A Week In My Life As A Coding Boot Camp Student
Dani and Me in Malibu, CA
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Garrett and I’m a software engineer and a classical musician!
I am writing weekly blog posts about my experience at Tech Elevator’s web development boot camp. This week, I’m sharing week #6 in detail.
I hope it is helpful for anyone considering a boot camp or anyone who is curious about what it takes to become a software engineer in 14 weeks.
To be fair, this is not an average week in my life. I’m moving to Los Angeles on Saturday, October 23rd!
Here are my previous posts, if you’d like to catch up on weeks 1-5.
Week 2: “Creativity Requires The Courage To Let Go Of Certainty”
Week 4: “Show Your Work!”
Week 5: “Y2K, The Unix Epoch, And Humans’ Millennia-long Struggle To Measure Time”
Saturday, October 16th
Setting The Scene
We just finished week #5, aka “SQL Week”. SQL stands for Structured Query Language and is a language used to communicate with databases.
On Friday morning we took the Module 1 Assessment, meant to gauge understanding of Object-Oriented Programming in Java.
Finally, The Weekend
Now that it’s the weekend, I have a day jam-packed with fun instead of studying!
It started with my daily walk on the beach, then went to a farmers market, corvette show, and the Orlando Airshow.
In the evening I spent some time on my side projects: a portfolio website on GitHub pages and an events calendar for classical music concerts.
Sunday, October 17th
To anyone interested in a coding boot camp, make sure you are aware of the stress that comes with it. My advice is to prioritize your mental health during this significant transition in your life.
Personally, I’ve been taking daily walks in the morning before class. But today I decided to sleep in and catch up on sleep. I know that another challenging week is ahead of me and I want to feel my best.
This afternoon I watched a special lecture on blockchain/cryptocurrency that I was unable to attend last Friday. I’m so glad it was recorded and made available after the fact.
I also had a nice dinner with my Mom on the day before her birthday!
At night, I looked over the assigned reading and lecture documents for Monday.
Monday, October 18th
Back to the grind
I went on my daily 7am morning walk.
I got home around 8am, ate breakfast, and reviewed my notes for today’s class.
Class is held on Zoom from 9am-noon with breaks every hour or so.
The cohort has about 40 students, but there are 20 students in each “team”. I’m on the green team, taught by the fabulous Mary Mosman.
Morning Class
Today’s class began with the usual hour of review and then we practiced designing databases. Our learning objectives were to become familiar with the following:
Database Definition Language (DDL)
CREATE TABLE, ALTER TABLE, DROP TABLE
Designing a Database
Normalization: First Normal Form, Second Normal Form, Third Normal Form
I ate lunch and got ready for the afternoon Pathway session called “Interviewing 101”.
The Pathway Program
The Pathway Program is a large part of why I chose Tech Elevator over other boot camps. Essentially, the Pathway program develops your professional skills while you are learning how to code.
It starts with an exploration of your own strengths and learning to brand yourself as a newcomer to the tech industry.
Clifton Strengths Test
Resume Workshops
Elevator Pitches
The next phase is about expanding your network, learning about the variety of careers in technology, and getting to know potential employers.
Using LinkedIn/Recruiters in Your Job Search
Interviewing 101/Mock Interviews
Employer Showcases
The final stage prepares us to actually land a job, and it culminates in match-making. Match-making is like a speed dating event for employers seeking Junior Developers and Tech Elevator Students.
Technical Interview Practice/Mock Interviews
Employer Matchmaking
Benefits 101
I spent the rest of the afternoon working on homework and preparing for tomorrow.
In the evening I spent some time on my side projects. After eating cake for Mom’s birthday of course!
Tuesday, October 19th
We were warned that today’s material would be challenging. I made sure to do a double-take on the assigned reading and I went through the tutorial last night.
Today’s class was focused on Data Access Objects (DAO) and Java Database Connectivity (JDBC).
DAO’s are classes in Java applications that are designed to handle the transfer of information to and from databases
JDBC is a Java API that is used to connect the DAO’s to the database
At this point, we are finally able to build applications that support persistent data. Previously, data was stored “in-memory” and was lost whenever the application finished running.
JDBC is able to take user input and make a SQL query. SQL queries can Create, Replace, Update, or Delete data in a database. This is commonly known as “CRUD”!
