Current reflections on what I have accomplished

Last night I attended my 5th Ruby meetup in 3 months (I am counting Code Retreat even though it was not specifically Ruby). I am pretty happy on how far I progressed and excited to continue my journey towards developing actual apps.

First Meetup:

I attended my first meetup back in November after one month of Codecademy and Learnstreet and only accomplished. I had at that point started Codecademy and Learnstreet but didn't have much done as far as building anything. After that meeting I was given a $25 off coupon for OMR and completed it within two weeks. I also established relationships with a local developers who have proven to very valuable assets in information gathering and learning.

My advice is start with a Rails to get your feet wet and excited about web development. Then stop Rails and concentrate only on Ruby. Once confident in Ruby implemented Rails but without the magic... i.e "$ rails g." Manually build your controllers, models, etc...

Last Nigh'ts Meetup:

Last night I met Ruby Newbies who were in the same position I was in 3 months ago. It was nice to be able to encourage them and provide pointers on what/how I learned. I am in no means an expert but I guess I can say I have been there. I now have 2 completed and working apps and have started my third.

If you are not apart of a Meetup then look for one in your area. Even if you have to drive an hour. My first meetup was at Envylabs (Code School) in Orlando and on the first night I was offered a position (Not in Ruby but in sales for local O-town company). I kindly declined not wanting to move to Orlando, but the point is you can build a great network of people that will prove to be valuable in the future.