Are programming bootcamps worth the price?

The past week has been very busy and included two trips to move my stuff from Orlando to Tampa to prepare to eventually move to San Francisco. While picking up my uhaul the Uhaul employee noticed a shirt I was wearing which happened to have the logo for Extreme Networks, a vendor I worked with at Tech Data (in sales). I explained it was a networking company and he mentioned that he was looking into going back to school for networking engineering and asked me if it would be worth it.

The individual was probably around my age and I asked him why he wanted to do network engineering? He explain that it probably paid well and he was always interested in computers, and with my keen ear for hearing the customer and closing a sale I just had mention my story and how I got into software in less than 7 months. 

He was definitely intrigued and I told him about my new employer and how we teach interested individuals how to become a web/mobile developer.

This got me thinking while I drove across the state of Florida, this uhaul employee was going to go back to school for probably 15-30k in tuition for the hope in making more than what he was getting paid at Uhaul. I paid 5k for the opportunity to learn via Bloc and in person bootcamps for less the tuition and dedicated 4 years. 

While at IZEA I watched countless interviewees walk in for interviews out of college with Computer Science degrees but no real experience and no real portfolio to prove their ability develop code. 

In the United States it is preached that once you have a degree you will have a great job, but I worked at a job out of college for 24k a year because I couldn't get a job in finance.

So my question before I answer original question is, Is getting a college degree even worth it? I have Finance Degree from an accredited state school and have yet to use that piece of paper or even provided a copy of it to any of my employers. To be honest I haven't even removed it from the cardboard envelope it came 7 years ago (What a waste of $48, the cost to send it to me).

I now work at a job making more than twice as much as I my base pay in sales and a significant amount higher than my salary even with a highest received bonus'd month. When I share the amount I paid to learn via Bloc's mentorship program and discuss the cost of bootcamps with others, it is very common to hear that rebuttals to how expensive the cost is, but when you talk with the same population of people  about going back to school, there is not even a second thought about that cost. 

For some perspective: I am currently rooming with someone who made the decision to drop out of a very well known and expensive College in Nashville to pursue his dream with DevBootcampSF, which really sparked me to write this blog post. Instead of paying for 150k+  in tuition after graduation, he is now only what it would cost for one semester in College.

So are bootcamps worth it?

My response is obvious, it yes, but I truly believe if you are looking for an experience that you get when going back to school where you can just breeze by and get a job when its over, you might as well just go back to school. Bootcamps are definitely worth it, but you need to be driven and be willing to experiment with different tools, build a portfolio outside the curriculum, and be willing to attend meetups get involved in the community to eventual get that offer that truly makes it worth, but more on those details in a future post. 

Bootcamps, including Bloc, all have payment plans to help cover the cost up front. Some bootcamps even offer financial assistance for the exceptionally driven individuals.

Best of luck on your journey and your decision to learn to code. 

Remembering my time at Bloc and how I got here.

Was Bloc the stepping stone that prepared me to be become developer I am today?

This is a question at least once a week and I usually answer via email in great depth, but thanks to the recent Code Newbie podcast and Scott Hanselman I am going to share my response with everyone.

I graduated out of the Bloc Apprenticeship officially March 17th 2014, and for those wondering my mentor was Adam Louis, for more details about my Bloc can be found on their site, I have my own experience page.

But lets get back to the originally question; for a quick answer, yes is the answer. I work developer in Rails the same technology I learned while learning with my mentor. I not only followed the unique Bloc curriculum, but I also tried things outside of the curriculum. Bloc gave me the ability to try new and different things to set apart from others. I got into testing very early, which is something I think too many Code Newbies avoid.

One of the first things discuss my thrice-weekly Bloc session was, I was going to "learn how to learn." All these bootcamps out there now are not really teaching you how to write code, but they are really teaching you how to learn how to write code and how to look things up for yourself.

I have only ever gone through Bloc and can't really speak to the experiences in live in person bootcamps, but what I can say Bloc is a one-on-one intensive mentorship, where you can learn as much or as little as you want. You are able to ask your craziest questions and really go on tangental learning experiences.

How about another question:

Did Bloc give you the ability to write functional applications?

That answer is another yes, I spent a lot of time... specifically 30-40 hours a week building sudo-client ready applications, based on feature wish-list provided.

All the apps I created were in the Minimal Viable Product state, but they perform the minimum functions required and with a little more help on the design  side they could be pretty presentable apps.

