A little background about myself before I begin to talk about my decision to sign up for Northcoders.

I currently work in HR/finance for a company in the retail sector. I've been in this role for 3 years now but have worked for the company for 13 years. I worked my way up through the company throughout the years, originally starting with them as a shopfloor worker when I was 18. I then moved up to team management then store management before moving into a HR/finance role.

This has been the only company I have ever worked for which could be a positive or a negative depending on how you look at it. I have gained invaluable experience from my time there though and have enjoyed every minute of it.

I thought to look into the world of coding after deciding that I would like to challenge myself and begin to learn a skill. I haven't really engaged my brain and learn't something new for a good few years now so wanted to test myself and work towards a new career goal. I started by looking into some online learning courses - mainly Udemy. I started making my way through a basic Javascript course and talked to a couple of my friends who work as developers. It didn't take me long to decide that this was something I wanted to pursue so I kept making my way through the Udemy course. It was a really enjoyable course, I absolutely loved that feeling of a passing test! Much success. Very code.

I started looking into ways in which I could begin a junior dev role - not overly simple when you haven't had to look into a new career for a number of years or switched jobs. I wasn't overly confident in myself to start with due to the above, this was when I found Northcoders. I came across them after my friend mentioned them, he had heard good things about the calibre of junior devs that where come from the bootcamp. I began looking into the possibility of joining the course after looking over the blogs, YouTube videos and testimonials of graduated students. I was really excited and put an application in.

I heard back from Maddison within a couple of days to say my application had been accepted, they're really communicative and update you through the process. I was then directed to some learning material and how to book in an entry exam. I was obviously pretty nervous about the entry exam, I hadn't been put through an exam in years. I had only had a couple of months learning tops. Actually I was really nervous.

Working through some of the Codewars katas that we had been directed to and joining the Northcoders drop in sessions started to boost my confidence. I was hoping to join the January 2021 cohort so I hastily booked in my entry exam a couple of weeks after applying.

Entry exam day came, I was super nervous and also excited - potentially the start of a whole new chapter in my life! Dave from Northcoders spoke to me over Zoom , he was really nice and welcoming and put me at ease. We had a little chat before I started my exam. He explained what the requirements where and asked if I was comfortable to proceed. I confirmed I was and I started the exam. My mind froze, I made silly mistakes, I failed the exam. I hadn't been put through an exam for maybe 8 years. It was really disappointing but I just wasn't ready. I spoke to Dave afterwards and we went through a couple of my answers and things I struggled with. He was great, explained some of the things I had maybe not understood properly and was complementary on the code that I had written. Regardless, I was dissapointed with myself and spoke to Maddison over the next few days about the next steps. I was advised not to give up and spend some more time practising some of the basics in time for the next cohort in March.

I spent the next few weeks balancing learning with my job but started to feel more comfortable on some of the topics I struggled with on the first entry exam. I attended more drop in sessions and completed some more Codewars katas. I booked my second entry exam at the end of February 2021.

The second entry exam day came and again I was nervous, probably more nervous than the first as even though I knew what to expect, I'd put more pressure on myself to do better this time and get a place on the cohort. For this exam, Liam joined the Zoom chat. Again he was really nice and made me feel comfortable. We went through the same procedure as the first time and I started the exam. Thankfully, this one went much better. I solved more questions and was fairly happy with where I'd got to by the end of the hour. Liam had a look over my code and seemed pretty happy with what I had completed. He said that he would pass on to Maddison who I would hear back from in a few days about how I did but seemed to insinuate that I had done well :)

I heard back from Maddison a couple of days later. I had passed the exam and was offered a place on the cohort! I was so happy! 13 years of being in the same career and I had the chance to make a huge change in my life. I accepted the offer straight away! We spoke about options on when I could join the cohort and payment. I confirmed that I wanted to start on the next cohort. The course is quite expensive but I was willing to part with the money as I had seen a lot of really good testimonials and reviews about the course. I was advised by Maddison to work through the pre-course information I had been sent in preparation for the start of the cohort.

I spent the next few weeks juggling the pre-course work with my job and setting up my dev environment ready for the first day. I was really excited and nervous in equal measure. A big change in my life was about to begin.