My experience at Skaehub Bootcamp:The end of another Beginning

So far so good ,in reality i can't really explain the feeling right now but i m really elated for reaching this far,The experience as it it is right now is a wholesome experience .My oh my wow everything that i have accomplished this far is really to be commended the experiences got is really a game changer in my own opinion. Being a software developer has been one of my yearning and i am really excited that at least with the experience and knowledge got can really catapult me to use this experience to expand my skills in the software development career path.

Social media was a critical player for most of us getting this opportunity.Through the various marketing strategies pushed by the skaehub community ,this actualized the sourcing of young,energetic applicants that have the zeal to want to actualize their software development career.

Through instagram i was able to get a hold of the advert and thought of giving it a shot.I applied for the development cycle and eagerly waited for the invitation email which they accepted my online application.I was really excited to have been shortlisted to undertake the development cycle. After the invitation email stating that we were shortlisted that’s where the journey begun. Being my first time experience in a bootcamp i didn’t take this opportunity lying down really tried to put in the work.

The bootcamp started with the home self study curriculum .The home self study curriculum was a well curated curriculum detailing the study materials that we needed to help us in the next phases to come up .The self study curriculum was based on software methodologies,object oriented principles Basic and advanced principles of python and data structures and algorithms.The home self study curriculum was undertaken in a duration of 2 weeks in which we were meant to understand the various concepts stated above.

The next step after the home self study curriculum was the technical assessment.The technical assessment was to test our understanding of the concepts learned/acquired from the home self study curriculum.the technical assessment was a determinant for us to move to the next phase of the development cycle.After undertaking the assessment we submitted in our test awaiting the next confirmation which we succeeded to get in.After the results were out we were invited for a face to face meeting with the skaehub team where we had an coding and oral interview.The next step was the base of this development cycle which was the python bootcamp.The Python bootcamp was undertaken in a duration of two weeks in which we were able to acquires a lot out of it.The bootcamp has cultivated both Technical And soft skills for us all who attended the bootcamp.

During the first week of the bootcamp experience we first got acquainted with the company organizational structure and also our fellow team members.the first week of this bootcamp experience was purely remote.During this first week of business we started of by implementing the skills acquired from the home self study curriculum.Basically this first work of bootcamp was to complete various coding challenges given to us by the bootcamp facilitator.Highlight of the first week of bootcamp was to understand the various concepts like how to declare functions ,how to use libraries/modules such as numpy and geocoders to implement some of the complex bits of python.Numpy was used to perform numerical data coding challenges while geocoder was used to get geographical data.Also during this week we were divided into groups which were meant to help us to be able to collaborate on group task that were given.

The second week of bootcamp was purely onsite. The highlight of this week of bootcamp being the final week of bootcamp we got to cover quite concepts such as version control management ,Test Driven Development.Also during this week we collaborated with the group members that we were attached to it was quite an experience in that we were able to share varied knowledge on various topics we discussed it was wholesome and also a learning experience in that i got to understanding how my team members solved their tasks with varied logic.

Test Driven Development was the biggest highlight of this week of bootcamp that we have just completed.As a software developer when creating application you should create test for your application to ensure that functions of your system work to their optimum capability.This week in TDD(Test Driven Development) we got to understand the basics of what TDD entailed and various ways that you can implement TDD in python.Though TDD was first hard to grasp and understand,with more resources i was able to hack how to develop test cases with ease,i can easily say right now i’m able to implement test at ease with no inconveniences.

At the end of this bootcamp experience we will have to prove that we really grasped this skills by implementing a project to showcase our skills.The project will be a CLI application that is created in python to show our understanding of how to use command line interface application.This project will catapult us to the next phase of the development cycle.

In Conclusion

This bootcamp has really helped me to acquire a lot of skills .In a duration of two weeks i have been able to grasp quite a lot that i never thought i needed to succeed in this field.I have acquired both technical and soft skills which will be very beneficial in the years to come.

Some of the technical skills learned during this bootcamp process include:

1. Version control : in version control i was able to expound my knowledge on new fundamental functions of git and github in terms of collaboration which is a beneficial when working with teams.
2. Test Driven Development. This is a concept i was totally new to but thanks to the bootcamp i got to learn about unit testing and using unittest. Testing is an important concept while programming since you test the functionality
3. Web scrapping. This is a concept was new to but thanks to the bootcamp i got to work to python modules like beautiful soup and selenium.
4. Databases. Working with sqlite3 in python was quite a new learning experience .got to understand how to create tables and insert data to tables with just simple lines of code.

Soft skills acquired out of the bootcamp include:

1. Communication. Meeting new people can be quite challenging when it comes to communicating but i blended easily with the others and also the facilitator and felt confident even while presentations.
2. Asking Questions. Learning a new language can be quite challenging hence you need to ask for help whenever you don’t understand a concept.
   was very helpful in guiding us through the process,helping us whenever we were stack in a particular problem and most of all for being an inspiration to us.
3. Commitment and professionalism. The bootcamp needed one to be really committed since you had to learn a lot during a short period of time. The first week for instance, i had to wake up very early in order to make it to training on time.
4. Lastly Teamwork:The bootcamp has helped us be able have teamwork in that we are able to communicate and tackle task to together with our fellow team mates with ease .

At the end ,my parting shot is that bootcamp is an intense experience one needs to be really committed to be able succeed.motivation to do better and learn new skills should be an important priority at all times.