100-days-of-code VS curriculum

After earning my certificate for that program in July of this year, I continued my journey by starting freeCodeCamp's JavaScript certification. Shortly after starting the course I started the #100DaysOfCode Challenge on August 5 and on November 12 I completed the 100th day of that challenge.

In an effort to be intentional with my weekly reflections on the #100DaysOfCode Challenge, I want to focus this post on regular expressions. While completing the scripting challenges on freeCodeCamp I struggled and felt very frustrated with the challenges that involved regular expressions. Which means ... I needed to learn more about them and on a deeper level. So here goes!

Those are the triumphs, tribulations, and lessons I've learned from my first 50 days of the #100DaysOfCode Challenge. I'm looking forward to what comes next in the second half of the challenge and writing this post has helped me identify the direction I need to work toward. If you'd like to see my log entry for Day 50's study session, you can find in my GitHub repository for the #100DaysOfCode challenge.

There were frustrations and compromises and victories, but little by little I can see my progress, and I still enjoy the act of overcoming these new challenges and learning more and more. Each day is another little lesson. I look forward to continuing with The Odin Project and the next challenges, but in the meantime I must return to looking for my alternance (apprenticeship) and maybe a small personal project before launching into the next part of the curriculum.

The Odin Project: With its hands-on approach, The Odin Project guids through everything from basic HTML and CSS to full-stack development.

The Odin Project (https://www.theodinproject.com/)

The Odin Project The Odin Project offers a full-stack curriculum for aspiring web developers. With its project-based approach, you'll gain practical experience while learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more.

TheOdinProject

The Odin Project - Free, open-source platform with a curriculum focused on JavaScript and Ruby for web development.

I'll throw in a vote for teaching yourself or using free resources and communities. Even if you go down the bootcamp route it is going to take a lot of self motivation and work outside of the bootcamp / afterwards in order to become job ready. Or at least do this to start with to make sure you like it.

I did this myself a few years years ago over lockdown. I had a lot of down time and worked on teaching myself web development full time 5 days a week for about a year. I was then able to land a job at a FAANG company through an apprenticeship scheme that they offer in the UK (I'm not sure if these kinds of schemes are available in the US) where I stayed for a year and a half and I am now working for a startup in a position I found through connections I made at my previous job. At the time I did have other offers for non-apprenticeship roles at other companies so don't let the absence of apprenticeships put you off if they aren't on offer in the US. The job market was definitely better when I was applying for my first job so the process might be more drawn out now. The main resource I used for self teaching was The Odin Project (https://www.theodinproject.com/). I also did a batch at The Recurse Center (https://www.recurse.com/) which was a great experience in general, especially for getting some hands on time working on projects with other people. I would say be curious, reach out to people who are working on things you find interesting to ask them for a chat and just persevere with the applications as you will definitely get a lot of rejections.

One more thing (might be UK specific as well) but I would check to see if there are any government funded bootcamps you might be able to get a place on. I know multiple people in the UK who got the job center to pay for them to do a bootcamp while they were on universal credit and now work in the industry.

So I have been learning how to code and broadly development since 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdowns, beginning with the classic triple threat of HTML/CSS/JavaScript, adding into the mix a dash of Python and since returning to live in France 2022 have committed to The Odin Project web-development program and happily began my full time formal learning with Ada Tech School in 2023. Now the search for my 12-month-long apprenticeship (Alternance, en français) begins, as well as continuing my self-study and side-projects.

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