The intention of this post is to give some insight into Epicodus from a content perspective. As many people have already said before, you get out what you put in.
Learning what jobs code school graduates are usually qualified for has been a wake up call. When I first learned about code schools, I immediately thought they were a good way to get my feet wet in programming and get me into that Junior developer role. However, I was skeptical and I did a fair amount of research. Ultimately, my choice for code school came down to price. Currently, I am attending a code school name Epicodus. Epicodus is a beautiful place to grow as a person and a developer, but I’ve come to realize that merely doing the course material and showing up everyday will not be enough.
Recently, I was talking to fellow students from higher classes and they were pretty blunt in explaining that there is a lot of gaps in the Epicodus courses. Outdated information, skimmed concepts, and a lack of ability to pump out new content. These all contribute to the idea that Epicodus graduates may not be qualified for a Junior developer role, strictly from following along with the course material. I believe I’ll be fine, but that is do to a lot of outside work. Thanks, to my lack of financial ability I have been fighting to stay at Epicodus, including going to college full time and working as well. My weeks for the past two months have been 70+ hours long, and I’ve started to feel it. However, all my classes in college are centered around programming so the skills I have been building outside of Epicodus range from JavaScript to Java to PHP/SQL.
Okay, so I should be fine (let’s hope haha), but what is the reality for other graduates? I believe that without a proper amount of drive to push past the course material future graduates will ultimately be disappointed when graduation day arrives and the job search begins. There are plenty of ways for you to get extra reps outside of class. This could be slightly changing the course material for the day and reworking it, working on side projects, or taking Udemy/Coursera/PluralSight courses that correlate with the current language being taught. My dad made a good point the other day, he said ‘all it takes to surpass your peers is putting in 1% more effort’.
I’m gonna run with that idea and add that I believe putting in a little extra effort also compounds over time. It’s hard to notice the fact you’re making small inches forward, but a month later or six months later. The results of slightly more work will be a defining point of your growth as a developer. This is not a guide on how to get rid of your bad habits so that you can become more productive, hell I don’t think I would even be qualified to suggest anything. My solution to putting in 1% more effort was not by choice, but due to circumstance.
To wrap up, I’m glad I was informed of this knowledge gap early enough that I could keep a close eye on my progress. My goal going forward is to be at Epicodus 7 days a week. This will be tough, but it feels necessary. There is another clear benefit as well, since I’m taking three programming classes at Portland Community College (which makes me a full time student) it would also help me stay on top of my school work.
