| | Joshua Echt | As a former journalist and editor, I've always wondered how company names are created.
When I first heard of this school, I was confused by the title: We Can Code IT, and I kept wondering why IT was all-caps. Did they forget a copyeditor? Did their caps lock get stuck in the down position? But then I realized it was a reference to the Information Techology industry.
And it's an industry that I'm now proud to be a part of, thanks to the learning tools and skills I gained in my 14-week cohort at the school. I left journalism and editing because I wasn't being challenged enough, so my accountant told me about coding schools in February 2018. One of his clients went to WCCI and successfully transitioned from a botany major to tech developer.
That spring, I looked at rival bootcamps and while they were just as qualified as WCCI I felt like I was just a number. So I ultimately signed on with WCCI and went through the admissions process in August. I started the Fall Full-Time Cohort on Sept. 4. The school has locations in CLE and Columbus and I chose the Columbus campus, nestled in a lovely brick upstairs office in Old North Columbus.
Note: There are two options--the full-time cohort, which meets M-F from 930-330--or FlexCode, which meets on weekends twice a month, as well as in-person sessions with instructors during one weekday. Columbus classes use the Java language, while Cleveland classes use the .NET language.
The classwork was very challenging. The first few weeks were spent in a console app, Eclipse, and then we transitioned into building projects through Springboot MVC and the Gitbash command line system. Eight weeks were spent on core Java, and the remainder of the class was spent on React/Javascript, some HTML/CSS5 and a day on SQL. We focused on test-driven development and pair programming throughout as well.
The last three weeks of the class were spent on the final project. Our 14-person class was split into three teams and we worked on building practical, functional apps with cross-functionality. The app my team built was a cooking timer application, and we presented it to employers at Demonstration Day on 12/14.
Throughout the class, we also met with Lacey N., who was our Career Services manager. She was extremely helpful in our weekly sessions regarding job interview preparation, and I credit her with helping me land a job three days after graduation, making about 16% more in salary than my previous job. She taught us job skills that progressively built on each other--not unlike how we learned coding skills--such as basic interviewing, behavioral responses and body language, resume creation and cover letters. That culminated in mock interviews, and then actual interviews with real employers.
I can tell you that the cohort got along well, the instructors were excellent and took time to help us, and the program itself was cohesive (both tech and career services).
As a former journalist NOW TURNED tech developer and coder, it doesn't matter how the name was created. The only thing that matters now is getting the word out about how good WCCI is, and how it can change your life as well! YOU can code IT! |
