100 Days of Code?

Unless they’re just pure mercenaries who went through some certification classes and are now that person on your team who doesn’t do anything, most software developers will tell you that the way they learned how to code was by coding.? For most of us, that meant something like copying and learning simple patterns from some resources, then trying out some kinds of ? programming exercises, and eventually learning more and being able to tackle harder problems, longer projects, etc.??

I wrote an article recently where I questioned the uses to which the idea of “100 Days of Code” have been put -- not because it isn’t a great idea as a starting point (it is), but because I believe that for many of us, the process takes longer than that.? However, I discussed this with a friend, and he thought that if you were to commit your coding projects every day in a well-documented way to GitHub, you could easily refer to that and at least apply for internships after just a short time.

The coop software development boot camp that I’m envisioning would definitely take as a starting point some of the discussions I’ve had with this friend, with a focus in the first lessons on mastering basic Markdown, Git, and GitHub, so that results could be published from the outset, and only later moving on to programming in Python at a basic level first, then moving on advanced language topics and finally to specialized projects based on individual student interests.?

Honestly, I still think 100 days is an unrealistic time frame for most folks, but I am curious for those of you who’ve gotten your first job, what did that whole process look like?? For me, I was self-taught before boot camps were available.? This was in the early 1990s.? From my first C book to my first entry level tech job (not yet a developer but well on my way), the time involved for me was three years.? I was in my early 30s, my daughter was born during that time, and I was working full time while studying when I could.

Since then, I’ve heard a few other folks say it took them four years.? On the other hand, my experience with Year Up students has taught me that students got their programming internships after only a year of training.? That seems to be the time frame for boot camp students as well, but I haven’t heard from a lot of folks who’ve broken in recently what their time frame looked like.? Were you self-taught?? Boot camp?? CS degree?

What did the journey look like for you?? How long did it take?