I completed the Rails/Fullstack curriculum, but there are also Design and Front-End curriculums, as well as Android and iOS.

Now with Javascript Frameworks becoming bigger and would I opt to go through the Front-End course instead of the Fullstack/Rails course?

It's crazy to think that when I started all of this Angular/Ember/Meteor...etc were barely on the radar. I haven't even heard of Node and when I did, it was about people complaining about how it wasn't Ruby.

Even though I am now excited about Node/Ember/Express. I would still go through the FullStack curriculum. I fell in love with Ruby and got really excited about Rails before I knew that Bloc was a thing. The community surrounded by Rails is still great and very instrumental in me continually advancing in my knowledge.

Ruby is hands down a great language to learn for new programmers.

For someone who has zero programming  and design experience, I still recommend the Ruby/Rails path. I also do not think Rails is going away anytime soon and even this newly indoctrinated "Javascript all the things" world there will still be a place for Rails.

*Seriously if I hear another person tell me how the MEAN stack is the Messiah to web development and Javascript should be written everywhere and on all things - those people are crazy.

Does Bloc help with finding you a job?

Bloc announce to a new Job Prep portion back in November, which I have not gone through, for obvious reason ( I already have a job) and did not offer anything like this during my time with them, but from what I hear its pretty .

Bloc does connect you with alum and lets you in their alumni network you can network for next job, but at the end of the day, getting job is the continuation of your hard while in the apprenticeship.

I personally hit the street and networked at local meetups and conferences to get where I am today.

*If anyone who has tried the Bloc Job Prep section wants to chime, please let us know your experiences.

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I think that about covers the most common questions I get, but feel free to send email and I can answers anything that wasn't covered in the blog post.

Back on track and finally done moving

I have spent the last week trying to become acclimated to the new job as well move all my stuff from Tampa to Orlando. The good news is most of my colleagues have expressed that it will be 2-3 months before I am truly comfortable with the code base, so I will take it one day at a time.

I have also finally finished all my stuff from my old place, which had me in Tampa longer than expected. My hope is to get back on track with Ruby Newbies and my personal development journey.

A new task I have recently taken on is the some low level QA testing for Bloc. I will begin my work this week going through their iOS curriculum, making this the instruction is clear and free of typos, I planned on starting Saturday,but my Tampa trip went longer than expected. I am truly honored that to be a part of the team. The testing will not take too much time out of my day and I plan to learn Objective-C and Swift while doing it, so look out for some post in regard to that.

Well that is all, happy coding.

Do this before you Bloc

So after I announced my recent employment as a Rails dev, I have been getting a lot of people reaching out to me about Bloc.io and my thoughts on it. I do want to share a video I made the Saturday before my last official day of Bloc. I also want to recommend my mentor Adam if you choose to go with Bloc. I do believe he is always booked up but if you you look now he is available, sign up with him right away if you have already decided to go through the program.

In my latest inquiry email I recommended something that I have not done before, which a simple Todo app. Back in November I completed the OneMonthRails tutorial in two long weekends, which helped me create ilikerobot.com. I then thought I was pretty much king of the world and took on the challenge to create a Todo app. The idea was create the functionality that sent a text when the one task completed. I attempted it using some scaffolding and failed, I then attempted to go through this Turtorial and still failed. If you need proof check out my abandoned repo OmegaPhone, I actually forgot all about this but now want to take on the challenge of completing this app soon.

=============================================
My challenge: 
Prior to signing up for Bloc, Tealeaf, etc... Try to create your own Todo app, if that is not possible, Try to go through this Tutorial step by step. If you are able to get through it without getting stuck on errors and actually complete it, you might be a good candidate for a self guided program like Tealeaf. Tealeaf offers a version of office hours(24/7 helpline) but does not have a mentor assigned to you. If you are like I was, struggling through figuring out errors and need that extra guidance, Bloc would be a great program for you.

*Bloc is a great program and I found having a mentor a huge motivator with my learning. My biggest concern with learning programming was not being consistent and eventually giving up. Going through the Bloc program helped me stay consistent, especially because of the price tag associated with it. I also was able to try more challenging things in Rails, because I knew I had a mentor to fall back on and ask questions. Try out this challenge this weekend and let me know how it goes, even if you are not planning on going through a online bootcamp.

