What were you doing prior to attending RefactorU?Prior to RefactorU I had been traveling around Europe. As a dual citizen of the US and the UK, I wanted to see if living in Europe was the next step for me. Yet I found that as much as I loved the countries that I visited, that identified most with being an American and longed for home. Before that, I worked as an office manager at an interior design firm, Paris Interiors Inc. While traveling, I helped to build their website which is now up and running.
What made you decide upon RefactorU - there are several coding bootcamp programs in the Denver/Boulder are - why us?
I actually chose RefactorU from a larger range of programs based also in San Francisco and New York. When researching programs, I first filtered out all programs that didn’t offer career services. Learning the practical skills alongside the programs needed for web development is very important to me, but getting a job at the end was imperative. To that effect, RefactorU also has an impressive 96% job placement rate for graduates of the program.My next level of filtering was the curriculum of the bootcamps in question and then finally location. Location was an important concern because no matter which bootcamp I chose, the environment that I would be learning would be shared by like-minded students. These students would be the beginnings of my network in web development, and so wherever I finally chose to be would be where my network in tech would be strongest. When I was accepted into the RefactorU program, I flew out for the weekend with a close friend to check out Boulder just to be sure and fell immediately in love with the area.
Finally, I chose RefactorU because it’s not a cutthroat program that will drop students if they don’t succeed. Students are given the freedom to progress at their own pace, with exercises that help provide checkpoints for each week. This was important for me because I knew that the learning environment would be much more welcoming and open to communication among students and instructors.
What are three reasons why people should consider RefactorU for coding bootcamp?
Well for one, people should consider RefactorU if they wish to transition to a web development career. RefactorU teaches not just the programs and skills needed to code within a web development position, but also the more effective practices for working on projects and with other developers.
Second, people should consider RefactorU for the learning environment. Students progress at a fast rate, as expected to come with an intensive environment, but it is much more nurturing than other programs. Learning a mass of programs and new skills is stressful but RefactorU makes the process as smooth as possible.Lastly, people should consider RefactorU for location, location, location. Besides Boulder being the most populated place for startups- it is also just a great place to live. As previously mentioned, bootcamps are meant to be intensive and stressful but that doesn’t necessitate that your life outside of classes has to be as well. As a New Yorker, I appreciate that Boulder is a city with a small town feel. People are warm and welcoming but there’s also so much that you can do in spare time if you feel like it. There’s also a great sense of the outdoors even within Boulder, and if you’re into outdoor activities like biking, running, and hiking- you’re set.
What do you like to do for fun?
I love to go snowboarding, which is great because there’s so many options about Boulder. Otherwise, I like chill nights with friends playing board games, going to movies, or card games like Magic the Gathering. Most days, I just enjoy a good book.
Do you have any words of advice or suggestions for folks considering a coding bootcamp?
The commitment of a coding bootcamp is daunting. Not only are you investing a lot of money but you are also investing a lot of your time (unemployed to boot). Before applying to bootcamps, try learning some programs from free online resources like Codecademy to be sure that coding is for you for at least a week. If you hit snags while learning but still find yourself coming back to the computer and not destroying it- than making the leap will likely be worth it.
How do you hope to/plan to apply your web developer skills?
I plan to use my amazing web developer powers for good. Currently during the program I plan to build a missing person's web board app. My aunt was in Thailand in 2004 when the tsunami struck and she brought her boyfriend's' children to safety. Her boyfriend prior to the incident was out due to a business errand and so they were separated for some time in the chaos that followed. It was only a day or two but that can be an eternity.
For families with low income and very little documentation, getting back into contact with loved one's may take even longer and I figure something like a missing person's web board might be a way to shorten that time. It's a common practice to put a child or relative's photo on a board in hopes of someone leaving a note that they've seen that person. With this web page, poor families could go to disaster relief groups - provide a photo that can be uploaded to the site and whatever possible identifying information they might have (location, age, gender - which could be used to filter images). One missing person's board rather than many.
To read about another current student and the bootcamp experience, you can visit Sean Baillargeon’s blog View from the Trenches.
To learn more about RefactorU and our 10-week bootcamp, visit our website: refactoru.com. Apply at refactoru.com/applynow and call us at 720-441-2633 [CODE] with any questions!
