Hi there,
I have joined FCC two months ago and I just obtained my Front End Developer Certificate. I have a background in scientific coding but no developer experience. Here is my personal experience with FCC so far.
I joined with very little prior experience in web development and javascript: pretty much all I had done in my past was a static website for the research team I was working in something like 8 years ago and -more recently- a few html + css + javascript courses on Codeacademy. On the other hand, I do have some significant prior experience with coding as I programmed extensively in Matlab, Python and R for my Ph.D. and then for my job in the Energy industry over the last years. So my experience could be interesting for fellow FCC coders with a background in scientific coding but no “developer” background.
Personally I found some of the challenges fairly easy, especially those where “standard” procedural coding of the kind people use in research was needed. E.g. challenges where you are supposed to sort stuff, calculate functions or similar (a good example is “map the debris” which honestly took me like 5 min). On the other hand -and since this post is not about bragging - I did find some of the challenges and projects fairly difficult to conquer.
In particular, not having any developer experience- I was initially put of by asynchronous coding. In my prior coding experience typically all my code executes in a linear fashion: here’s the input for a simulation, here’s the models to crunch the numbers, here’s the output charts and tables. When coding apps such as the Simon game or a calculator the mindset and code structure is completely different as you need to wait for the user to do something and your code must be able to handle whatever and in whichever order the user decides.
I found it very useful to rely on the Model-View-Controller framework as a way to keep my code clean and avoiding getting lost in “who-does-what” across my functions and objects. I ended up spending more time than I imagined on debugging and testing my code little by little as I was not able to plan and think things through as much as I would have liked. In the end though seeing an interface working is really satisfactory, and I am still surprised when my calculator or Simon game actually work!
I will now move to the Data Visualization part, which is my main goal in FCC as this is what I will be hopefully able to use directly in my job to visualize some of my analysis and dataset in a better way (plus, I am passionate about Data Viz).
Resources I found particularly useful:
-“Head first” books on Javascript and HTML5
-https://developer.mozilla.org
-stack overflow
Most challenging bit so far:
-Understanding Javascript Promises, which I used in the Simon game coding
Most enjoyable bit so far:
-Making the Simon game actually work!
Questions for fellows FCC coders:
-Do you have a similar experience or coming from a similar background ? I would be interested to hear from you
-For coders with more of a background in software development: what workflow or tool or approach helps you in structuring your code properly, maybe even before actually writing code ?