I am partial to Bloc, for obvious reason, and found the program to be a great source for adding actual completed projects to my resume(github). With that being said Tealeaf is also a great program, and having a helpline is also good too. Bloc also has something similar which I used heavily on the weekends, but what I found having a specific mentor made it easier to understand the problems. Each time I used Bloc's office hours, I had to explain my app/problem every time, which was fine and helped me really understand my issue, but in some cases I just waited the few hours till my mentor was online again rather re-teach. Having a specific mentor was a great luxury, which considering the time spent it was less than the price of AirPair. If you really hammer down with Bloc you could have 5-6 new apps in your github ready to show in interviews, that are unique from what everyone else is showing.

Also when deciding which program to go through, try to think about what your goals are in learning web development. I had the goal of getting a job, but my main goal was to make my app Chuych. I do know from the interviews I had, most companies like seeing that you worked on a project outside of tutorials. It shows you have a passion to learn and the app I made with the help of my mentor was the app I created with the help of my mentor.

Thanks for reading

Not sure if you saw this, but I did make a video on my last weekend of Bloc

My final impressions on Bloc and ongoing journey

12 weeks ago I started Bloc with high expectations of learning Ruby on Rails and being equipped to build my own web apps as I pleased. My hope was to also begin applying and interview for entry level developer positions and gin employment by this summer. My original goal is was set for October of 2014 to make the career change.

So what do I think now?

I highly recommend Bloc if you have an idea for your capstone prior to signing up. If you are only learning Ruby just to learn Ruby there are other programs out there. Bloc's focus is on learning how to learn, which is interesting for an approach. I am no where near Ruby expert and barely know the "programming." I no have the ability solve problems using Ruby, but I will most likely fail a programming test in an interview. I don't completely discourage using Bloc to learn the Ruby language but the focus is on web development and a lot of concepts in the language are overlooked with the use of Rails.

I do also only recommend Bloc if you can dedicate 3 hours a day to learning. I started the beginning of the program with no issues with my time dedication and easily over exceeded my time commitment. I did get promoted at work which requires more of my time and required me to travel to Costa Rica during the latter part of Bloc. I was very dedicated to completing my web app that week, but still was delayed due to the spotty internet and travel delays.

With that being said, having a mentor exponentially increased my knowledge base quicker than I could have ever done on my own with the same time restrictions and job promotion. I do believe without Bloc I would not have been as dedicated towards, most likely because I paid a lot of money to do complete the program. Because of Bloc I was able to create 4 apps in 3 months and learn things like how to work with API's and useful gems like acsts_on_taggable and pry.

I am an outsider looking into the world of programming and now have a better understanding on where to go for continual learning.

I recently took a programming test for an apprenticeship and the guidelines were to finish 3 problems in less than 45mins, I solved one problem in about 50mins. I have a lot to learn in the Ruby language and look forward to working through the books I have acquired. My background is in sales and that is what I do for a living, In sales its all about "at bats." The more attempts you get to hit, the better chance you have at succeeding. The same is in play for learning programming, it's all about how many attempts you have.

I remembering finishing my initially finishing my Bloccit app, I completed it while carefully reading their step by step tutorial, I still felt inept when my mentor laid out the guidelines for approaching my next project without a tutorial. When I completed Taskoff I felt accomplished in completing that app in less than 25 hours of work. The majority of the app was completed on my own within 2 days. A month earlier I attempted to create a similar task app and failed even after following a provided tutorial and referencing OMR.

So back to Bloc's "learning how to learn:

I can not complete an app without the use the Google and I can't solve Ruby problems without referring to my previous projects, but I am confident within a year I will be solving beginner problems without the use of reference material. My hope is very confident in Ruby by this summer.

What's Next:

To my surprise my mentor expressed to me that he would like to still assist with my capstone project. He found my approach to this idea rather intriguing and would like to see the completion of it. He provided his personal email and recommended reaching out via Skype anytime I need help and pair program. I looked forward to the continual learning from his knowledge and completing this app in the next few weeks. At this point it is in its "Minimal Viable Product" form, but I would like to add a few extra features and front-end design prior to opening it up to an Alpha.

I have applied to a few apprenticeships and working on the prep work. I plan to complete my applications to those in the next 2 weeks and to keep my options open I have also applied to a junior developer position out of state.

The Unlikely Developer gained employment within only 8 months, I hope to eventually gain employment, but also hope to build Chuych into a viable business. I have been greeted with excitement when I explain the concept to others and look forward to having real people use it. I understand if this is any bit of a success I will need to devote more time to scalability planning for the app. I dislike my current job and love the opportunity to sell a product I created to churches across the country (I have not yet announce my business plan, but stay tuned).

