Welcome, Everyone!
I want to give a quick intro about myself, the purpose of this blog, and how I plan to use it moving forward. I'm currently a Content Developer a Dealer Inspire (a Cars.com company) and have been in the tech industry as a professional for about three years. TL:DR – I plan to use this blog to note the things I learned, projects that I've completed, and hardships I come across on my journey in learning back-end tech, starting with Python 😁.
A Little About Myself
As a kid, I've always had a thing for technology but didn't get into coding until after college, when my initial career path was to become a Physical Therapist (I dodged a bullet there). My desire to make a VST for music production brought me to coding. I'm a HUGE music fan and have had a hand in Music Production and Audio Engineering for quite some time. Looking into how to make that happen led me to web development, where I started self-studying through Udemy and ultimately went through Lambda School (Now Bloom Institute Of Technology), which landed me the job I have now. I'd say that the whole process took about three years, and I'll admit, it could have been a bit shorter if I was more laser-focused 😅 but such is life.
The Kickstart to My (Second) Journey to Become A Full-Stack Dev
Through lambda school, I retained a TON of my front-end knowledge since that's what I completed through self-studying with Udemy, but when it came to Back-End, it was a fresh plate of gibberish that I had to wrap my head around. Not only that, I landed my job at Dealer Inspire before we got to the back-end unit, so I was trying to juggle working/learning the ropes at my new job + trying to put in work after hours to learn Back-End (Python, Node.Js, Express, SQL). Let me tell you, to have this on my day-to-day was rough as is, and then the pandemic hit 😵💫. So I took a Hiatus from Lambda to focus on learning my job in and out to perform well.
What I didn't expect though, was for Lambda to change its curriculum and discontinue any new part-time cohorts. So when I tried to get back into an ongoing cohort at my current unit, I was told there weren't any I'd have to join a full-time cohort to finish. That was NOT an option since I needed to pay bills. So I got screwed out of earning my certificate even though I still have to pay the total amount of the Income Share Agreement (since I got so far into the curriculum; I was on the last unit when I needed to take the hiatus). To put it lightly, it sucked. Luckily, I did land an entry-level job before entirely bailing on my certification and have since earned my place as a Content Developer.
I have lost a lot of the knowledge that I was able to pick up and retain when still in school and have been struggling to find the motivation to be consistent on my own with self-studying again. Now that I've hit a growth/creativity wall at my current job, now is a better time to light a fire under my ass and start learning back-end again.
My Plans for This Blog
I wanted to have some accountability and a way to note the things I learn daily to reference when I need to. I also feel like I'm not the only person with a similar struggle and yearning to be better and more accountable with their learning, so I would love for anyone to join this journey with me or even give advice in the comments. My first goal is to learn Python. I plan to use Udemy since the cost is very reasonable for courses, and it should be a good starting point for me to get the basics down. So I purchased two courses; First course is a “Zero To Hero” style course, and the second course is a 100 days of code for Python which will give me daily projects to do to refine my skill. The goal is to go through all 100 days by doing at least a unit from each course per day starting tomorrow, August 9th, 2022. Today, I will just get myself prepped and set my learning schedule moving forward.