SideStories XVII: N3uE_f15He.exe
Hello all! I hope you are all well, it’s been a hot minute since I last wrote here, as I’ve been busy working in this new bootcamp that I joined up with since the beginning of March, at Neue Fische (German for New Fishes) here in Hamburg.
I spoke with the teacher yesterday and he allowed me to talk about my journey here with you all within reason, so I’ll just keep it short and sweet.
New Directions
The bootcamp has been excellent so far, we started at the very basics of Web Development, looking at HTML and CSS, getting comfortable with File Systems between Git and GitHub. All classes thus far are over Zoom because of COVID-19 regulations, so we’d meet online in the morning and discuss the previous day as a summary, or protocol, then dive into the work.
I’m glad to say that I am competent with what we are learning, thanks to blogging my process here and working with FreeCodeCamp since last August. That has been my biggest advantage when tackling new directions and subjects within the course. Additionally, I can provide insights and help others to clear up little stumbles, which makes me happy! We also take regular breaks which is great as I can be at home, which makes for a great change from commuting in previous jobs.
The Workflow
The workflow has been intense to say the least, I’ve been clocking in an average of 12 hours a day on the computer (last night I reached 17 hours!), constantly moving and growing and implementing what we learn along the way. I think this has been of great personal growth as I can prepare for future projects more efficiently and handle heavier workflow. However, I thrive under pressure so I have been enjoying every minute of the stress!
Each weekend we are tasked with building a website or applying what we learn that week in a small project, and I can see my progress in the results of my work. Thus far I’ve made a personal website which is Mobile, iPad and Desktop compatible (different layouts for each, thanks Media Queries) and also a small Quiz App last weekend, with an extra logout page I made, cause why not?
In class, I try to keep spirits up and help out where I can, this could also be seen as a key part in building a good healthy framework for team projects. This leads us to the next chapter:
Working in Teams
In our most recent project, we were tasked with building an app with several pages and specific layouts (pure HTML and CSS) over the weekend. This marks my first time as part of a team in a project, contributing to a repo over GitHub, and working on separate moving parts of the same machine.
This was announced on the Thursday before so we had that evening to prepare and plan, figure out the tasks and what parts of the structure to set out first. We were a team of 4, so we split into 2 and each half carefully worked in separate areas so as not to cause conflicts within the code. This came in very handy when merging our branches over GitHub and creating consistent, precise Pull Requests.
We used ‘Pair Programming’ — where one dictates the parameters of each element and the other writes into the code, a sort of pilot/co-pilot approach. This was useful for efficiency and pace of the project build.
I thoroughly enjoyed working as part of a team. Communication is key and we maintained consistency by messaging each other over Slack as well as outside of working hours, keeping up to date on issues and potential blocks. We also shared a great chemistry so the work was halved already!
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All in all, I’m loving this course and would recommend you give Neue Fische a look online.
Normally where I’d be panicked or feeling drained, or that gut feeling that tells you to get out, I haven’t had any of this. I really feel like I’m right where I ought to be!
I hope this encourages you to keep going in what you’re doing, coding is an invaluable talent which when you grind over eventually you get the diamonds. Keep grinding!
