I'm Jen and this week was my first at bootcamp - Manchester Codes’ Software Engineering FastTrack, to be a specific. A part-time, 24 week bootcamp based in Manchester, UK but currently offering a remote option, because 2020.

About me

A little bit of background - I’m in my mid-30’s, making a career change into tech. My eldest son turned 3 this week, meaning it is three years since I left my career in the heritage conservation sector to go on maternity leave. Three years since I sat at a desk and used a computer for more than an hour or two. I don’t mind saying that I had missed it.

What does the course look like?

The course format is two evening classes a week, plus an optional Saturday drop-in session. The course material is all online on the school’s dashboard, a bit like codecademy or freeCodeCamp. You’re expected to attend the evening sessions (via zoom or in person, in the socially-distanced classroom) plus do 14-20 hrs of self study per week, using the modules and lessons on the dashboard. There are tutors and mentors on hand to answer questions if you get stuck, via Slack (although you’re encouraged to find the answer yourself first. Hello google). The setup is perfect for me - as a full-time parent of preschoolers, a traditional bootcamp was never going to be an option, but I can happily fit this in to my family commitments, albeit with some late nights and a lot of help from heroic grandparents.

So how did it work in practice?

We kicked off on Tuesday with 4 weeks of 'Programming Foundations', which we follow through at our own pace using the online dashboard. On Tuesday and Thursday I joined the zoom call at 6.30pm, which begins with a stand-up (this was a new one on me, it was not something I've ever done in a previous job - everyone in the team briefly says what they've been working on, what's gone well and what hasn't). The stand-up will usually be followed by a lecture. After that we all stay on the zoom while we're quietly working away. We can chat on Slack and ask questions if we get stuck, which our peers or the tutors answer. It felt strangely sociable, like being in a virtual classroom with twenty-odd people, and it was definitely comforting to see other confused faces every now and again as they worked through the lesson. The real classroom was even beamed into the zoom call. What a brave new world we are in!

What did the course cover in week one?

• Thinking like a software engineer - we were given stacks of reading material to kick off - loads of helpful articles, videos and techniques to get stuck into, from the Pomodoro technique to 'effective thinking' and building an online presence as a developer

• Setting up your dev environment - we installed node.js, npm, git, VS Code with ESLint and generated SSH keys

• Intro to Command Line - we learned all sorts of commands from ls, touch & mkdir to shebangs, culminating in a Murder Mystery challenge using only terminal, which had me scratching my head a lot, but came good in the end (after a good night's sleep)

• Intro to Git - worked through Git-It (a cool tool for learning how to use git - highly recommended!), which covered all the basics - git init, git add, git commit, git push, git pull, linking to remote repos and pull requests on github

Quite enough for one week, I think.

So what did I learn from my first week at bootcamp?

Aside from all the actual dev stuff above...in no particular order: if you're stuck, walk away and come back to it later; don't forget that your zoom video is still on during the evening sessions; you definitely need a second monitor and no your desk isn't big enough; tea is always the answer.

But number one - that this was the best decision I ever made. No doubt there'll be weeks where I just don't get it, or I am exhausted (see above - preschoolers), or I'll doubt the wisdom of switching careers 10 years in, but for now, I am so glad I took the plunge.