One Week Down, Nine More to Go

With my first week at Hackbright Academy complete I feel assured that this is what I needed to make the transition to become a software engineer.  It's been an exhausting but exhilarating experience so far.

To say that the other students are excited about this program would be a huge understatement.  We're all here to learn how to program and really want to be at Hackbright to learn how to do it.  It's an intense program but Christian, Liz and Cynthia are doing an amazing job teaching us the material and keeping our spirits up with humor (Harry Potter Houses and then some).

One thing I've learned is that pair programming is hard but I've found it to be a very good tool for learning.  It's hard because you need to communicate with your partner and always be engaged.  It also takes time to get in sync and develop a working rapport.  I'm also learning how to talk through the problems and get comfortable vocalizing how the code works.  This will definitely be a useful skill during technical interviews!

I took a break from the computer on Saturday but on Sunday I was surprised at how excited I was to do my homework and even more excited that I was able to solve it (yippie!!).

Printmaking at Waza - Keep Your Fingers Behind the Blade

Sutro tower hiding behind fog, vintage
muni and the TransAmerica building

I was invited back to Waza, Heroku's developer gathering, to hold a printmaking workshop.  So what does printmaking have to do with development?  The name of the event "waza" is the Japanese word for "art and technique." Heroku's event was a celebration of the art of software development.  I think one of the key take-aways was for developers to understand that what they do really is a craft.

Like developers, artisans hone their craft in parallel ways.  Printmakers make sure they keep their tools sharp and experiment with multiple (and new) tools to find the best ones for the job.  Collaboration with others helps to evolve the craft.  I was definitely surprised by the diversity of approaches.

I was really excited that a lot of attendees wanted to make a linocut.  There were many crafting stations at Waza including quilting, origami and bookbinding and it was great that people tried something they don't normally do.  I wish I could have tried some of those other crafts too!

The best compliment I received was when people said it was a lot harder than it looked.  Initially it may seem that way but once you have a basic understanding of how to use the proper tools it will get a lot easier!

First Day, First Post - Hackbright Academy

What a whirlwind first day at Hackbright Academy, a developer bootcamp for women.  Walking up the steps to the classroom you could hear the excited buzz of teachers and students.  The day went by quickly as we met each other and even did pair programming to cover the introductory coding exercises.  There was a lot of laughter and also warnings of tears--a lot of tears.  It's going to be a hard, frustrating 10 weeks but it's the kick in tush I've need to make the transition from front-end to back-end development.