From teacher to developer – my journey this year

About a year ago I dropped a bombshell on the senior management at school. I had decided I wanted to take a year out of teaching to learn how to program, develop websites and overall have a better understanding of what it is all about.

Reasons why I wanted to do this:

• I couldn’t see myself teaching PE for much longer (injuries, loss of interest)
• I wanted to understand programming, HTML/CSS, web development so I could move over into Digital Technology
• an increased interest and passion for creating websites/programmes
• and I got really tired last year with being in a school – needed to get refreshed.

During 2014 I had found out about Enspiral Dev Academy and decided this was where I was going to go to learn the craft of web development. Earlier in the year I had halfheartedly considered the idea of going back to university and doing a year or few but decided against even a year due to it being a year and not being able to work for that time.

What appealed about EDA was that it was short (19 weeks in total), the first nine weeks was done remotely (so I could still work), the bootcamp part – learning with others, learning in an environment that was similar to what it would be like in industry, instructors who have worked in industry, the help that was offered with getting a job. All of these things aren’t available in a traditional tertiary training institution.

It has been quite a journey at EDA and I have documented it with previous blog posts – the last one being “Phase 3 and Final Project – Dev Academy“. I have had an amazing time this year and have learnt a huge amount.

There a lot of take aways form this year:

• my learning
• the experiences I have had – individually and with others
• the people I have meet, learnt with, grown with, cried and laughed with
• the rollercoaster ride of emotions
• and that you are never too old or too stuck to change.

The best take away for this year is the people I have meet and the connections I have made. Life is about people and I have meet some amazing ones this year. Many who are embarking on or are on the same journey as me. It is exciting to be part of an ever growing community that is Enspiral Dev Academy. It will be intriguing to see where we all are in the years to come and how much of a positive impact we have made on the tech industry as well as within other areas of society, particularly education.

I have to give a HUGE shout out to my lovely wife. This year would not have happened if it wasn’t for her all encompassing love and support.

During my journey I started to think about whether I wanted to head back to school in 2015. As it turns out I don’t. This was for a few reasons but overall it came down to wanting to focus on my own and my families well being. So I resigned awhile ago and started to seriously look for a junior developer job. This was stressful and required thoughtful consideration (I am planning a future blog post about what I think is useful to do when looking for a job in the tech industry).

I have now kind of come full circle, in that I have accepted a job as a junior developer at Flick Electric Co.

I am excited and scared at the same time. I am looking forward to a lot more learning and working closely with others to help develop a product and create a positive culture that will have a positive impact.

I am also hoping to keep my hand in the education sphere by helping out Gather Workshops with some Ruby stuff, getting involved with RailsGirls, maybe Code Club Aotearoa and helping out alumni and current students at EDA.

So, that is the year that was! Phew!