bloc referral

If you are interested in learning to code with a mentor, try bloc and get $100 off.

Monday, December 30, 2013

Why I love Screenhero, git branching, and mentors

One of the benefits of having a mentor is learning how to work with others. I am no expert but imagine once I actually get a job in developing I will need to have the ability to work remotely with others through the use of screen sharing and git branching, both of which I learned how to use last week.

Today marks the 3rd week of my Bloc apprenticeship and I have already exceeded my goal in learning more than I had learned previously on my own. I only spent about 6 weeks learning programming and then Rails. So far I have completed the first 2 weeks of Ruby basic learning, which has helped tremendously now that I am started my first full Rails app while in bloc. The three things I find most beneficial in my learning is the use of Screenhero, Git branching, and Bloc's Office Hours.

1. Screenhero

Screen hero is an amazing free piece of software (which is free). I have used it with the combination of Skype audio. My mentor is able to take control of the screen and walk me through any issues I might be struggling with, and I have had lots of issues.

2. Git Branching

Now git branching is something I have heard of but not something I used previously. I had the opportunity to learn it over the weekend through the Bloc roadmap. Creating a branch in git lets you create changes without committing to the master branch. I am enjoying the safety blanket of not completely ruining my repo especially since I have had experiences creating projects and needing to start over from scratch because a pestering mistake I could not figure out. My recommendation to anyone who has not completely learn how git and branching works to learn it now to prevent the headaches I went through. Trygit

3. Office Hours

Office hours is Bloc's attempt to have 24/7 support for students through the use a private mentor chatroom. I say it's an attempt because it not completely 24/7, but I don't fault them at that because not everyone is up at 4am eastern looking for Rails help like myself. I used the Office Hours for the first time last weekend when I had an issue working with Ruby Blocks. My personal mentor has been readily available on the weekdays but when it comes to the weekends he is less available, but having the assistance of other Bloc mentors is huge plus. I am currently getting about 15 hours of learning during the week, but Bloc requires 25, so I get most of my learning in on the weekends. I am pretty sure the weekend mentors are getting used to me popping in and asking quick questions.

Another plus is not having to worry about if my dumb question are too dumb to answer. My first day my mentor told me not to fear asking stupid questions and I get the same feeling from the other mentors in Office Hours. I also don't have to worry about lowering my Stack Overflow rating because my questions might get voted down (which happened.)

I am looking forward to this week, all of the Basic Ruby is done and its now on to create my first app Bloccit. Each section runs 2 weeks but I am already on lesson 10/21. I might be getting a bit ahead this week, which will be good since the next section will be working on practice freelance projects.

*This blog is not meant to be a Bloc cheerleading page, but that is where I am currently in my journey and there will be more Bloc praise to come.

Friday, December 27, 2013

I just got promoted...but I still want to be a web developer

This week I was informed at my day job that I was promoted. This was some some pretty surprising news to hear. For those who have not read any previous post, I currently work in Sales/Product Marketing and sell data center equipment. I am coming up on the completion of 4 years at this company, but this was not my first choice in careers. I currently hold a B.S. in finance and dream of a career as a Financial Advisor. I unfortunately graduated at the most inopportune time in 2008 while no firms were taking on new advisors or if they were not looking for average students in Tampa.

To speed this up, I worked really hard the last 4 years to obtain a sales job without any sales experience. I always found it interesting how most entry level jobs require significant experience. This is something I find very similar with Web Developing and chronicled in Joshua Kemp's book while he interviewed. My original goal was to get enough "sales" experience to be able to walk in a Financial Firm as a trainee. Most banks or firms now require the experience despite the fact that most have intensive 6-12 months training programs. After applying to multiple firms I became disheartened and gave up on that dream 2 months ago with I discovered a new desire to learn how to program.

What I did to get promoted:
My current role has the benefit of being a semi-technical role where I am technical sales questions. Knowing this I pursued some non-required sales certifications. Even though I didn't need to do that it showed that I had the ability to take initiative. I also did things that were outside the box to recruit new partners, by using Google Alerts on when new data center projects were being announce and followed up customers in the area (full disclosure: This method has not successfully recruit any customers but it has open great discussions).

