Finished your JS Coding Bootcamp, What’s next?
My name is Ikdem Ben Mbarek, a Technical Mentor at
. This blog is initially destined for graduates from our Bootcamp. But, if you are a graduate from any full-stack JavaScript coding Bootcamp, there are a lot of things mentioned here that can be interesting for you.
Dear Student, or let me say, dear Full Stack Developer!
Congratulations on successfully finishing your journey with us at RBK. As you know, not everyone that started this journey was able to make it to the end. So, it’s quite an achievement that you shall be proud of. Yet, this is just the beginning of a bigger and harder journey. You can count this as the first step in a hundred miles path, the path for a successful professional career and a lifelong chase for full potential fulfilment. But be assured that this step is able to put you on the right track. In this document, I will try helping you find your next step. Let’s get started!
Rest Well
You must be exhausted, tired, and full of emotions. You deserve a rest buddy. Go home, meet with your family and friends that you have missed for sure. Spend some quality time with the activities that you missed doing and the people you missed being around. But don’t you develop a routine because we’re here to develop that routine together.
Develop a routine
Find your working environment. Some people feel more productive working at night with some chilling music. Some prefer waking up early in the morning and working by a coffee on the side. Well, it’s up to you to find your working environment and when and where you feel productive. One thing to bear in mind, get away from all the distractions. We are talking about your career here.
Then, segment your activities. They should include and not be limited to: reading, problem-solving, learning, coding, applying for jobs. You should do all these things every single day and I’m here with recommendations. Stick to them for three weeks straight and they’ll become a habit, something that is a part of you and you do without thinking about it.
Solving Problems
Problem Solving is a skill that we develop every day. You should keep the same momentum and keep pushing your mind to be active and solution-oriented. In fact, just like the body, the mind needs to do some workout to stay in good shape. Otherwise, it’ll get slower …
Start by reviewing the sprints of Recursion, Iterations, Each, Map, Filter, Reduce, and Data Structures and go through the toy problems again. The Instructional Team shall give you access to dozens of other toy problems. Of course, there are a lot of toy problems out there classified by levels. Have a look at CodeWars and HackerRank. Employers pay attention to your achievements on these sites. Take care of your mind, take him to the gym every day, and remember! one of these toy problems will be your way to solve the task assigned to you in a job interview and get your first job!
Reading
Reading is a crucial part of your learning journey. Watching tutorials and live code demos may be a good thing. But, it’s far from being enough. There are many multiple Blogging Websites like Medium, Quora, FreeCodecamp, … where you can find interesting subjects to read about.
What to do after a coding Bootcamp
Start with these 3, then follow channels on this list to get your daily read suggestions.
Keep Learning
Because learning is a life-long process, you still have a lot of technologies that are very interesting to discover. Each technology has its own super powers and its own use. I’ve included here some technologies that are worth mentioning.
- TypeScript: Also called HypeScript! The next BIG thing! In a few years, this programming language, very similar to JavaScript, will be the most commonly used programming language, replacing the less mature JavaScript. Yes, you heard it right! JavaScript doesn’t support Typing and that may result in some unexpected behaviors at run time of your application. People tend to learn and use Typescript since it merges the flexible and easy-to-use javascript with the strong typing. You can start at this website Typescript where you can find tutorials and guidelines.
- Java: This is one of the most commonly used and highly on demand programming languages especially on a local scale. Java can be used for both software and web, and mobile development and unlike javascript, it can run everywhere (remember those java games we used to have on our mobile phones). Mastering Java can be a key to expand your knowledge in terms of OOP and get further new job opportunities.Bear in mind that Java is hard to learn especially in the beginning and even installing it and writing your “Hello World” application can be a decent challenge. Don’t be fooled by the name, it has nothing to do with Javascript. So, take it easy with Java and walk with sure steps. I highly recommend Hyperskill by Intellij Academy. It’s paid, but it’s totally worth every penny you’re gonna pay. It has a gamification style that will make you addicted with daily challenges to solve and projects to develop. Furthermore, it offers paths to learn Java and its framework Spring, Kotlin for mobile development, and also paths for algorithms and web development. If you can’t afford that, this website is here for the rescue Learn Java Programming. After finishing with Java, go and discover Spring Framework, the most loved framework that is able to make developing web applications in Java easy and fun. You can find solid documentations and multiple projects to start with on their website https://spring.io/.
- Python: The big snake, used by companies like Google, Netflix, Facebook, Amazon, and Spotify in web development, GUI applications, Data Science and machine learning. Python is one of the most growing programming languages since it is high level, general purpose, and easy to learn and use. Python can be a good addition to your portfolio and it can unveil new pathways for you. Here are some links to get you started with Python:
| Learn Python Programming
| Learn Python 2,The Python Tutorial
| Python 3.9.1rc1 documentation
- Blockchain: The emerging technology that is able to change how the world works. It was brought to light when “Satoshi Nakamutu” launched Bitcoin as a decentralized Peer 2 peer banking system. Since then, we have started to see this magic box implemented in almost every industry from healthcare to supply chain. If you want to get introduced to Blockchain, start by learning about Bitcoin and read its white papers so you can understand the techniques it is using and how it works. Then, start learning about Etheruem, the Blockchain that enabled developers to make Decentralized Applications (Dapps) where we can use the power of decentralization for all kinds of applications.
| Bitcoin white papers
| Bitcoin on Khan Academy
| Intro to Ethereum
| Develop real applications with Ethereum
- More Javascript: If you found yourself much into Javascript, I would like to tell you that besides React, Angular, Vue, NodeJS, and Express there are still a lot of JS technologies out there and much more coming in every now and then. The ecosystem of Javascript is HUGE. You can discover the advanced patterns and good practices of writing code and structuring projects. On the other hand, once you feel you’re good enough with these, you can start discovering new frameworks like Redux, VueX, NestJS, … By adding these technologies to your backpack, you will be eligible for much more job opportunities which is always in your favor.
| React Redux Tutorial
| Higher Order Components in React
| Firebase x React Tutorial
| Angular Architecture Best Practices
| NgRx: State Management in Angular
| NgRx: Example Projects
| Express: Architecture Best practices
| Express: 3 layers Architecture
- Cloud Computing: Developing Applications is good, but deploying applications and making them accessible by users is way better. But, you need to properly structure your code and correctly deploy it so it can handle multiple requests at a time without failing and it can be scalable and sustainable. Challenge yourself to understand new concepts and get into the world of Cloud Computing and DevOps.
| Creating microservices in NodeJS
| Get Trained by AWS
It’s your journey, you create it
Being inspired by the journey of other people is something, and trying to relive their journey is an absolute other thing. You don’t need to follow the same steps of some other people. Their journey was successful because it was theirs. Your journey needs to be customized for you.
So, my advice for you is to keep trying new things until you find what you look for. Don’t settle down. Don’t lose hope. Create your own experience and always remember that no matter how late it could be, your time will surely come.
