The first day of school Part 5, Part #1

As 2019 came to an end I made the decision to change my professional life. The start of the new decade was to bring with it a big change! That day I would take the admission test at Northcoders, something that I'd been thinking about for a while after I took their introduction to programming course in October.

After moving to the UK from the Netherlands in 2017, I started working at Franke UK, a company that sells Sinks and Taps to the UK kitchen market. I started at Sales Order Desk and quickly came into the Projects channel that serviced the Housebuilders and Project developers directly or through distribution partners. Shortly after this move, my role expanded to also include the Multiples channel. In the two years that followed, I got to experience a lot of things, from travel to range reviews...client meetings to international internal audits.

However at the end of 2019, I was ready for a new challenge and, after completing Northcoders Introduction to Programming, I knew I had found my new path. Programming and the web have always been an interest of me, and thus it was time to jump into the deep end and see where it could lead.

I was to start my new career by going on a 12-week course that would prepare me for a job in the tech industry, with this Linkedin post I'd like to share my journey into this new chapter for me and give an insight to anyone that might be willing to do the same.

After completing the entry challenge and submitting my pre course work, the second of March would be the fifth time I would have the first day of School in my life (hence the title...)! With a lot of healthy nerves, I made my way to the Manchester Technolgy center to start! I didn't need to worry as it was everything I had hoped for and more. From the first day, we dove right into the fundamentals of Javascript. Recursion, Testing, Scopes...plus many more subjects since have come and gone.

The course is built up of 4 blocks of three weeks. Starting with the Fundamentals, then progressing into the back end, front end and finalizing into a project block. The first three weeks start with a deeper dive into Javascript, an introduction to test-driven development, pair programming, object-oriented programming. The volume of new experiences just keeps coming. However I have to say the new challenges have provided me with a lot of new energy, everything is just so exciting.

Meeting new people with the same interest, and working together with them to develop our skillsets while going through the practices has been amazing. The lectures are engaging and every day I wait from the morning train into town with a smile on my face.

The first two weeks have flown by, the ability to spend all my attention on coding has brought me to a level of understanding that I wouldn't have imagined being possible before I started. And I have still just scraped the surface of what is out there, made all the more evident when I joined a Northcoders-organised meetup to the BBC at MediaCity.

For now, the focus is on finishing strong next week and progressing onto the new block of courses, where contrary to the Fundamentals block all the course material will be new for me. To be honest... I can't wait!