The afternoon was spent on homework exercises
We did not have any afternoon Pathway sessions. This meant the majority of the afternoon was spent completing the exercises.
I should mention that each week we are grouped into study groups of about 4 people. This gives us a chance to ask for help when needed. It also encourages us to talk about our work. This will come in handy during technical interviews when we have to explain our code verbally.
I was able to finish with some collaboration with my study group. Unfortunately, my computer had some issues and I had to ask for help from my instructor the next morning.
Tomorrow’s topic is an introduction to data security for developers. I enjoyed the reading about encryption, hashing, and SALT.
Wednesday, October 20th
Another morning, another walk on the beach…
9am-12pm
Today’s class on data security was fun. We learned how SQL injections are used to compromise data. We also learned about encryption, hashing, and salting.
Encryption
Encryption uses a private key to encrypt and decrypt information. Think of when you enter your credit card information online. Your credit card number is not floating around in public, but it is encrypted when traveling.
Encryption is a two-way process. It can be ciphered and unciphered with the correct private key.
Hashing, however, is a one-way process.
Hashing
We learned that plain-text passwords are never stored in databases. Instead, passwords are hashed.
Let’s imagine your password is “password123”. This would never be stored in a database. First, the password is” hashed” into a string like this “38cF2942DEd6131A918D28E9de896c1556fFE335A73c549DA5B5a9ec72e507e7”. Then saved into a database.
Hashing is a one-way street. Meaning that something can’t be “unhashed”. This makes it difficult for hackers to steal passwords.
Salting
Passwords should also be “salted”. Salting means adding a string of characters before it is hashed. For example, “password123” becomes “password1230F86ebDD43d3c8240Eb22da6e66998E”. Then THAT password is hashed into something like this “368188f9E9d9e48392593d6345e53Ad31127abefF4FC0f7dF37760927Fa34b5f”
Liberty Mutual Employer Showcase
Today at 1pm, two representatives from Liberty Mutual gave a fantastic presentation about their company. Liberty has a 1-year tech onboarding process. This actually sounded very attractive to me as a Junior Developer.
Unfortunately, Liberty is not offering any positions in the Los Angeles area.
Wednesday’s sunrise
Thursday, October 21st
Check out Thursday’s sunrise below to see amazing colors in the sky! After my morning walk, I spent some extra time reviewing the reading for today before class at 9am.
We reviewed from 9am-10am and then spent the next two hours practicing integration testing.
We had previously learned “Unit Testing”, which tests logic within Java applications. “Integration Testing”, on the other hand, is a way to make sure that your database is properly connected, or integrated, into your Java application code.
I am very excited to be working with databases. Both my sister and brother are Data Scientists and I can’t wait to be able to nerd out with them. I’m finally capable of saving data in a database!
Next week, we will learn about Application Programming Interfaces (API’s) which will bring us dangerously close to becoming backend developers in Java.
Friday, October 22nd
This morning my car was picked up by Road Runner Auto Transport. I’ll see my car in a few days in LA. After my car was on it’s way, my mom and I went for a brief walk on the beach.
Woohoo, it’s Friday! Fridays usually mean a review session from 9am-12pm and pair programming in the afternoon.
I worked with the brilliant Ryan Fox on our pair project. He is also a classical musician, a clarinetist to be exact. With some hard work and guidance from our instructor and fellow students, we were able to finish up in the afternoon.
Let me tell you, it’s a blessing to finish early. Many evenings have been spent attempting to finish homework.
I spent most of Friday night packing for my flight tomorrow morning.
My car getting shipped from Florida to California
Saturday, October 23rd
The Day I Saw the Sun Rise In The East And Set In The West
I decided to leave Charlotte, NC back in May. About 5 months later I’ve finally made it to California to be with my girlfriend Dani.
It was amazing to see the sunrise in Melbourne, Florida, and the sunset in Malibu, California. I was also reunited with my precious kitty named Claudia. I’m taking today off from my studies, but I will be ready to learn about Web API’s at 6am on Monday morning!
Please keep in touch and wish me luck as the job search is coming up in just a few short weeks. I look forward to sharing another blog post next week. Stay tuned.
Kindly,
Garrett
P.S. Check out my first EP on Spotify called “Garrett At St. Peter’s”.