So what about my developing journey?:
I worked pretty hard climbing through ranks at my current employer but desire to learn to program is still very much there. My promotion will not hinder my learning and will actually help to fund it.

My concern initially was what to do in 3 months once Bloc is complete:

The plan is to immediately begin applying for my future position as a Jr. Developer. I will also hopefully finish the work on my capstone project to make that into a viable business. To further my portfolio I will continue to push out projects from tutorials and build my github repo.

Ideally one can be expected to be promoted in 2-5 years as a entry level sales professional within my current employer. I did it in 18 months with no prior sales experience. My hope is go into web developing the same way with only 3-6 months of experience. I sold myself pretty hard to my management to get a promotion and hope to sell myself pretty hard in the web developing field.

I might of been promoted today but my loyalty lies with learning to program. That is a career I can continue to grow in and not worry of reaching a plateau for quite some time. Also the icing on all of this is that a position as a PHP developer starts 20k higher than my promoted salary. I have no desire to learn PHP at this point but the posting encourages me to continue to push towards the career as a Ruby Developer.

I appreciate you reading this and I look forward to the post where I announce my career change.

If you haven't already done it. Follow me on Twitter to get updates on the rest of my journey.

Never stop learning

Monday, December 23, 2013

Learning Ruby The Hardway

As I am now on my second week of Bloc, I have found my self pacing through the first portion rather quickly. In order to supplement my learning I have opted to also go through the Zed Shaw book, Learn Ruby the Hardway. I am very pleased with the different exercises thus far (52 in total).

I am currently only on #13, but like to complete them while watching television as a sort of winding down for the day...if you can call it that. I also like the fact that the comments below each exercise add more value to the book by going even further in depth. If you decide to use this tool check out this guys blog where he also outlines every exercise while he went through the book.

Code Time:

I did not mention prior in any other post but I put in 94 hours of coding practice/training into Ruby/Javascript prior to Bloc. Bloc has a requirement of at least 25 hours per week, which I completed 26.5 (My personal goal was 35, but I might be a little over zealous). I have placed my Bloc coding time on a seperate Google Doc and will share in a future post.

*The 827 hours is a goal I got from Joshua Kemp and his book.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

My problems with Rspec and Debugging

I have spent the majority of my week trying to figure out errors and learning Rspec. I discovered through the codeship blog they were giving a free course for Rspec for free. That same day I completed the Bloc Rspec section...what a coincidence.

Rspec seems to be a valuable skill I will need on my resume when judging my extensive research on job descriptions.

 Below was given as the Rspec test:

ruby on rails











To solve the test, the method "add" had to be defined. Here is the answer I finally figured out using the Bastards book of Ruby. (after an hour of being stumped).


The resolution:

ruby on rails


I wish I could go into detail on Rpsec and how it works. I will hopefully be able to in the future when I gain a better understanding. 

Happy coding














Thursday, December 19, 2013

Free Rspec Course from Code School

I am 20% of the way through the Rspec course on codeschool. I do not have a current code school membership but got the course for free from the following codeship blog post.

If you are looking for for a Jr Dev job, as I am. I recommend going to the link and downloading it.

http://blog.codeship.io/2013/08/28/get-a-free-codeschool-course-sponsored-by-codeship.html

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Back to School with Bloc.io



So I started my first day with Bloc Monday. I am very impressed with how knowledgeable my mentor is. I am very confident that the 12 weeks of the program are well worth the money spent. I have read from sources it takes 9-12 months to become a Jr. Developer. I previously decided that I would take the 12 months to learn but later decided that is would be too long. Once I really got my feet wet with Ruby and Rails I have pursued it full steam. My current position of inside IT sales also pays half of what I make today. The salary is not the main factor but it is very disheartening to know I spent almost 4 years to get to a salary that is half of what my potential could be.

Best things about Bloc.io:

1 Mentor is available for all the stupid questions I have
- I have attended meetups and ask many questions but fear I might be over asking certain things. my mentor has no problem the amount of questions I have and takes the time to explain the simplist things.
- I have use the Facebook and Google Plus groups but feel as if either some of the info is still over my head.


