TIL: I've been accepted to the Tech Elevator coding bootcamp.
TIL: I still recieve motivational quotes as an RSS feed
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I've thought about doing a bootcamp multiple times over the years, but cost and time commitment kept me from doing so. I thought even harder about it while unemployed over the last year, but again cost kept me away. However, I saw an ad about a bootcamp with an income-share agreement and living stipend (pay nothing up front, repay loans for bootcamp cost and living stipend once they help you get a job) so started looking into them. The same week, I recieved an email from Ohio Means Jobs about a program they started in conjunction with a local bootcamp named Tech Elevator. Tech Elevator has the same income-share agreement, and there are scholarships and grants available. With these advantages a bootcamp seemed doable, so I applied and today was told I've been accepted.
While waiting for notification of acceptance to Tech Elevator, I signed up for the Thinkful bootcamp's javascript prep course. Thinkful was the bootcamp mentioned above, that offered a living stipend in addition to the income-share agreement. If I hadn't been accepted to Tech Elevator I would have gone with Thinkful specifically for that living stipend. It would have cost more than double what Tech Elevator will cost, and double Thinkful's up front cost. I wasn't happy about that, or how pushy the original salesperson at Thinkful was, but I'd already decided I need a bootcamp in order to successfully land a job.
I need a bootcamp to regain and improve confidence in my coding, especially after what happened at Rockwell. This was made exceedingly clear during my last interview, where they asked about my coding proficiency and I couldn't hide the complete stop as my mind went blank. "It's not my strongest suit" is not what a hiring manager wants to hear from a software developer about their coding proficiency.
I've taught myself C# while unemployed, but you don't know what you don't know, and having my code repeatedly rewritten while being told it was good "but..." left insecurities. The Sr. developer who consistently rewrote my code would tell me there were hidden errors, but was never able to explain further. He never offered to work with me or help me rewrite the code so it wouldn't produce errors. He just went and rewrote it entirely. Repeatedly. So now I don't know what I was doing wrong, if I was doing anything wrong, or if he just didn't like my code because it's not how he would have written it and I was insecure/inexperienced/female enough he felt he could rewrite it. Going through a bootcamp will give me the type of feedback he never did.
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I'm slowly learning how to be me again, after a year in the deepest depression I've ever experienced. At one time I was considered cheerful, bubbly, a dose of sunshine, and in one case "the happiest person I've ever met." With everything happening over the past several years, I'd forgotten how to be positive and happy. That's a part of me I certainly want to keep!
I recently reconnected with an ex on FB, and while conversing with him found my feed full of motivational quotes (and politics, and baby pictures). I'd forgotten I subscribed to anything like that. Today I was cleaning out some of my Outlook folders and rediscovered my RSS folder. All motivational quote feeds. I started a spreadsheet/database and am considering a tiny app that will open a document on my desktop to display a new/random motivational quote every day. Because I need another project. :)
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