jwcodes

[jwcodes]

Update

The past 6 months have been a whirlwind! I had hoped to take time to blog regularly about my time at Grace Hopper, but it was hard to make time during such an intensive learning period. Then I graduated in April and was job searching for about 6 weeks after that. The job search period was also very hectic and demanding. I always felt like I was in a frantic state of trying to do a wide spectrum of things (networking, interviewing, preparing for interviews, job applications, studying, whiteboarding, meetups), and I found I never had enough time to do everything I wanted. I’m happy to say, though, that I accepted a job and started working as a Full Stack Software Engineer in New York in June! While I’ve been learning a lot at my company, things are much more relaxed now than before. I’m hoping to write about my Grace Hopper and job search experiences soon. :)

[jwcodes]

Foundations

In the 4 weeks before starting Grace Hopper, I completed Grace Hopper’s remote prep course called Foundations. The course covers basic and intermediate Javascript, HTML, CSS, and jQuery. After learning key concepts, I created a basic app.

I think I over-prepared a bit for my interview, so most of the concepts were review for me. If you find that this is the case for you, I would recommend spending any free time you have before your bootcamp sharpening your vanilla Javascript skills by doing challenges on Codewars.

From my experience, I found that I didn’t have time work on my vanilla Javascript skills once I started the on-site portion of the program since I was busy learning so many other things. Take the time before your program starts to become really solid on Javascript.

[jwcodes]

The Decision

After hearing back from all the bootcamps I applied to, it was time to make a decision. I sent follow-up emails to all of the schools. I received quick responses from Coding Dojo, Hackbright, and Grace Hopper. I never heard back from Hack Reactor. I also spoke with Shanna, Grace Hopper’s dean, on Skype. It’s something they set up for all admitted students.

My decision came down to Grace Hopper and Hack Reactor. While Hack Reactor seemed like a great school, and I would have preferred going to San Francisco, it seemed like Hack Reactor was growing at a really rapid rate. Soon after I was accepted, Hack Reactor announced the rebranding of their other schools, MakerSquare and Telegraph Academy, as Hack Reactor schools. I felt that this would bring down the name brand of Hack Reactor in San Francisco. I also read reviews by people that described the school as a sink-or-swim environment and and their experience as feeling like a cog in the wheel. With all these misgivings, I couldn’t justify paying $20,000 upfront for Hack Reactor.

As for Grace Hopper, I really liked the idea of being at a women’s school. The tuition was also high, but I liked that I could defer payment until I secured a job. From my interview and from reading reviews, I got the sense that Grace Hopper would be a positive and supportive environment. I was not as excited about the idea of moving to New York, and for that reason, I was still hesitant on choosing Grace Hopper.

In the end, I went with my gut and chose Grace Hopper!

[jwcodes]

Grace Hopper/Fullstack Application and Interview

The Grace Hopper application was on the longer side. In addition to basic information, I also had to provide a resume, educational background, and standardized test scores. There were around 3 short essay questions that were pretty straightforward.

Three days later, I was invited to do an online coding challenge. Coderbyte and Codewars were a great help for preparing for the challenge. The challenge lasted an hour and consisted of 5 problems that increased in difficulty. I was able to complete 4/5 of the problems. I was close to finishing the last problem but didn’t have enough time to complete it. I ended up completing it on my own after the challenge. I also found a more elegant way to solve the problem on Stack Overflow.

Three days later, I was invited to interview! The first part of the interview was non-technical but still related to my experience learning to code. The second part was the live coding session. I felt much more relaxed during this session than I did in my Hack Reactor Interview. We did a couple of coding problems. For the second problem, my interviewer and I worked together to refactor the original solution I had written. I had to get some hints along the way but was able to finish eventually. Interviewing with Grace Hopper was the best interview experience I had out of all the bootcamps I applied to. My interviewer was very friendly and made me feel comfortable, and I felt like I learned something new from the live coding.

The next day I found out I was accepted! My acceptance also meant I was automatically accepted into Fullstack and could choose to attend either schools.