2 Curriculum
- Bloc has their own curriculum, I notice some other online programs just use other info from the internet to create their curriculum.
- The lessons are also self paced which has allowed me to blow past the initial set up stuff that I already have done and really learn Ruby and the syntax. (I have studied Ruby for bout 5-6 weeks and still do have a good grasp on the syntax)

3 Portfolio (Git hub building)
- I am not sure if a lot new learners realize but I found in the article I previously referenced that recruiters require a robust github profile and portfolio. This was also confirmed when I attended my last Ruby meetup.
- by the end of Bloc I should have 5 complete rails projects in my github.  3 of which mirrors of what a freelance project might look like. I have done OneMonthRails and hungry to get more projects under my belt.

The Price:
I understand there might some aversion to how much Bloc cost but I highly recommend Bloc and believe the price is actually cheap for what you get out of it. The total for Bloc is $5k if you pay 1k a month or 6k if you choose to pay 500 a month. There is also a discount price of 4250 if you choose to pay up front and if you really want to get start I will provide my recommendation link which gets you $100 off. If you compare it to the CS degree you get from a University you are paying well below what that cost. Read my previous post from someone who did complete a CS degree and recommends Bloc instead.

In 12 weeks you get a portfolio that can be presented easily to a recruiter. You can learn web developing cheaper over the course of 9-12 month, but if you have an idea today or looking change careers as I am it is well worth it. Waiting a year to finally understand Ruby is no longer an option for me.

Some of the things I look forward to learning with Bloc in the next 12 weeks.
- Testing
- Javascript
- More Rails experience
- Ad hoc projects
- Real understanding of the Ruby Syntax

**I recommend Bloc but also recommend going through the same material I went through prior to starting. Because I learned Ruby through other means, I am able to really appreciate the Bloc material and ask questions to get a deeper understanding of web developing.

*Quick tip. If you are familiar with reddit - look up the r/ruby and r/rails pages. I have also found a wealth of info on how to become a junior web developer as well as corresponded to a few recruiters to get an idea of where I need to be in 12 weeks.

If you want to sign up, this is $100 off of Bloc. Happy Learning!

bloc review or bloc.io review

Monday, December 16, 2013

Lessons Learned from the Code Retreat

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a Code Retreat put on by the Global Day of Code. I had some reservations about attending this event because of my lack of knowledge in the Ruby Language. I also never attended an event that involved pair programming, but I purposely went with the idea that I was not leaving until I learned something.

For those not familiar, The event's structure was based around "The Game of Life."  and each session was 45 minutes and contain a limitation you had to implement with your pair.

Sessions:

1: No limitation other than pairing:
- I did not do much but watched and talked through the exercise. My pair was very helpful and very informative.

2: Must plan code on paper and then ping pong test:
- My partner did not know Ruby, so we coded in Python (he walked me through the syntax). I now have an appreciation for Python and will more than likely learn more of it down the road. I unfortunately did not learn how to test in Ruby but learned UnitTesting in Python...fascinating stuff.

3: Mute pairing ( testing without talking)
- I finally got to see how Rspec worked but had to learn the hard way without talking to my pair. Luckily my pair was very patient and descriptive in his notes on screen. I was als very confuse with the use of his text editor's vi.

4: Functional Programming (No side effects):
- This session we did not get very far. My pair and I were both new and had to search through the Ruby Docs for info on how to be functional. I still don't quite get it but it is something I can look into later. He also gave me a book he learned back to front called The Well Grounded Rubyist.

5: Code must be no more than 3 lines:
- By this session my brain was pretty wiped and we did not get very far. My pair was very knowledgable and basically went through the exercise making sure I understood the concepts.

Take aways: Just Try It..its ok to fail

I was a bit overwhelmed when I was asked, with no words, to solve a failure in Rspec, I had never seen Rspec previously. I am glad I attended the event and encourage any one reading to take a chance and attend a meetup. Also post your stuff to github and share. If you wait until you are Ruby Master you will miss out on learning from trying. I was able to share my git and everyone was cool with me being new and trying.

I was blown away on how helpful everyone was towards me. I plan to also start posting some ah ha moments as I get learning and figure it out.
the game of life

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

First Rails App is Live and Ready To Go

I have finally figured out how to implement comments (sort of) on to my app, which was the reason for the delay in sharing with my friends. I later found out it was an error in my code, I am on Rails 4 and the code attr_accessor with my comment.rb does not work in 4.

