Continued…

I knew I couldn’t just change my job just like that…who would hire me? So I began to search for ways to learn what I needed. HA! I didn’t even know what it is that I needed to know. What a predicament. After some wonderful internet research, I came up with 3 different ideas. And of course, I pursued them all. First of all, I looked internally with my company to see what courses they offered in house and began the process of looking for projects that might teach me programming skills or allow me to use newly learned skills in the future. For the courses, they were old and in disrepair…even though they were virtual, they rarely worked and when they did, they were not as technical as their names suggested and ended up being a waste of time. :( And as for the project search, I was severely limited by some political actions inside the firm and my current project that essentially blocked this avenue for change even into the future.

This brings me to idea 3, which was to go back to school. After reviewing my options, I at first settled on using my alma mater, Virginia Tech, and enrolled in their budding Master of Information Technology program, which is today a highly rated virtual program. I signed up for classes and the first day came along and I read the syllabuses and…….wussed out. I saw how much work was going to be involved and how much of it was non-technical. Now, I already had a masters degree from VT, I was not interested in taking any classes that were not directly related to developing core programming skills. This might sound a little funny, however, a lot of the non-technical courses were very similar to the courses I had already taken and the accountant in me saw that as a wasted expense. So, I dropped my classes (but never unenrolled…) and went with my second option, which was the community college that I had taken courses with while in high school. It turned out, I was already admitted and just needed to sign up for classes and they actually had a decent certificate program for development. Seemed like a great idea.

Thus began my most serious foray into programming since my high school computer science class. For the next 1.5 years or so, I took about two courses a semester through fall, spring, and summer. I had an outstanding professor for my core java courses and this really helped me maintain my momentum as I was doing this all on the side outside of 50+ hour work weeks. While these courses were good, at the conclusion of my certificate programs, I still felt incomplete. Like I didn’t know enough to actually do anything. I wanted to apply for jobs or new projects at my company but I didn’t have a portfolio and none of my course work were substantial working applications. This was a HUGE block for me. I didn’t know what to do next and I didn’t feel like I was good enough to do anything, kind of felt like I was in no man’s land.

This couldn’t last forever and eventually I made the decision to put more money into the problem and check out the world of Development Bootcamps! I had read so much about this burgeoning industry. It fit me perfectly. I knew I couldn’t move to attend an in-person program so I had my choices of Thinkful and Bloc. I had heard good things about both but I went with Thinkful because they were cheaper and a friend’s brother worked there. I went through the Front End Web Development program and nearly finished before busy season at work hit. I had just two projects to complete and one was nearly done. I paused the program with the intention to return, but I never did. However, I did end up completing the projects, just never got the requisite check mark, ‘complete’, from Thinkful and it appears that my specific program has disappeared from my login from their site so I do not know if I can ever get that checkmark now…

Sad to say, I still did not feel ready for have a job yet and work was beginning to take over my life. I had moved across the country, though staying with the same company I was now in a different market and had to travel way more and my 50+ hour weeks were easily turning into 70+ with travel time. I had 0 energy to spend after work on learning and developing and that killed any progression I might have had. This had to change…

So after a lot of planning over the course of at least a year…I quit. And that felt great!

I quit so I would have more time to learn and develop and I like the structured learning so I choose to go with the paid Bloc program over the free FreeCodeCamp program specifically for the mentor time.

And that brings us to today…

As you can see it has been quite the journey so far and will only go up from here.

Stay tuned for what’s next…