[jwcodes]

Hack Reactor Application and Interview

The Hack Reactor application was very short. I liked how filling in the application involved using Javascript. In hindsight, I wish I had filled out the application earlier. I wanted to save the HR interview as one of my last interviews, so I had delayed filling out the application. But by the time I did apply, most of the interview slots for the next couple of weeks were already filled up. I would recommend applying about a month before you want to interview and then choose a good interview time slot a month ahead of time. This will also motivate you to study!

The interview involved one or two non-technical questions. My interviewer then asked me a bunch of other short administrative questions. I felt some of them could have been just included on the application (ex. Do you understand that you cannot be absent at all during the program?). He also asked me what other programs I had applied to, which I didn’t think was necessary.

Finally, we got to the live coding portion, which took up most of the interview. This was my first interview doing live coding, and it was also the most difficult! I wish I had done another live coding interview before this one for practice. The coding challenge involved some functional programming, and the interviewer also showed me some ES6 concepts, which I had to use for some of the coding. The interview is supposed to be a pair programming session, but I felt like I was mostly working on my own and didn’t get much help from the interviewer. The problems started out easy and got increasingly more difficult. I got stuck on one problem that I didn’t finish during the interview. I figured out the answer after my interview, and I felt like I could have gotten the answer if I hadn’t been so nervous. I sent a follow-up email with my solution code just in case it might help my application.

About 2 weeks later, I found out I was accepted!

[jwcodes]

Hackbright Application and Interview

The Hackbright application is a bit on the longer side. In addition to basic information, I had to answer two short essay questions. One question was why I wanted to attend Hackbright. The other question asked me to teach something. I think the main purpose of the second question was to see my interests and my ability to explain concepts to others.

After sending in my application, I completed a coding challenge. The problem wasn’t too difficult. If you’ve done the easy challenges on Coderbyte, then you’ll be all set. Plus, the challenge is not timed.

After 10 days, I got an invitation for a first round interview. The interview was done through an interviewing app, which was interesting. I didn’t talk to an actual person. Instead, I read each question, had about 30 seconds to prepare, and then spoke into the video camera for about 1 minute. The interview was mostly non-technical. I think it was mostly a way to see my personality and whether I would be a cultural fit at Hackbright. I wouldn’t worry too much about this interview. The questions aren’t too difficult, and you can’t really prepare for them. The most difficult thing was getting used to using the app. When I was answering questions, I had to look at the question, check how much time I had left, and make sure to look into the camera while answering my question. I was given some practice questions to do before the interview, so I’d definitely recommend doing those  to get used to the software.

There was supposed to be a second interview with Hackbright staff, but 10 days later, I got an acceptance email!

[jwcodes]

Preparing for Coding Bootcamp Interviews

I highly recommend reading Haseeb Qureshi’s Cracking the Bootcamp post on his blog. The interview advice is very solid.

Some extra advice from my own experience:

I started applying to schools once I felt prepared for coding challenges and interviews. Before applying, I wasn’t aware that most schools using scheduling apps where applicants sign up for interview time slots at their leisure. In the case of Hack Reactor, interview time slots fill up quickly. I had to schedule an interview for two weeks after I sent in my application, and it was also at an awkward time of the day (all the other time slots were taken). In hindsight, I would have gone ahead and sent in my application before I felt ready and scheduled my interview for a few weeks in advance.

[jwcodes]

Coding Dojo Interview

My first interview was with Coding Dojo. It was a audio-only Skype interview because the interviewer was using her phone instead of a computer. The call lasted for about 20 minutes. During the first half, the interviewer asked me a few non-technical questions about my background and my motivation. Then I asked questions for the second half. At the end of the interview, she told me I would be receiving an email soon with my acceptance!

[jwcodes]

Choosing Bootcamps

I chose to apply to 4 coding bootcamps:

Coding Dojo

Hackbright

Hack Reactor

Fullstack’s Grace Hopper Program

Coding Dojo

I knew a couple of people who went to this school and ended up working as developers. The school teaches 3 tech stacks, rather than just one. The tuition is also cheaper than other schools. The application curriculum seemed to be less rigorous than other schools, but I decided to apply to have a fallback school just in case.

Hackbright

Hackbright is a bootcamp for women. I was interested in going to an all-women’s school due to the low number of women in tech. The schools seemed to have a strong network with ties to a lot of companies in the Bay Area. However, it seemed the school was aimed at students with very little background in coding, and I already had some experience.

