My appetite for a change from a successful career in Financial Services to IT was fuelled by wanting regular & tangible output to my work day. My former career allowed me to manage projects in very large organizations, but I rarely got the chance to view the final outcome, as projects appeared to merge in further projects. My motivation to keep on investing hard work and energy for little reward was low, hence a change was required. Software Development was something I enjoyed as a teenager, through learning code syntax, yet spending more time on trying to solve syntax errors. In fact, very long hours were spent trying to solve problems of my own making. Perhaps, I fell back on previous sentiment,. but I was also swayed into considering a vocational change through reading an article on the increasing demand for digital skills in the UK, originally published by Learning People. Little did I know at the time that Learning People were in fact big advocates of The Code Institute. A conversation with the Learning People convinced me that my career-to-date skills of Project Management, ability to work with deadlines, comfortable in working with people, listening to people and a strong fascination in solving problems were great transferrable attributes to take into a code bootcamp run by The Code Institute. It's important to mention that the journey to study and learn with The Code Institute represents a significant personal commitment of time, patience and sheer determination to get the job done. All enrolled students are warmly welcomed in to The Code Institute family. My learning experience was primarily online, with emphasis on connecting with fellow students who are at different stages of their respective learning journeys. Again, its important to note that all students had their Day 1, so there is a lot of empathy from the start with a focus of getting comfortable with the learning material and increasing self-confidence too. The range of learning is excellent. All students will learn front end, back end, databases and agile software development. Job ready skills are created through the code bootcamp experience, but Students are also encouraged to look beyond The Code Institutes curriculum to help further broaden an understanding of Software Development. There are so many resources and social media exchanges where students can supplement knowledge gained from The Code Institute. In fact, when you land your dream role in IT, you'll certainly cast your net wide and far to understand the latest code updates in your new industry. So, why not get in there early by initiating your own research in to all thats good (and sometimes peculiar), After 12 months of continuous hard work I finally graduated with a First Class Honours rated Diploma in Full Stack Development. Time after graduation was spent on creating a portfolio of work I was happy to share with prospective employers, provide volunteer support to under-graduates and create a CV with covering letter. The Code Institute have made a significant investment into creating a highly reputable Student Care function, Mentor support and Tutor support. The latter extends into unsociable hours to help meet the needs of working students. In summary, there are very real risks of struggling to complete a very demanding schedule of learning. You must be willing to give your commitment to learn, make mistakes, ask questions (more the better), sense of humour and have fun with your own student community. In return, your effort is rewarded in learning job ready IT skills, creating a new network of friends and formal recognition of being a certified Software Developer. | 