Yesterday I jumped on a call in Slack with a couple of my classmates. We were just supposed to cross-check each others’ work. Before we started, I was asked about my experience with the other bootcamp. I highlighted the pain points with my experience and how it didn’t serve me well. An example would be some of the topics that were covered weren’t really relevant to what we were learning. Couple that with an almighty barrage of jargon just burying me deep in confusion. Understandable for a class of 40 to have many different instructors but everyone having different styles and opinions makes it really difficult to understand what’s happening. However, it goes without saying how there were some merits to joining a bootcamp, like the immersive environment it provides among other things.
Our conversation then turned to our shared experiences with the mentorship. For me, I highlighted how initially I was worried that the speed that we were going at was far slower than what I’ve ever experienced. Some of the stuff that was being taught were things that I was already familiar with. That led me to get in my own head and screw things up and go down the negative rabbit hole and think about how I’m already going to fail and not be employable…again.
There is a distinction this time though.
As the days go past I noticed that the glacial speed was serving its purpose. The foundations on which we build upon painstakingly each day bit by bit, they were solid. You can ask me whatever I’ve learned so far and I can pretty much tell you + an explanation. Even if I don’t I know where to search for the answer. I now know at the very least what I don’t know BUT I also know where I can look for the answers. The curriculum is structured as such that you can roam free within the context of what you’re learning but as soon as you’re out of bounds Derek is going to guide you with his nurturing hand back to the safe zone of what you’re supposed to focus on. This is organic learning at its finest and it carries so much potency to equip you with the skills needed to achieve success in the web development world. It’s not just the HOW of doing things but also the WHY.
The more I kept talking to my classmates it all just started to make sense to me how everything we have learned was going to come together. It just clicked. We were talking excitedly about how we have plans to move forward together as a class to succeed and how we were going to do it. That’s another thing that I like about this mentorship. It’s flexible to give you whatever outcome you desire; that was the point that they had made, and it almost seems like a guarantee that it will happen. With the support of Derek as well as my classmates I have no doubt that I will ultimately succeed in achieving my goal of being able to solve real-life problems whilst getting PAID to do so.
Alright Substack fam, imma peace out for now but I will definitely be writing more and hopefully be able to reach out to you in the near future!
You gotta sand a lot of floors, wax a lot of cars, and paint many fences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsLk6hVBE6Y
Double down on everything now, and it will stay this easy. ; )