#hackreactor

[cliftoncode]

Day 1

Brain hurts.

Working with Mentored Prep at Galvanize: Hack Reactor. I took the skill evaluation test. Started to feel pretty good as I was going through the Basics. I can do this!

Then I got to some manipulation of Objects.

*Crash and Burn*

Intermediates? Nope. Advanced? Whoa!

Ok, good thing they gave me a timer to limit myself by. Else, this would have taken days.

I did both better than I expected and worse. Go figure.

On to the next module.

[parsedthoughts]

12 weeks ago I embarked on a journey with #hackreactor and left everything I built in LA behind. It was a tough decision and a sudden one that caused me a great amount of anxiety and stress. My biggest fear is that I might regret that decision later. But I can honestly say 12 weeks later that I have absolutely no regrets. It's been an amazing experience that has exceeded my expectations. Very excited for what's ahead and for building my life here in #norcal and #thebay and being close to family again. Happy 4th of July (at Rubicon Bay, Tahoma) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzhCdlMnIhC/?igshid=9m5r9z77ntk3

[blogastraraiposts]

Hack Reactor Bootcamp Prep Work

Module 1: Exercise 020

https://github.com/Astra-Rai/Hack-Reactor-Bootcamp-Prep-Module-1/commit/41e91caf712638f9aeba3fdfca52e83448fce1fb

[jwcodes]

The Decision

After hearing back from all the bootcamps I applied to, it was time to make a decision. I sent follow-up emails to all of the schools. I received quick responses from Coding Dojo, Hackbright, and Grace Hopper. I never heard back from Hack Reactor. I also spoke with Shanna, Grace Hopper’s dean, on Skype. It’s something they set up for all admitted students.

My decision came down to Grace Hopper and Hack Reactor. While Hack Reactor seemed like a great school, and I would have preferred going to San Francisco, it seemed like Hack Reactor was growing at a really rapid rate. Soon after I was accepted, Hack Reactor announced the rebranding of their other schools, MakerSquare and Telegraph Academy, as Hack Reactor schools. I felt that this would bring down the name brand of Hack Reactor in San Francisco. I also read reviews by people that described the school as a sink-or-swim environment and and their experience as feeling like a cog in the wheel. With all these misgivings, I couldn’t justify paying $20,000 upfront for Hack Reactor.

As for Grace Hopper, I really liked the idea of being at a women’s school. The tuition was also high, but I liked that I could defer payment until I secured a job. From my interview and from reading reviews, I got the sense that Grace Hopper would be a positive and supportive environment. I was not as excited about the idea of moving to New York, and for that reason, I was still hesitant on choosing Grace Hopper.

In the end, I went with my gut and chose Grace Hopper!

[jwcodes]

Hack Reactor Application and Interview

The Hack Reactor application was very short. I liked how filling in the application involved using Javascript. In hindsight, I wish I had filled out the application earlier. I wanted to save the HR interview as one of my last interviews, so I had delayed filling out the application. But by the time I did apply, most of the interview slots for the next couple of weeks were already filled up. I would recommend applying about a month before you want to interview and then choose a good interview time slot a month ahead of time. This will also motivate you to study!

The interview involved one or two non-technical questions. My interviewer then asked me a bunch of other short administrative questions. I felt some of them could have been just included on the application (ex. Do you understand that you cannot be absent at all during the program?). He also asked me what other programs I had applied to, which I didn’t think was necessary.

Finally, we got to the live coding portion, which took up most of the interview. This was my first interview doing live coding, and it was also the most difficult! I wish I had done another live coding interview before this one for practice. The coding challenge involved some functional programming, and the interviewer also showed me some ES6 concepts, which I had to use for some of the coding. The interview is supposed to be a pair programming session, but I felt like I was mostly working on my own and didn’t get much help from the interviewer. The problems started out easy and got increasingly more difficult. I got stuck on one problem that I didn’t finish during the interview. I figured out the answer after my interview, and I felt like I could have gotten the answer if I hadn’t been so nervous. I sent a follow-up email with my solution code just in case it might help my application.

About 2 weeks later, I found out I was accepted!

[jwcodes]

Choosing Bootcamps

I chose to apply to 4 coding bootcamps:

Coding Dojo

Hackbright

Hack Reactor

Fullstack’s Grace Hopper Program

Coding Dojo

I knew a couple of people who went to this school and ended up working as developers. The school teaches 3 tech stacks, rather than just one. The tuition is also cheaper than other schools. The application curriculum seemed to be less rigorous than other schools, but I decided to apply to have a fallback school just in case.

Hackbright

Hackbright is a bootcamp for women. I was interested in going to an all-women’s school due to the low number of women in tech. The schools seemed to have a strong network with ties to a lot of companies in the Bay Area. However, it seemed the school was aimed at students with very little background in coding, and I already had some experience.

Hack Reactor

Hack Reactor has great outcomes for hiring rate and average salary. It seems that it is one of the best coding schools, and it had a lot of great reviews online. The  school requires applicants to have some knowledge of Javascript, which I liked. I had my reservations, though, because the school seems to be growing very rapidly. Currently, two cohorts of 35 students enter at one time. Cohorts attend lectures together, and the idea of listening to a lecture with 70 students reminded me too much of college lectures.

Grace Hopper

Grace Hopper and Fullstack also had a lot of great reviews online. Grace Hopper is Fullstack’s program for women, and it has deferred tuition, meaning I would pay tuition once I got a job. I got a positive vibe from the school from my research. Like Hack Reactor, the school also requires applicants to have coding experience, but unlike Hack Reactor, the class sizes are smaller. One big downside to Fullstack is that it’s located in New York, and I was more interested in moving to San Francisco.

[coolthinkingofausername-blog]

Hack Reactor Week 5

So i am in to week5 and in to my 9th sprint i just realized that may be i should start blogging. I must say i quiet tired already but still raging for more to go.

so here goes my first tumblr post

[thats-what-he-said]

#bathroomsoftheworld #hackreactor (at Terra Gallery & Event Venue)