Hack Reactor

Hack Reactor has great outcomes for hiring rate and average salary. It seems that it is one of the best coding schools, and it had a lot of great reviews online. The  school requires applicants to have some knowledge of Javascript, which I liked. I had my reservations, though, because the school seems to be growing very rapidly. Currently, two cohorts of 35 students enter at one time. Cohorts attend lectures together, and the idea of listening to a lecture with 70 students reminded me too much of college lectures.

Grace Hopper

Grace Hopper and Fullstack also had a lot of great reviews online. Grace Hopper is Fullstack’s program for women, and it has deferred tuition, meaning I would pay tuition once I got a job. I got a positive vibe from the school from my research. Like Hack Reactor, the school also requires applicants to have coding experience, but unlike Hack Reactor, the class sizes are smaller. One big downside to Fullstack is that it’s located in New York, and I was more interested in moving to San Francisco.

[jwcodes]

Coding Bootcamp Prep

There are a multitude of resources online for learning to code, and it can be overwhelming to try and sift through resources looking for relevant and helpful learning materials. Below are some recommendations for resources which I used to prepare. I hope they are helpful in your studies!

Javascript Beginner’s Curriculum

This is a very comprehensive curriculum designed for specifically for Hack Reactor. But if you study everything here, you’ll be more than prepared for any other bootcamp as well.

Some notes:

Code School costs money, but it is ABSOLUTELY worth it.

Eloquent Javascript - I didn’t find the explanations that great, but the exercises are interesting and worth doing. I think Ch. 5 Higher Order functions is the best and most important chapter.

Coderbyte - You’ll need to learn RegExp to get through a lot of the problems. When I started out, some of the problems took me 45 minutes to complete. Don’t get discouraged. You’ll get better and faster through practice. If you spend an hour on a problem and still don’t get it, I would recommend just looking at the solution. I skipped the Medium challenges because they were very similar to the Easy challenges.

Frontend Masters - In addition to the Hack Reactor Workshop, I also did the Good Parts of Javascript Workshop taught by Douglas Crockford. He goes into a lot of detail about the language. I skipped most of it (due to lack of time) and focused on Fun with Functions Challenges. Doing those challenges will give you a strong understanding of callbacks and closure.

Codewars

Lots of interesting coding challenges that are categorized by difficulty. Fullstack and Grace Hopper give T-shirts to students who reach 4 kyu by the end of the program, so you might as well get a head start in case you go to one of those schools.

String Methods and Array Methods

I used Anki flashcards to memorize all the string methods and array methods listed at W3Schools. You should know what parameters the methods take and what they return.

Practical Javascript

The instructor of this course wrote the Annotated Version of Eloquent Javascript. He ended up making his own course. You get to make a basic to-do list app in Javascript, and the course gives a taste of what programming  at work is like.

——-

Other resources:

I also took two comp sci courses. They aren’t necessary for applying to bootcamps, but these courses covered a lot of topics that I’m now encountering at Grace Hopper. If you have the extra time, these are great for learning CS fundamentals, and the professors are great!

CS50

Takes about 3-6 months to complete depending on how much free time you have. This was one of my first introductions to coding. It was super challenging, but I loved it!

MIT 6.00.1x

Compared to CS50, this course may seem a little dry compared to all the bells and whistles of CS50. However, I think the professor was really good at explaining concepts.

——-

After going through all the materials above, I was more than prepared for my bootcamp technical interviews. Good luck with your preparation!

[jwcodes]

Hello world!

I recently joined Fullstack Academy’s Grace Hopper program, an all-women’s coding bootcamp. Over 17 weeks, I’ll be learning fullstack Javascript in order to start a career as a software developer!

A little about me: I studied math in college but wasn’t really sure what do with it after graduating. I taught for a while in a couple of countries. Then a friend introduced me to a course called CS50. I had dabbled in HTML as a child, and the course reminded me how fun and engrossing coding could be. 

I had been looking into coding bootcamps and finally decided to take the plunge. I quit my job, studied javascript for a month, and applied to several bootcamps.

I ended up joining Grace Hopper in New York. I’m hoping to blog about my experience applying to bootcamps, my experience at Grace Hopper, and what I learn along the way.