The last two months has been both stress filled and inspiring. Well, I guess you're beginning to wonder how one could get inspired while in stress? Take a chill and relax! Here's how it all started.
Here's what I can conclude about SCA Mentoring Program: Getting to learn soft skills together with programming is what best describes this program.
I started learning how to code on my own, few days after schools shut down because of COVID-19. Learning on my own became almost a difficult task, I couldn't keep up with the constant errors with no guide. So, I resorted to contributing to FOSS (Free and Open Source Software). That was the only opportunity I had conversing with developers, since meet ups were totally virtual.
SCA, My First Experience
Here's the better part—I came across Women-of-OSCA, while I was contributing to FOSS and it became a game changer. I made some research about She Codes Africa (SCA) and I quickly realized that SCA mentoring was ongoing. I quickly joined the slack channel and introduced myself in order to get updates for the next cohort.
It was exciting to realize the program involved three months long mentoring package in any field of your choice, for free. Firstly, you need to fill out a form to get selected. Filling your form appropriately is important because, the chances of getting selected depends on how you respond to the essays and your technical assessment. Just like everyone else aspiring to get into the program, I filled the form and added a link to my Node.js technical assessment on GitHub.
My Wait Paid Off
Days grew into weeks, I got a mail to schedule an interview with the SCA screening team. I quickly choose a convenient date for the interview. the interviewer was welcoming, she asked basic questions on how my learning path has been. We got to know a little about each other, and called it a day.
The next phase didn't require much wait. I got a congratulatory mail, and was matched with a mentor and a co-mentee.
We had a person of contact (POC) to advocate between mentees and their mentor. At this point, we had an on-boarding session, the program began!.
The Struggle Was Worth it!
This is the third month so far, and I'll say that I have learnt so much from the program than I would on my own. First, the weekly meetups between the mentor, mentees and POC. Also, the monthly meetings to recount how the program went for the month. Getting to learn soft skills together with programming is what best describes this program. Below is a break down of my learning path in SCA mentoring program cohort-3, Node.js track.
Learning Path
Month 1 (October 2020)
This is the first month of the program. Since the track was for Node.js/Express.js, the mentor mapped out materials to enable us get familiar with javascript. Node.js/Express.js requires that the user already has knowledge about javascript. The goal of our mentor was to ensure we are familiar with javascript to enable us write codes proficiently in Node.js/Express.js.
Week 1: Learn the basics of Javascript
Week 2: Learn the basics of nodeJS
Week 3: Start the 10 days of Javascript Challenge on Hackerrank
Week 4: Complete the 10 days of Javascript Challenge on Hackerrank
Month 2 (November 2020)
This is the second month into the program. This month is considered the toughest month. The first month is mostly an introduction to your learning track, but by the second month, it is assumed you should have gotten a little in-depth knowledge about your learning track. This month we worked on creating test pipelines, setting up development environment, build out API endpoints for applications, connect to MongoDB and deploying application to a production environment.
Week 1: Start Base app for Final Project, Setup a GitHub repository and configure travisCI, Code Climate, and Coveralls for CI/CD and setup Heroku.
Week 2: Setup development Environment (eslint, prettier, babel, testing framework of choice, etc)
Week 3: Build out API endpoints for the Application according to the specification
Week 4: API endpoints should be connected to a mongo database
Month 3 (December 2020)
This is the last month of the training. The task this month is to ensure that the final project for your learning track is ready. This month we worked on perfecting the final project.
Week 1: All endpoints should be completed and connected to the database
Week 2: All endpoints should be protected with JWT
Week 3: All endpoints should be well tested with a test coverage > 80%
Week 4: Create documentation for all endpoints
What's Next, After Baby Steps.
Completing the tasks and staying alive was almost impossible. I guess when I started this article with stress and inspiring, you had doubts. It took a lot of patience and perseverance to complete this program.
I'll love to thank my Mentor @Ekpono for his patience. Also, Bell made this program a success and I would always cherish the moments we had together as co-mentees. How can I ever finish this article without thanking the organizers of this program? SCA has projected my dreams and helped me achieved them without doubts.
Here's a link to my final project at SCA Mentoring program. For me, the next step is searching for Node.js jobs/projects that can help me improve my skills. I am also a technical content writer, I love to share knowledge about my transition from marine engineering to software development.
You can contact me on GitHub, Twitter and LinkedIn. If just like me, you're changing career paths and it seems gloomy, I will be glad to help. Contact me let's talk about impostor syndrome and tips to overcome it, am always open for discussion.