Thank you for reading my thoughts, I look forward to my continual journey and pursual towards becoming a junior developer.

*FYI, after my first app within Bloc, I change my bio from "Aspiring Web Developer" to "Web Developer." Although I am not best I am a developer with multiple apps completed. I recommend you do the same if you have done the same.

Wrapping up Bloc, Ramping up my side project

I have been a little more infrequent with my post due to me trying to focus all my efforts on completing the minimal viable product for Chuych. I have implemented a lot of new things I have yet to user previously, such as Geocoder and a jQuery plugin called geocomplete.

During my very first meeting with my mentor, he explained that he was going to teach how to learn. I feel that is exactly what we have accomplished. I have progressed past getting stuck on simple debugging issues to actually implementing new features with limited guidance.

One of the best things I have learned to do is, "Just try it out." There is no longer a fear of breaking the app since it is now embraced as a new learning exercise to fix it.

I look forward to spending the time after Bloc really learning Front End design, something I have not really put a focus on.

*I am hosting Google Hangout Saturday, to discuss my impressions on Bloc and more details on what I plan to do after.

Thinking hard about what's next (only 3 weeks left)

I have put a lot of thought in which apprenticeships to apply to after Bloc and due to the fact of the local Tampa apprenticeship is now closing, so I need to take serious consideration on moving out of state and to where will be the most feasible for my family of 3.

After a lot of long conversations, my wife has provided her blessing for moving out of state as long if the opportunity is there for me to obtain work post the apprenticeship. Some cities I have on my list are Nashville (My twin brother lives there), San Francisco(Obvious reason), New York, and Chicago.

I am excited at the thought of living in a city other than Tampa and hopeful that one of the now 4 companies I have applied to will respond back with the interview process (I am already in contact with Chicago). I am also purposely leaving the names of each company, but can let you know if you so desire. Just send me a message via social media.

My plans currently are to finish my current app, which I have so many thing s breaking its not even funny. but I have plans to spend a lot of time tonight with my mentor walking through the more confusing errors.

I am looking forward to the next chapter of my journey outside of Bloc and what's in store.

I am also planning on doing a hangout to discuss my thoughts the Bloc program. This weekend I am also hoping to put my plan together for my capstone project and will be posting it here soon.

Off to Costa Rica

I am currently typing while awaiting to start my journey in the Tampa International Airport. Thanks to my promotion I now have to do a bit of travel and will hopefully get some good Rails work done on my flight. I am planning to complete the Rspec book while in flight.

I also have a mentorship planned for this afternoon, which will be fun to continue with Bloc while in a different program. Just another luxury of an online mentorship program.

I also hope to finish my current app. I have had some delays due to preparing for this work trip and needing to dedicate time to that.

On another note I did apply to 3 separate apprenticeships in preparation to the conclusion of Bloc and have already heard back from one. The first part of the application process involves me building a small game. I have some experience with this from the code retreat. I look forward to starting that this weekend.

Shout out to my mentor. Learn more about Active Record.

I just feel like I need to give a shout out to my Mentor for Bloc. I have previously left his name out of my posting to protect his privacy, but I realize that is silly. My mentor is Adam. If you have an interest in Bloc I highly recommend this guy. I can go on and on about how smart he is but check out his mentor page on Bloc. His knowledge on Ruby is very vast and has an innate ability to go in depth on a multitude of topics in programming.

I am currently implementing a has_and_belongs_to_many relationship between my bookmarks and tags within my current project. I still have to implement posting from email and add user a devise like user authentication without using the devise gem. My goal is to complete this all by this weekend and move on to Blockepedia on Monday. We will see how it all goes.

This is officially week 7 of my Bloc Mentorship which gives me 5 weeks to complete these two projects in addition to my capstone project.

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.

Secret Rspec training

So I have moved on to working on pseudo client work.

I am considering applying to web developing apprenticeship and understand I need to learn best practices for ROR, aka "test driven development". My mentor recommended a rspec tutorial that segways perfectly into a client app. The tutorial is not posted in the Bloc curriculum, but my mentor sent me the guts of it. You can follow that process in my repo called Taskitoff (To Do app that auto deletes task after 7 days).

I am about just finished the setting up the app and will be attempting to create the Task Controllers with the said functionality. I am excited to see how it turns out, judging by the list I posted in my readme.md...thie shouldn't be too hard to complete.

*I will also be learning what this Capybara is all about.

