Today is my third work anniversary at Honeypot. Time flies! At just 25, I'm the third 'most ancient employee' of the company.

I started at Honeypot, I began with an Excel sheet reporting the most common programming languages and its frameworks. Today, I just released a 6-hour online course introducing software development, a theoretical course for non-tech people.

And now, something quite unique is happening at Honeypot: A recruiter will become a developer!

In this ongoing series, I’ll be documenting my journey as a junior software developer at Honeypot. If you are interested in web development, career change, or just curious about my path, I’ll publish articles on a regular basis: share the first months, the achievements, the struggles, but most importantly the takeaways of learning, growing and working in tech.

How did I get here?

I’ve been helping developers get onto the Honeypot platform for the past three years. I have no background in IT, Computer Science or related fields. I simply arrived at the company very curious, and eager to discover this uncommon role and from day one, I started to gather information about software development. I soon learned that it's impossible to get everything at once, and the learning never seemed to stop.

Three years of formative knowledge and a nine week coding bootcamp later, and I’m now a junior developer at the same company. Doing the bootcamp was an amazing and intense experience, which gave me the programming basics I needed. If you are unsure about doing a coding bootcamp, just do it. It was the best learning path I could imagine for a complex discipline such as tech.

Although it was overwhelming, I started to document every useful piece of information to help me in my quest for knowledge - all for the sake of understanding and remembering. I quickly learned that tech roles are complex, and the industry itself is recent, and therefore is not as standardised as other domains.

See Technical HR Cheat Sheet by Agathe Badia.

So I decided to dig into specific concepts and go beyond the basic understanding of software development. However, you can't summarise the work of developers and engineers in one article. Tech roles are complex, and the industry itself is recent, therefore not as standardised as other domains. One question would lead to another: what is DevOps? Who is a DevOps Engineer? What is Continuous Integration? What is Test Driven Development? Behaviour-Driven Development? What is Cloud Computing? What are Distributed Systems? Who is a Data Scientist? Who is a Data Engineer?

Discovering one concept was like opening several drawers at the same time.

I’d teach my colleagues these concepts so that they could be more comfortable in their work, and these teachings were soon compiled in an online course for non-tech people. It started with the basics of software development, which eventually became more concrete concepts, all accompanied with further resources.

You’d think that the next step was logical. And still, it seemed I couldn’t figure it out for myself.

It wasn’t until my boss asked that very obvious question: “Would you like to become a developer?”. Why hadn’t I thought of that?

My switch to engineering was not decided overnight. From the day it was suggested and until my final decision, 6 months went by.

At that time, I was a Senior Talent Manager, the most experienced in my team. I was mentoring five colleagues, onboarding each new newcomer, and I knew the product by heart. I was literally living, eating, breathing Talent Management for three years. I was good at it, and I was convinced I would do this for a long time. We all have a colleague who always says ‘Back in the old days, we were doing it this way.’ Well, in my team, that was me. The go-to person, the bookworm of talent management.

As a result, “Would you like to become a developer?” came as unexpected, as a shock. A positive shock though. You don’t hear that from your boss every day.

Then, came the questions, the concerns. I was scared of missing future opportunities within my current team, leaving my leadership responsibilities and starting over as a junior again. The next steps for me was to become a Team Lead, officially. And, let's be realistic, I would not have survived a split between the busiest teams of the company - the Talent Success Management and the Engineering Team.

I also couldn’t ignore the barrage of doubts in my mind. What if coding is too difficult? What if I don’t like it? What if I'm just bad at it?

What if? What if? What if?

I remember taking a long weekend with my boyfriend, out of town, to breath and think about what I truly wanted to do with my life. We sat by a lake, and I just started to throw all the questions I had kept to myself for the past few months.

His reply was everything I needed to move on:

“But what if you just try? You will never know if you never try” - And believe me, he knows. He has been a developer for 10 years.

And that's how I started the switch.

Honeypot was ready to fully support my career change, so I decided to start in the most intense but structured way: a coding bootcamp, which was nine weeks of coding courses to learn the basics of programming, getting used to development tools and workflows, working on the frontend and backend, understanding databases and finally, creating a full application as a team. Sounds like a lot of work for just nine weeks? It was.

It was stressful and frustrating but incredibly rewarding, and when I came back to work, I went straight in as a junior developer. It’s been a few weeks now, with new colleagues, a new workflow, the same product, from a new perspective.

Many, many things happen in the first months of a newbie. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions, achievements, and struggles. But that is a story for another day.

If you are a junior developer, interested in tech, or just entering the beautiful world of the work-life, I’ll happily share my journey to software development, and give insights on the life of a junior dev - like the journal of Bridget Jones, but as a developer.

Is 2020 the worst year to start a career change? Maybe, but it doesn’t mean you’ll fail at it.

I started working at Honeypot in February 2020 as a Junior Developer – my first dev job ever. And since March 12th, the company decided that every employee would work remotely until further notice which was, of course, a sanitary and ethical decision which was accepted by all.

But the decision was not ideal for working. This situation is not ideal for a junior developer.

“Why? Devs can work alone and remote as they wish” you might be thinking.

Well, not that much, especially when you are in a team and need to be aligned with each stakeholder, in addition to your teammates.

To put the cherry on the top, the 16th of March was my first week in a new engineering team. So try to guess how abstract things can be when you haven’t worked with them yet, and you’re not focused on the same topics during sprints.

A whole new woooorld… but remote.

Being remote is fun once or twice a week when you have a 'focus on learning' day to work on a personal project. But when you are used to meeting your team in person, being 100% remote becomes a challenge.

Your routine changes, or what started to be one. It can be upsetting because you need to adjust to something new on top of already adjusting to something new. Joining and attending meetings can also be difficult. Most of the time you’re listening, and sometimes you’re overthinking about how to interact with your new teammates.

What are they talking about?

Should I ask now?

No, I’ll interrupt them.

And I’m not even mentioning the distraction factor.

So, as a junior, it’s really important to keep up with everything. Otherwise, it will be hard to grow and be comfortable with the product you’re working on and the people you are working with.

“Ok, but how do I keep up with everything in this crazy situation?”

I’m really glad you asked. