A few weeks in ....

I wrote this 5 weeks ago but was too busy to post. As you can read, we are covering a lot of material in a very short period of time. They really put the I in WDI... it is an intense, immersive experience. Totally worth it.

By the end of the first week of WDI  I wrote a program that accessed three different Ruby gems to display (1) daily stock quotes, (2) random images from the web and (3) movie data from IMDB in a web browser.   I was over the moon the first time I pulled stock quotes from the web thru a Ruby gem. I had no idea at the beginning of the week I'd be capable of this kind of programming after 4 days in the classroom.

The pre-work for the class was my only exposure to web development and Ruby.  (The pre-work was comprehensive, a lot of work and absolutely necessary)

This class is continuing to move rapidly.  On Monday morning we reviewed javasript and jQuery. In the afternoon we wrote an "ATM" web app with checking and savings withdrawal  (including overdraft protection) and deposits. We built this using javascript, jQuery, html and CSS. Tuesday we covered Twitter Bootstrap. I think the plan is to cover databases this week
Yesterday we were invited to the project presentations of the WDI class that is 9 weeks ahead of us. Their projects were amazing. You can see an example of a class project at http://cssstache.herokuapp.com/  (an app to share CSS snippets). It is inspiring to see what we have ahead of us

Admissions Process - Getting into a developers bootcamp

From Getting accepted to getting ready to learn 

Submitting applications to the right academy

Finding the right academy to apply to takes a bit of research. I was lucky that there are some great resources on the web. Michelle Glauser has been maintaining a very comprehensive list, with special interest in those that focus on women.

I used Michelle's excellent list to develop my own list of code bootcamps. I looked at the following factors:

• location (needed to commute without needing a car)
• timing (as soon as possible)
• curriculum (comprehensive web development)
• percentage of students that get hired after camp (> 90%?)
• payment options (flexible)
• length (longer than 9 weeks)

So I applied to 4 different camps. I interviewed with 3 (withdrew from the 6th because I accepted a position before the interview with their org was even scheduled). The interviews focused on whether I had the drive and the chops to make it through the process. I ended up enrolling in GeneralAssembly's WDI .. Web Development Intensive. More on that next time.