Post comments in disqus










I originally wanted to add native comments that live within the app, but I had a lot of trouble implementing them properly, so I just went with Disqus.

Disqus is great platform and actually very easy to implement the Javasrcipt. Just paste the code and you are good.

If you get a chance please check out my app and post a picture. bit.ly/robotapp1

Monday, December 9, 2013

The Whole Day Off and What to Do? Codecademy it is!

I am off for the day and celebrating finishing my 15 page paper for my MBA. I am looking forward to take the net semester off to focus on learning coding. I have made significant headway with the completion of m first web app but have not been able to dedicate any further time to my journey due to my MBA obligations. Starting next Monday I will be free to learn till March, I have every intention in continuing my degree but if someone out there wants to give me a job as a Jr. Developer instead I wouldn't turn it down.

I am 20% of the way through the Javascript Codecademy course and plan to have it done today. I also plan on starting the Learn Ruby the Hard Way Tutorial tonight.

Wish me luck!

Codecademy

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Podcast Recommendation: Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn

I have listened to this podcast 3 times already and it has encouraged me to try this out for my first project. I don't want to disclose any details on it but am very passionate about it and the plus is its in a niche market.

For the those interested I have listed a few of the podcast

Podcast I listen to:

Ruby 5
Freelancer
Ruby Rogues
the Change log

FYI: Stitcher is the best podcast catcher (streamer) and I have been using it since 11/11/11 (they tell me every time I login in :). If you listen to podcasts, you need to do it on Stitcher. - that is all
smart passive income

Friday, December 6, 2013

Just a little bit of encouragement before Bloc.io

*If you are interested in joining Bloc, use my link to receive $100 bucks off. Bloc Referral

I have been frequently checking Facebook and Google Plus Ruby Groups for jobs and general tips. Although a lot of it is still absolutely Greek to me I enjoy trying to figure out what people are talking about. I recently saw an individual post his Git to the facebook group and noticed that he was in Bloc. I quickly messaged him and to my surprise he was helpful and offered a good amount of encouraging info, especially with me starting Bloc in 2 weeks!

I am very happy with the Ruby Community and pleased with their willingness to help new students.

*I changed his name to Bill to protect his identity.

  • Conversation started Thursday
  • Brian Douglas
    Brian Douglas

    I don't blow up the comments on your post, but do you have any advice for someone starting in in 2 weeks. I am nervous to start and want to do well.
    Who is you mentor? I am paired with the Adam guy.

  • 12/5, 4:39pm
    Bill

    Hey Brian, no worries
    My mentor is Aaron
    Aaron Brongersma
    I would just say that you need to pace yourself
    make sure you schedule out at least 2-3 hours a night Monday-Friday
    do you have any programming experience?
  • Brian Douglas
    12/5, 4:42pm
    Brian Douglas

    I have done the tutorials and self taught with HTML,css, basic stuff though. Never really did anything with it. I have done all the pre reqs as well a codecademy. I guess no official experience
    Or professional rather

  • 12/5, 4:43pm
    Bill

    ok
    well they start you out with the basics but if there are areas you're not sure about take your time
    ask questions
    the mentors make themselves very available and aren't condescending
    you also have access, almost 24-7, to a live chat area called Office Hours
  • Brian Douglas
    12/5, 4:44pm
    Brian Douglas

    That's awesome.

  • 12/5, 4:44pm
    Bill

    a lot of people try to breeze through the first few weeks of checkpoints
    so they can get to the project challenges and the capstone project
    don't do that
    take your time to make sure you understand everything
    do some extra reading on the side too
    ask your mentor to recommend additional books and tuts
  • Brian Douglas
    12/5, 4:46pm
    Brian Douglas

    Awesome thanks. Are you planning getting career in development or starting a project. Do you feel well equipped

  • 12/5, 4:46pm
    Bill

    this is the Ruby bible http://it-ebooks.info/book/59/
    I'm already a freelancer
    I've been doing PHP, HTML and some basic jQuery
    for close to 7 years now
    but wanted to learn Ruby and needed someone to kick my butt
  • Brian Douglas
    12/5, 4:47pm
    Brian Douglas

    Cool, I hope to get into freelancing after the program

  • 12/5, 4:47pm
    Bill

    I've done a lot of self study
    and have a Bachelor in Web Design & Development from Full Sail University
    honestly I wish I would have never done that degree and went straight to Bloc
    you could definitely do it
    a lot of grads from Bloc do
  • Brian Douglas
    12/5, 4:48pm
    Brian Douglas

    Wow, did you go to the Orlando full sail?

