I stepped into 2020 with one goal; to become a full-stack web developer.
Prior to this, I had been introduced to web development by a very good friend of mine in late 2018. During this period he spent valuable time explaining various concepts and I got my hands dirty with a little HTML but I wasn't committed and gave my attention to my job then as a realtor (graduate trainee).
In November or December 2019, I decided to join Motionwares academy Bootcamp and go into web development full time, hence my 2020 goal.
Things I'd cover in this review:
My learning curve (timeline specific)
My achievements
Learning Curve
I need to warn you before you dive into this section that my learning curve was all over the place and probably still is.
Also, lots of personal info will be left out as the aim of this is to highlight my career in tech not me as a person (that will be an endless review cause 2020 was a lot!)
January - March
January; new job, different environment, and fire of a hundred.
The Bootcamp started mid January and I missed a few classes in this quarter, most of the events that period remain vague (job and learning combined) but the curriculum covered:
- structure of the internet,
- basics of HTML and CSS
- Bootstrap
- Intro to JavaScript (this was completely alien )
- Github and command line (GitHub made zero sense the first week I signed up and used it).
I did the weekly projects given but a lot of things didn't make sense and i kept pushing it forward; having thoughts like "I will research what this term or that term actually means later". Needless to say, I didn't, until much later when I became intentional about my learning experience.
April -June
My commitment level went up a notch and the next minute I was learning react! I don't know how I understood it but I fell in love with react at first sight and understood concepts better in react than did I in vanilla Javascript, at this point, I had built a calculator using vanilla js, signup forms using react, and started Node js.
In node js concepts weren't explained but went head-on to build an events API, I loved node js. React liked, node I loved.
Other learning resources Youtube, Udemy, Pluralsight.
Projects done in this timeline were collaborative and frustration became frequent, sometimes I wasn't committed to the teamwork, other times I am the only committed one in the team but I learned how to collaborate remotely at the end of this period and got better with Github (the project repositories are available on my Github profile, @Ahuoyiza )
The end of this timeline came with two major things
a. My final project ( Storyz) b. Hng internship
For the final project, I was expected to collaborate with a product designer and another developer and come up with the idea and build a full-stack web app, the ideation and project planning part was easy and only posed a few collaborating issues that my team handled well.
Building the project bared me, lots of roadblocks, lots of I quit and I don't quit moment, a "can this project be finished on time for a presentation or should we do something else?'. It revealed areas I needed to learn and gaps that existed in my initial learning phase. This guided the next turn in my learning path this year.
Now back-track to HNG internship, signed up for this because it proposed real-life work simulation and that was exactly what it delivered and more, I stopped in stage three because I couldn't commit my time to both the final project and the internship but I learned valuable things in those three weeks and the grit
July -September
My favorite timeline.
I became very intentional about my learning and its structure. Going into details will make this section unbearably long so I will give highlights; I learned:
- Discrete Mathematics
- Data Structures and algorithms
- took tests on both and aced it
October - December During this period I took on more projects, learned redux, firebase, and sass.
I joined Femcode because I needed to revisit the fundamentals and re-learned:
Core fundamentals and principles of git,HTML5, CSS3, and javaScript.
I'm currently dabbling in some 'pleasure learning' on databases and blockchain technology in my free time.
Achievements
I achieved my goal!
I am a full stack web developer that specializes in frontend -:) (inserts trumpets, backflips, fireworks)
I achieved the following as bonuses:
- Built several web apps.
- Mentored some bright minds in frontend development.
- Worked on paid projects.
- Technical writing and writing articles.
- Passed interview tests and failed some.
- No offer letter but experienced in interviews ☺.
- Mentored by Kenneth Aladi.
- Joined 100 days of code in December and still going strong.
- became part of amazing supportive tech communities and made new 100x dev friends that blow my mind daily (i love you all [insert kisses and hugs].
Summary:
2020 pulled me to the extremes of lots of emotional and mental spectrums, but this review brings my journey into perspective and I am grateful.
In 2021 I want to live, grow, learn and unlearn and master the skill of choosing and demanding happiness not just waiting for it to come to me.
A big thank you to the support system around me, you made the journey beautiful; cheers!