Heyy there, my name is Becca, and I am starting this thread so that I can document my progress working through all of the codecamp tutorials. You are welcome to use it to do the same thing if you’d like to
There are three reasons why I want to complete codecamp:
- I want to be able to replace my amigurumi pattern and design tips website with one that I have coded myself (friendlyfoxamigurumi.com).
- I want to be able to design websites for people who are passionate about a skill and hobby that they want to share with the world, without them having to pay what they can’t afford for custom features.
- I am working towards developing a lifelong career as a full-stack web developer, because coding provides the perfect level of challenge and fun that would make that career a rewarding one for me.
A bit about where I am now:
Last year, I graduated with a first class degree in criminology in Wales. Then I moved to Scotland to start a masters degree, only to realise that I loved programming and designing toys more (a bit of an odd combination but one that is magical).
I first got into coding when I walked through the library one night after finishing a study session two years ago, and picked a completely random book to read for 20 mins before going home. The book I happened to choose was a GCSE book on computer science. The opening chapter taught us how to design an algorithm for making a cup of tea. Needless to say as a British person (obsessed with tea) I was hooked.
At the moment, I have just got a job (starting next month) as a customer service advisor at Amazon. For the last four years I have worked as a cashier, waitress or in some other customer service related role. I love talking to people but this isn’t the job I want, but it is helping me pay the bills while I work towards making this dream happen. I’m prepared to spend as long as it takes to get there.
Current Coding Experience:
Right now, my html and css skills are at an upper intermediate level. I am familiar with JavaScript syntax and
am at an intermediate level with Python, where I have made tons of little projects using the tkinter framework.
I would consider myself to be a deep learner. I have to understand why things behave the way they do, and love experimenting with things to see if I can find new uses for them. This means that when I complete a challenge, I then try and improve it in a little way using what I now so far, that is a technique that has worked really well for me so far.
Code Camp First Impressions
My first impression of codecamp is: YAYY STRUCTURE! I really love that there is a chronological order to the tasks, and that everything is explained in little bitesized chunks. I also love that it is interactive in everyway, which suits my learning style completely. I am excited to complete the whole course. I am a little skeptical that doing so will enable me to jump straight into a developer role, but am confident at least that this will be a positive learning experience in any case.
PROGRESS JOURNAL
Aim of progress journal:
-So that I can remind myself why i’m doing this
-So that there is a live example of how long this camp takes to complete and what comes of it.
-Hopefully so that other people can log their progress and keep each other motivated (maybe you could write a post that you continually edit with your progress too?)
Entry 1: Sunday 18th June 2017
hours spent: 10+ (a lot of free time right now and this has been addictive)
-completed HTML5 and CSS section
-completed Responsive Design with Bootstrap section
-working through jQuery section (gonna carry on today too)
Positives: My previous experience has made this easy.
Never done bootstrap before and found it really easy.
Love the font awesome icons!!!
Struggles: Only roadblock this session was where to put the i element on buttons for adding font awesome icons.
Overcame by playing around with placement until one worked. It worked.