Plus a pocket-size peek inside the Makers Academy Web Developer Bootcamp PreCourse (Week 1)
“Iowa man sits at a messy table while holding paint covered pencil and brush” by Alice Achterhof on Unsplash
It’s Week 2, Monday morning, 2am, and I have just finished the previous week’s project. This isn’t quite how I’d wanted to conclude my first week of studies at this fine institution.
Am I happy? Hell yeah! I’ve achieved that elusive green victory tick, in spite of committing copious command line crimes and being a code rookie.
But to get back to the purpose of this piece — sharing a first-hand Makers student experience with potential Makers — I might need to rewind and expound.
Makers Academy? PreCourse?
To quote wikipedia:
“Makers Academy is a 12-week computer programming bootcamp in London… designed to turn people with no knowledge of web development into job-ready junior developers in 12 weeks.”
In a nutshell, yes:
non- or newbie coders who pass the selection process and get into Makers can expect to learn and grow exponentially, and to apply those skills in real-world situations within a super short time period.
But MA is far more than that. If you google “Makers Academy” you’ll find their succinct tagline, “Become a software developer”, right at the top. Fewer words, more meaning.
Not only do they have across-the-board sterling reviews and success stories; they’re also offering 12 sponsored fellowship spots which include a one-year job guarantee at one of their partner companies.
I’d be a fool not to apply. So I did, straight away. And I got in! (celebrate by twirling cat around the room!) I got in! (freak out! start to question every life decision I’ve ever made!) I got in! (what was I thinking? can I even do this?) Let’s find out.
From musician to Maker
My office aboard the Silver Spirit cruise liner, exactly one year ago
I am a musician. I am not a programmer (yet). My professional history is a colourful mishmash of back-and-forths at best. Urged to follow my dreams, I studied Jazz at uni and played thousands of gigs in strange places for years. Irked that I hadn’t done anything but music for the past decade, I took a 4-year jab at copywriting, and though I love the profession, I loathe the industry (I’m looking at you, clickbait!)
I wanted to do something more. I needed to do something better.
It was April 2018 when I discovered MA, a few months after embarking on my I-really-really-really-want-to-be-a-coder journey in shiny London, which consisted mainly of intensive self-study (using resources such as Udemy and freeCodeCamp) and beginner’s frustration.
For ages now I’ve wanted to learn to program, but I was too afraid to attempt it in the past. I knew nothing (cue GoT). I was so far behind. How could I ever catch up?
The secret is to start
If you want to learn something new, just start. This is of course easier said than done, no thanks to a lifetime of “find your passion early on and follow it/do what you’re good at/leave it to the professionals/you need a degree in that” indoctrinations. But if you can look past all that, then know this: there has never been a better time to choose your own (new) adventure. No matter what you want to learn/do/be, the (online) resources are endless. Exciting times indeed!
That said, I was still my own worst enemy at the start of this new start.
Struggling with a career change after years of relative success had chipped away my confidence. Having a fiancé who is the smartest person I know and a self-taught programming wizard made me feel like I would forever lag behind and never achieve any valid level of understanding, despite his constant encouragement and support. Having a non-tech background didn’t help, either, although it did make me more determined to improve and less likely to slack.
But start I did, and that’s the hardest step.
The second hardest step is to persevere. When you learn something new which is at its core so completely alien to everything you’ve known and done thus far in your short life on this planet, then it’s normal to feel overwhelmed. Sometimes the learning is fun, but often it’s just exhausting. Sometimes you have no idea if you’re even going in the right direction. Push through! Take chances! Make mistakes! Focus on the things that scare you! If you break it down in small enough pieces then a mountain becomes a series of short hikes (so Zen right now).
TL;DR, bottom line? If you’re passionate about a thing and put in the hours, you can become good at that thing.
Which brings me to the pullout section of this blog:
What is the Makers PreCourse really like?
The MA PreCourse is a 4-week work from home prep programme with compulsory projects, and students are advised to put in at least 20 hours a week to excel at it. The first week is all about the command line, git, andGitHub, with a cool little command line mystery project to solve at the end.
I had this irrational fear of The Deep Dark Recesses Of The Terminal, so my initial excitement was slightly overshadowed by the trepidation of maybe possibly probably breaking my laptop because I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s too much power, man! I wouldn’t trust me with any sort of engine. Why would I be any better with a virtual one?
“Irrational” was right. The course material is better than most command line or git guides I’ve found on the web. Does that mean that I didn’t mess up? Far from it! But I learned much more than I ever expected to in a single week, and that’s pretty darn terrific.
A few of my fails (and what I learnt so far):
- Not following instructions to a tee. If you missed step 4 and already did step 5, then undo step 5 and go back to step 4
- Accidentally activating some settings that make files accessible globally, when the mini lesson’s goal is to do so manually
- The Secret Life of SSH Keys… not knowing how “pbcopy” works and getting baffled by GitHub’s suddenly ambiguous-for-a-single-step instructions
- Using Homebrew to install Node. Big no-no! Homebrew is cool when used for the right things. You wouldn’t use a microwave to make toast
- Not asking enough questions on Slack, or struggling too long before I do. We’re encouraged to keep communications flowing
- Brick walls everywhere! Mostly due to bad installations. Plumbing, plumbing, plumbing!
Cool stuff:
- zsh > Bourne Again
- oh-my-zsh is powerful; not just a pretty shell
- Powering up my terminal with Visual Studio Code: just type “code” in the CLI! Magic
Note to self:
Programmers have their own slang. What I may perceive as a thing might be a completely different thing. Get with the lingo.
So what does it take to make a Maker?
“An iMac with “Do More” displayed on its screen on a wooden desk” by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash
If you skimmed through this article but still want my answer, then read the “The secret is to start” section, minus paragraph 2. But mainly, it takes you. Like Sam, the head of education, said during my interview when we chatted about the discipline that comes with learning to play a musical instrument: “there is no secret sauce”. Coding is no different. It takes tenacity. It takes the willingness to fail, to look at where/why you went wrong, and to try again.
If I may use and corrupt an Alexander Pope-ism:
“To err is human, to learn from that err… pretty friggin’ awesome.”
Jack Black as Kung Fu Panda, who also took his time to believe in himself
