Hi, I’m Robert and I am one of the Chicago chapter study group admins. I have been programming professionally for many years, mostly back-end development and data integration (ETL) type work. I have written programs in HLASM, C, C#, and Java and have written code for the web using mainly PHP and Javascript. I’ve utilized the following database technologies: Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL.
I like to dabble in just about anything that I find that is interesting to me, but am by no means an expert in all of the languages and frameworks I’ve ever played around with; some of those include: Node.js, Python, CakePHP, Unity (VR development in C#).
I discovered freeCodeCamp back in late 2017 and immediately fell in love with its mission and decided to support it. I started working through some of the curriculum at that time but ended up falling off because I did not dedicate myself to it. I’ve recently decided to make a commitment to both working through the curriculum and getting involved in the freeCodeCamp community, which has led me to where I am today.
I am currently strengthening my skills and learning more about Front-End development and would eventually like to learn more about areas I feel weak in, knowledge-wise, like UI/UX design and mobile application development.
I also volunteer at We All Code (formerly known as CoderDojoChi), a non-profit who is dedicated to teaching children how to code, and for Ignite Chicago, who are part of the Ignite Talks network and who are run as a non-profit in direct support of We All Code. I encourage you to check both of those Chicago organizations out as well. We All Code is always looking for volunteers (no experience required) and Ignite Chicago is a fun event—it is like a series of lightning TED Talk (10 speakers, 5-minutes each, 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds, about something the speaker is passionate about).
I am currently running the Sunday study group meetups at the Capital One Cafe in the Loop. Watch for event posts here in the forum for upcoming meetups. I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can.