Photo by WeWork

A day in the life of a bootcamp student

navigating my way through the notorious tech bootcamp schedule with a new rescue puppy in the midst of a global pandemic

It is definitely not easy — a tech bootcamp will demand a tremendous amount of hard work, resilience and motivation because the reward it comes with is truly life-changing.

my ‘real’ wake-up alarm

6:00 am

my phone alarm goes off but I hit that snooze button like an automated machine. 5 minutes later, I force myself up and get dressed. Who can say no to this little face? Taking the dog out for a morning jog quickly downgraded to a ‘relaxing’ walk ever since the bootcamp started — need to conserve every last bit of energy into finishing that homework lab I didn’t get to last night before class starts. During the walk, my mind wanders somewhere in between picking up Cooper’s poop and that last part of the code challenge that I just could not figure out on time. Coding is already on my mind. I think I need coffee.

7:00 — 7:30 am

Arriving home post-COVID now involves a few tasks that includes wiping pretty much everything; the dog, my hands, and everything that my hand touched. I take a quick shower and give Cooper his breakfast then do a bit of house work. Early mornings are when I get a lot of things done, well, have to get done. I wash the dirty dishes and coffee mugs from yesterday and do some mild cleaning. Once I take my brewed coffee into my workspace turned bedroom and sit in front of the computer, the other part of my day begins — welcome to bootcamp.

< 9am — “golden hour”

Photo by Isabel Maria Guner-Velasco on Unsplash

9:00am–12:30pm

Mornings go by very fast at Flatiron. Even though everything has changed to remote learning for the timing being, Flatiron makes sure that the students still experience the same rigor and achieve productivity just as the in-person learning experience. At 9 on the dot, one of the coaches takes attendance on Slack (our medium for communication) and after that, our schedules are laid out for the day. Depending on the week you are in from each Mod, the schedule varies ever so slightly but is not far from:

Example Daily Schedule

  • (9–10:00) work on general labs 👩‍💻
  • (10–11:00) discussion questions 💬
  • (11–12:30) lecture 👨‍🏫
  • 1hr lunch 🍣
  • (1:30–3) another lecture (back-to-back? Grab that Red Bull)
  • (1:30–5) more labs (independent or pair)
  • (5:30–6) stand-down (similar to check-in/feedback/summary)
  • morning meditation 🧘🏽‍♀️
  • womxn & non-binary standup ☕️
  • AMA with alumni + other career-related workshops

12:30pm — 1:30pm

me bribing Cooper as I leave him for the second lecture

1:30pm–6:00pm

Photo by Chris Ried on Unsplash
Photo by Nathana Rebouças on Unsplash

“I spend approximately half of my time at Flatiron Googling things that I don’t know.”

My day in a nutshell 🥜

6:00pm–8:00pm

Class dismissed!

9:00pm–11:00pm

I shower and lay on my bed with the laptop still on. I shoot a quick glare at Cooper and my partner who are playing in the living room and begin cloning down another lab…

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

“Overall If I have to describe myself this week I will say that I am on a open field where it is raining, and some of my classmates are nice, dry and sound inside [of] a tree house, while I am still standing on the field… just because I haven’t practice how to use the ladder to get into the house [yet]” — an awesome bootcamp fellow who likes to break codes all the time

Haha. I hope I didn’t scare you. Because with everything that goes on throughout the day in the life of a bootcamp student, I really do enjoy learning each day and feel like I am getting stronger. And I know you will too. Continue to push yourself!! And come join the journey with me.

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Software engineer with a passion good design and UX. Currently petting all the good dogs in NYC 🐶 http://annakim.dev | ⚡️ http://linkedin.com/in/devannakim

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ANNA KIM

Software engineer with a passion good design and UX. Currently petting all the good dogs in NYC 🐶 http://annakim.dev | ⚡️ http://linkedin.com/in/devannakim