stressed out my first day.
Here's something else from the faq page.
Can I commit to anything else during the same time? Don't even think about committing to anything else. If you have a job, quit or take time off. If you're in a relationship, send them a variation of our personal apology letter. Dear boss/friends/family, I'm training at Dev Bootcamp for the next 9 weeks, learning to be like Neo. See you on the other side. I love you and I'm sorry.So I won't be having daily posts on here during that time. Granted I've been having so many issues lately that I haven't been having daily posts anyway.
This is an exciting experience but also stressful for me. I'm enjoying all the prep work and all the coding. But I have also enjoyed my leisure time for the past year.
The other day I made a program that would rename my picture files in a folder. I spent some time making it better even though I wasn't required to for the course. I just liked it so much. Dave can't believe I've actually used it but I have on multiple occassions.
What kind of code are you working on? How much time, on average, did you spend preparing for the bootcamp? What is the hardest thing you've done so far?
ReplyDeleteRuby on Rails is what we will be doing. So far all the prep work is just Ruby.
ReplyDeleteThey say the prep work takes 50 hours in an email or something but I swear I read 50-100 hours somewhere. There are only 2 things on prep work they have broken down by the number of hours and the one book said 10 hours but I have no idea how a 200 page book can take 10 hours when you have to do 2-5 coding problems with each chapter and there were 13 chapters. Even if I read it straight through it would have taken more than 10 hours for me but I'm a very slow reader. I did a little preparing before the class, interview, applying. I also applied to App Academy and thought I should learn some Ruby first.
The hardest thing is just as you get to upper chapters in the books, I feel like they don't explain enough or show enough examples so then I'm not as quick to pick up on it. I noticed the same thing when I was gong through another Ruby book before the class.
I learned SQL first. Then I learned Python. Neither were related to the class. I was just learning while I was jobless. Then I Dave said to learn Ruby. So I did. It's hard to remember the more difficult stuff since I haven't done enough coding. Before I even started with Ruby just based on my coding, Dave said that I knew enough coding to get a job at Westinghouse. But here I think I know a tiny big. I always compare myself to Dave's knowledge and apparently he is even good for Google standards so I should probably quit comparing myself to him.
So there's a facebook group for the ~20 of us that are starting Dev Bootcamp on the same day. Two of the females said their boyfriends got them interested in coding. That's how I got interested.
The optional task that I enjoyed doing was practicing my typing. I'm not very good at brackets and such or so I thought. I did the ruby one and got between 45 and 59 wpm. I was wondering what was good and someone said that in the past they gave a pre-test and everyone just had to type > 40 wpm of normal text (not code) so I think I'm good. http://typing.io/ (Don't do a lot of that in a row or your fingers will hate you and want a break from typing.)
The curriculum says:
What's the arch of the curriculum over the 9 weeks?
Phase 1 (weeks 1-3): Basic Ruby, how to think and communicate like a programmer, Database and ActiveRecord.
Phase 2 (weeks 3-6): How the web works, MVC, and front end development, HTML CSS and Javascript.
Phase 3 (weeks 6-9): Putting these all together through the Rails framework and building an original APP from scratch! Good wholesome family fun!
It says 50-100 when you're filling out the acceptance form.
DeleteAhh that's where it said it.
DeleteThat's really cool! Maybe when you're done you can build me a website. :)
ReplyDeleteI see that the next few weeks are going to be a new and exciting time for you. Best wishes on my part for you.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteGood luck on beginning DB this Monday!
ReplyDeleteI know you'll be SWAMPED with work/adjusting, but if you have time before you start, mind commenting on the commute? I too have like a 90 min commute if I want to a bootcamp... it's by train, so not awful, but I feel like it might negatively impact my performance, ie I won't get to stay later with the others because I have to start my journey home.
What do you think?
oh and regarding the above comment, sorry i wasn't signed in! you can contact me here.
ReplyDeleteNow that I have gone for 3 weeks I'll say it really hasn't affected my performance but I'm coding for about 4 less hours a day than others and not getting as much reinforcement so it might catch up with me. But when we start group work and group projects, I know it will be much tougher.
DeleteI am worried that I won't be able to put in all the time others are. An hour of my commute will also be by train. But then I think how sometimes If you spent 16 hours a day doing something your brain is fried and you aren't as productive anyway. I do also worry that my fellow students will think less of me because I have to leave at 10 or earlier instead of staying until midnight or 2 am. I do not know if that is the case but I just worry. I also think about how based on past experience in my life, I have done extra things or in addition to normal course work I also had a job. Things like that and I pulled through. I still worry. I also worry that maybe my long commute will take it's toll on me and then I'll get kicked out when they do the test thing every 3 weeks.
ReplyDeleteAlso to top it off, I'm pregnant and if you know anything about pregnant women is that they require more rest/sleep than normal. So here's to hoping I don't die doing this.
Are you thinking about San Francisco or Chicago?
I was able to get an interview with Dev Bootcamp and one of the things I am worried about is the right attire for the interview, normally I've been taught to dress in professional attire for interviews which is something I would have done, although I don't own any dress clothes for the fact that I cannot afford it.
ReplyDeleteSo my question is, what would you recommend for the type of dress code I follow for this interview?
Thank you!:)
I was able to get an interview with Dev Bootcamp and one of the things I am worried about is the right attire for the interview, normally I've been taught to dress in professional attire for interviews which is something I would have done, although I don't own any dress clothes for the fact that I cannot afford it.
ReplyDeleteSo my question is, what would you recommend for the type of dress code I follow for this interview?
Thank you!:)
My interview was over skype I think I just wore a fitted tee shirt. Nothing fancy at all. Is yours over skype? I remember my interviewer was also just dressed in a tee shirt.
Delete