| | Zach W | Prior to going to Orange County Code School I had been interested in a career as a computer programmer but just could never find the time to teach myself to code. I had no college education and the thought of going to school part time for a computer science degree was pretty daunting. I had a family member who knew someone that had gone through a code school and found a job afterward so about a year after first receiving that suggestion I jumped into action and began researching “programming bootcamps”. I came across OCCS and after talking to Mike and Ron decided it would be a good fit. I went into the course with essentially zero programming experience and was fairly anxious as to whether I would be able to do it or not.
It’s probably important to mention that Ron is not there to be your best friend, he’s there to teach you how to code. If you’re looking for someone to tell you you’re doing great moving along at your own pace as you’re falling behind...OCCS is probably not for you (future employers probably won’t like that either). Ron did not spend a ton of time worrying about people’s feelings but he definitely taught us how to write JavaScript. It’s not easy learning how to program in three months, and after the course is finished there will be plenty more to learn, but if you think you are capable of picking things up pretty quickly and are okay with putting some work in outside of the hours you spend in the classroom, then OCCS will be a good place to begin learning to code.
During the course we worked on three projects, each of which expanded upon features we had used on the last and added various new technologies. It is pretty neat watching your skill set grow from project to project and feeling your confidence grow in your ability to write working code. By the end of the course you should have no problem creating a complex and functional web app.
Beyond learning to how to code and use various tools which are important in the day to day work of a software developer one of my favorite aspects of the program was getting to listen to Ron’s stories. He has a ton of experience in the industry and through talking to him you will definitely pick up some interesting knowledge about the field that will be good to have as you enter your career as a developer.
One last thing, make sure to attend your demo night! You never know where your first job as a programmer could come from and I was lucky enough to receive mine from a company I met at our demo night. There were a few people in our cohort who did not attend the demo night and who knows what opportunities you might miss out on by making that decision. OCCS was a life changing decision for me and I would recommend it to anyone who REALLY wants to learn to code, and is ready to dedicate themselves to making that happen. |