Chugging along with Bloc: Passed the halfway point

I spent a total of 12 hours on Bloc this weekend and was able to get through 85% of the third section. To put that into perspective the 3rd section is week 5-6. I almost got all of that done in 2 days. This is the section where I can finally say I truly understand the MVC framework and can properly debug simple issues on my own, which I did all weekend.

The final checkpoints I have not completed include jquery and Ajax. Jquery I have some experience with, but Ajax I am very excited to learn and get through. I honestly have no idea what it does but have heard it thrown around.

Once I have completed those last checkpoints, I will be be going full force into Bloc's project work. The section gives you only the requirements needed for the app and together with my mentor we tackling this with pair programming. This will put me a great place to begin my capstone project in the next few weeks.

*Side note: I thinking about doing a Google Hangout with anyone who is also learning Ruby; If anyone is interested. It would be nice to find more people learning the same time as me.

I will probably post on twitter a hangout time this week.

Missed my goal because of debugging.

I seemed to have made an error in my database and awaiting my mentor, Adam, meeting this afternoon to walk through this. I did a good amount of searching through Google on how to fix it and figured out I was way off. I was busy with the family and church yesterday and was unable to give time to figuring this out. I was able to spit off my git to my mentor and got his response stating my database explosion. I really respect my mentor and his ability not to just give me the answer, but give a little bit of info to assist me learning how to figure it out.

There is an extreme amount of value with a mentorship and apprentice type learning. I am going to push Bloc on every one but I recently discovered another site that offers rails mentor help. I have not used it and only heard of it through a Rabbit Hole Session, but if you are really interested in learning Rails or Ruby and tired of the roadblocks you continue to run into, I highly recommend a mentor or even a pair to share code and issues.

I have pair programming on my list of things to do and look forward getting started with that after Bloc ends. So if anyone is interested... Bloc will be over in March for me.

As far as my progress: I missed my goal of finishing Bloccit32 last weekend. I attribute that miss to me not reaching out for help sooner. I spent all Saturday night with my database issue but was determined to figure it out myself and then did not message Adam until Sunday morning. I realize I need to make a new rule for myself and not spend more than 3 hours on a problem. Just about every issue can be figured out through Google but sometimes it takes a half day or longer to really find that answer (speaking from experience). I need to advantage of the tools available sooner to ensure I stick to my personal goals in learning Rails.

*FYI if you are not part of the Ruby or Rails group on Google plus, you should join today. I have gotten responses to my questions in less 60 seconds. Its a great tool for questions and great for finding other beginners.

I have an addiction for learning

Just this week Lifehacker posted on how Harvard is offering a free online Intro to Programming to course as Jan 1st. Prior to signing up up for Bloc and deciding on Ruby as my language of choice, I watched the intro to this course when it was only offered either as Harvard credit or certificate. I had sense decided on how Ruby and discounted the program but was impressed with the professor's teaching style.

Well I have bought into the hype and already completed the first week of lectures, especially since it's free. Previously I mentioned I was scattered brain and in need of some organization of all my learning tools. I have another gist to keep track of all the things I plan to learn, but as far as this Harvard course, it is a great way to learn the basics of programming such as the higher levels ideas of it. I watched my son for a few hours today while my wife got a break and while he slept I knocked out the first week of course. I do not plan on getting into the nitty gritty of PHP and C as the professor implies but I do look forward to his explanations on Javascript and Algorithms. With this being an auxiliary learning tool I only plan on watching the lectures while I am on baby duty on the weekends.

If anyone is interested taking a Harvard course just out the Lifehacker article here. The first few weeks are avaialble if you have the extra time.


*FYI if you register for the course for $350 and complete it you will be eligible for a certificate to take another Harvard Extension course. I will be passing on that option.

Bloc update: about 8 lessons away from completing Bloccit and moving on to sudo client projects. The training wheels are coming!

Thanks to Bloc I am in love with Markdown and just implemented it in my app.

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!

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
• 

  12/5, 4:39pm
  

  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?
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  12/5, 4:52pm
  

  Brian Douglas
  

  
  

  Thanks
• 
  

  12/5, 4:53pm
  

  Bill 
  

  
  

  my pleasure

  take care

  if you need anything let me know
• 

  12/5, 4:53pm
  

  Brian Douglas
  

  
  

  I appreciate that, I will
• 
  

  12/5, 4:54pm
  

  Bill
  

  
  

  check this out too http://www.bentobox.io/index.html

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