How to prepare for your Software Engineering Bootcamp…
You did it! You aced the technical interview, you finished all of the prep-work, and now you’re about to officially begin your adventure into Software Engineering.
I would say the first thing to do, would be to acknowledge what a huge accomplishment this is and congratulate yourself. You deserve it!
The next thing you may want to do is prepare yourself for what lies ahead. It’s going to be incredibly fun, exhilarating & challenging. Here are a few tips on how to prepare from my experience.
Positive Mindset…
I would argue that one of the most important things to bring with you on this journey is a positive mindset. One thing that really helped me to clear my mind and set a positive tone each day was setting aside an hour for myself in the morning before class began. I would do yoga, go for a bike ride or sometimes just simply sit and slowly enjoy my morning coffee.
Start Practicing Algorithms..
The sooner you start, the more comfortable you will be! During my bootcamp we would take turns solving different algorithms in front of our class which was an incredibly valuable experience. It allowed us to not only get a chance to experience what it feels like being in the hot seat, but also us to see different problem solving methods. There are a lot of great resources out there to help you practice on your own as well! Some of my favorites are codewars, hackerrank and leetcode.
Think about what kind of applications you’d like to build…
During your time in the bootcamp you will be creating your own applications from scratch. If you can take time before you begin the program to brainstorm some ideas of what you may be interested in building you will be able to quickly get to work once the project is assigned. Even better yet, think of which industries you may be interested in working for once you graduate and tailor your projects to that industry.
Familiarize yourself with Github…
When you are working on projects either alone or with a partner you will most likely be using GitHub, which is a code hosting platform for version control and collaboration. It allows you and your project partner to work together on projects from anywhere. If you’re not familiar with it, I would suggest reading through this guide.
Family & Friends…
Let your family and friends know about your bootcamp! In order for me to be super focused on my coursework I would actually tuck my iPhone away in a drawer during class. Personally, I can get way too distracted by social media, emails and text messages and easily derail myself from what I’m working on. So for me, this was necessary. That being said it was really important for me to let friends and family know that I wouldn’t be checking my phone during certain hours of the day. I certainly didn’t want them to think I was avoiding them so letting them know this ahead of time allowed me to be more intentional about setting time aside to connect.
I also knew my husband would have to on a lot of extra responsibility while I was in the program so it was really important to give him a clear picture of what this would look like. Knowing that the bootcamp would only be 15 weeks of our life in exchange for me taking a chance on something I was passionate about, he was totally on board and willing to take on whatever extra responsibilities needed on top of his full time job. Which included, driving our son to daycare and picking him up. Doing all of our grocery shopping, and making dinner most nights.
As a parent the time after class and before bedtime goes really fast! My bootcamp hours were 9am — 6pm, Monday through Friday I only had a couple of hours each evening during the week to spend with my son. This made it super important to make the most out of that time. We developed a routine of having dinner, working on his school work together and then playing a quick game or just reading a book before bedtime. On the weekends, I would get up early to sneak in some coding before he and my husband woke up.
I hope you found these tips helpful, wishing you great success on this exciting new adventure!!