  • 12/5, 4:49pm
    Bill

    nice
    yeah,
    but when I started they still were teaching Flash and ActionScript
    they didn't change their curriculum until Jan 2011
    I only got 1 class in PHP
    1 class in MySQL
  • Brian Douglas
    12/5, 4:50pm
    Brian Douglas

    Well good thing you didn't take that flash class

  • 12/5, 4:50pm
    Bill
    they made me take the Flash class
    I took 6 months of Flash & ActionScript
    a waste of time
    totally outdated
    not even Adobe supports Flash for mobile
    I don't want to get on my soapbox
    lol
    point is
  • and 2 classes in JavaScript
  • Brian Douglas
    12/5, 4:50pm
    Brian Douglas

    Oh, that's to bad. I actually considered going back to school but found Bloc

  • 12/5, 4:50pm
    Bill

    ehhh
    don't
    you don't need it
    do Bloc
  • Brian Douglas
    12/5, 4:51pm
    Brian Douglas

    Thanks for the info
    I lam looking forward to it

  • 12/5, 4:51pm
    Bill

    Codecademy for JavaScript
    JavaScript is very important for web application development now
    and just websites in general
    glad I could share
    good luck man
  • Brian Douglas
    12/5, 4:52pm
    Brian Douglas

    Thanks

  • 12/5, 4:53pm
    Bill 

    my pleasure
    take care
    if you need anything let me know
  • Brian Douglas
    12/5, 4:53pm
    Brian Douglas

    I appreciate that, I will

  • 12/5, 4:54pm
    Bill

Thanks for reading. If you are interested in joining Bloc, use my link to receive $100 bucks off. Bloc Referral

Looks like Leo did it: Homeless coder creates app in 3 months

I just saw on twitter that Leo (read my first post) finally completed his app. This might a great business venture and I hope to see what comes of this.

For the latest on Leo check the article on TechCrunch

Leo the homeless coder

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

I have done it! Thanks to OneMonthRails

I finally got my app done.

I have spent the past 2 weeks working on the OneMonthRails course and completed it this morning. I had quite of few hiccups during it, but was able to find the answer for my problems from google and stack overflow. The course is definitely work the money paid, because it gives you something a book or cant - Something to put in your portfolio. I have done a TON of researching on how to land a Ruby job and the one thing that stands out is a portfolio. You can really learn till you are blue in the face, but if you have nothing to show for it then its all for nothing. Though I do highly recommend getting a foundation with Codecademy or Learn Street prior to completing OMR, this will ensure you spend the time doing rather than figuring out the syntax.

My next step will be to apply what I have done and continue on to another tutorial that comes highly recommended, Learn Ruby the Hard Way . I will also attempt to create another web app prior to Bloc.io mentorship commencement.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

More convincing on why you should learn Ruby TODAY!

I just read a great article, this is a great read if you you have any interest in joining me in learning how to code. I could re-write it all and call it my own or I can just share a link, which is below.

4 Reasons Why You Should Learn Ruby As Your First Programming Language

Here is on of the reasons listed. The Ruby language is just easier.

Here’s what that looks like using C++:
C++ is complex
Intimidating, isn’t it? To display “Hello, world!” to a computer screen, you’ll have to learn multiple C++ functions and keywords. Here’s the equivalent Ruby source code:
ruby is simple
Much simpler than the C++ version!

Monday, December 2, 2013

Update: Currently Working OMR

I am currently working on the One Month Rails project which has given me a little bit of trouble. Luckily I was able to Google all the issues except one. I 'm having trouble with my CSS style-sheets not updating. I think I have it figured out though, the only things is I have to wait 8 hours until I get home from work to update it.

Overall I am still enjoying this journey and looking forward to the start of my mentorship on December 16th. I have in the meantime I joined a couple Ruby groups on Google Plus and Facebook. The information in the group looks promising and I look forward to meeting like minded people via social networking.
onemonthrails by mattan griffel