| | Lisa White | Towards the end of 2019, I began thinking about a career change into software engineering, but I had no background in coding. I started looking at free resources like Codecademy and freeCodeCamp, but I felt that I needed something more structured; that’s when I came across First Step Coding.
Everything about the experience in the class was spot-on, from the curriculum structure to the pace of the program to the sense of community among the cohort. It was very clear that Andy and Kurt put together a really thoughtful curriculum given their combined expertise in the industry. We covered a lot of content in the program, and at times it was quite challenging, but the instructors created a really supportive learning environment. I appreciated how FSC is targeted towards beginners so that we were all starting from a similar place. Some people had goals of enrolling in a bootcamp while others were working at tech companies in non-technical roles, but we were all in this class because we were interested in becoming “code literate”.
Since I was interested in enrolling in a bootcamp, I did the 4-week Introduction to Coding in JavaScript plus the additional 4-week Bootcamp Prep through FSC. If a bootcamp is your goal, I would encourage you to consider the additional Bootcamp Prep; I was able to showcase my capstone project in bootcamp applications and I found the mock interviews to be extremely beneficial. After going through FSC, I spent some time working through the pre-application prep courses for a couple of bootcamps and felt very prepared while going through that material. Ultimately, I applied to General Assembly, Flatiron School, and Hack Reactor and got into all three! I am so grateful for a program like FSC that was able to help a complete beginner become ready for a bootcamp; I would highly recommend their programs. |
