Learn to Code (for Aspiring Software Engineers & Startup Founders)

Created 8 years ago in Technology / Software Development

For aspiring software engineers and non-technical startup founders, receive guidance on the most effective and efficient means to self-education, including advice on the best ways to prepare for an engineering bootcamps, programming interviews as a junior engineer, and otherwise become a software engineer, freelance developer, or build a startup prototype on a limited budget.

The rise of bootcamps such as Hack Reactor, HackBright, Thinkful, Bloc.io, Codacademy, Team Treehouse, CodeSchool, and General Assemby since the founding of the first ever bootcamp in San Francisco, Dev Bootcamp, attests to the viability of software development education and the demand in the market for highly motivated and skilled software developers, with or without formal Computer Science education.

Self-education resources typically range from introductory (online tutorials and beginner coding books) to intermediate resources (part-time bootcamps and online courses) to intensive experiences (full-time bootcamps). Make sense of the cacophony of resources available now, zero in on the most effective resources for your learning style and objectives, determine the sequence of technical concepts, skills, programming languages, and frameworks to master, then create a realistic plan and build sustainable study habits that make learning to code fun instead of frustrating.

For students already on the learning journey, receive code reviews on programming assignments and receive an opinion from an experienced engineer.

Bio: Janet Chang is a DevBootcamp graduate in one of the earliest cohorts (Fall 2012), and was one of the only students accepted with zero coding background into her cohort. She has since worked on engineering teams and projects for San Francisco based technology startups and the Fortune 500.

The learning experience and job search success of her and her peers have been profiled on Women 2.0's article, "The Rising Femme Elite of Tech: How We Became Software Engineers In 10 Weeks".