I’ve been a little hesitant to commit words to this blog post despite graduating from my bootcamp two months ago. It’s been a period of readjustment and fighting the imposter syndrome demons that have been teasing me about graduating as a failure. To quote Troy from Community during his drama class, “My emotions, my emotions!” Here’s my structure for this document. I’m going with something good, something bad and then back to something good. I believe the correct term for this format is called a defecation bagel. Or is it dung butty?

Moving on swiftly. I’m going to force myself to recognise some of the things I’ve done by writing down what can be considered successes. Here goes. I was part of a team that delivered the minimal viable product of our app, and project overview video. More on that in the next paragraph. I attended every lecture and worked as hard as possible to complete the course projects. Did I finish every single one? Nope, but that’s not for lack of trying. I completed the bootcamp. I had an initial phone call with Raspberry Pi about an apprentice software developer role. I got rejected within the same hour, but I still call it a success because nobody called me before I joined Command Shift. On a different note, since the course ended I completed the Couch to 5k running challenge for the second time in June. And in that same week, I cycled from London to Brighton for the second consecutive year.

Switching back to the final group project now. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I pitched the initial idea for our Kitstack app. It all started from my personal passion for collecting football shirts, and the need to efficiently manage my inventory without sifting through the entire collection. That's when the idea of creating an app to track and organise my shirts came to life.

Our minimal viable product aimed to deliver a user-friendly app with two signup options: email and password or with Google Authentication. Additionally, we wanted users to be able to create new items and have the shirt data seamlessly integrated into their profiles.

For the frontend development, we made the decision to use React instead of vanilla JavaScript, primarily for the following reasons: The virtual DOM in React enabled us to monitor and update changes we made to our code efficiently. React's reusable component-based architecture allowed us to break down our wireframed UI into small, modular blocks of code, promoting efficiency. React is a declarative programming language, which means we could focus on defining what our code should do, rather than how it should do it. We leveraged the React Testing Library to simplify debugging and component testing.

Another significant advantage of using React was the wealth of online resources and a wide range of third-party libraries and tools. This allowed us to enhance our app further. For instance, we utilised Font Awesome to import icons seamlessly into our code, while Tailwind CSS improved the user experience by optimising performance. Initially, we used vanilla CSS styling during early development and later implemented Tailwind CSS, as its ready-made utility classes ensured consistent styling across the entire app, saving valuable time. Also, Tailwind's responsive design capabilities perfectly complemented our mobile-first approach.

Looking ahead, we have the option to expand the app's functionality. Our focus would be on refining the CRUD operations, introducing social media features to enable users to share content, and implementing a marketplace for trading football shirts. These additions will enhance the overall user experience and drive further development of our app.

Now it’s time for the middle layer of this faecal foot-long. Why did I feel bad? I currently work in public relations, but hopefully not much longer. I’m in a team of two that sits inside a wider marketing department. However, coincidentally, my line manager and teammate took an extended leave of absence at the exact same time as the start of my final bootcamp project. It’s been two months and counting. (Scratch that, I found out recently that they’ve decided to make their leave permanent). That means my workload has doubled, so it became tough to find the motivation to do anything, let alone code, in my spare time. To my current employer, I’ve never looked better. This is great for them because I haven’t dropped the ball and I’ve delivered to extremely tight deadlines, and to a high standard. I’ve heard from various managers about how impressed they are with me. I’ve secured double-page spreads in the news and multiple radio slots for the leadership team to portray the company as experts in their field. This would be great if I wanted to continue and progress in my PR career. But when the end of the day gets here I’ve been exhausted. I have eaten plenty of pizza and put a good few hours into the most recent Zelda game.

Time for the grand finale. If this was a wrestling match, this would be the part where my opponent has me in a headlock and the referee is checking on me to see if the lights are still on. It’s time for the classic kick out comeback before the count of three. I didn't start this journey to give up now, and just like when I run, it’s time to be my own cheerleader again. I’m not giving in. It’s time for reflection and to push things forward.

How did I feel when the course ended? My key days on the course were Mondays and Wednesdays from 6.30 pm to 9.30 pm. It felt so weird having that time back and I noticed the oddity when I popped into Tesco, during what would have been my lecture hours. I miss the immediacy of speaking to people about code, in our standups and in our breakout rooms. I miss working with my KitStack team after we had worked tirelessly and so closely together to deliver our app. Was the time and commitment to the course worth it? Absolutely and unequivocally yes. They don’t pay me to endorse them but I would recommend them to anyone. Every single person associated with Command Shift has been a delight to work with. They encourage you when you need them to, and support you at every corner. They don’t hold your hand but they do help cultivate solutions to your blockers. The course might be over now but the community spirit is still in full effect.

In the words of the tyrant King George III, “What comes next?” Hamilton easter eggs? I’ve got them. What do I need to do? I need to implement the changes to my CV and social profiles as advised by tech recruiter David Roberts. I booked a call with Alice at Command Shift to have a general catch-up and that really pepped me up. I started coding again after my extended break, which reignited that habit. I got my structure back by working through the Scrimba Frontend Pathway. If I stop, then it’s all been a waste of time. If I use everything I’ve learned about programming and how to sell my skills to an employer, then it absolutely has been worth it.

Hey, my name's Rob and I’m career switching into tech, eventually.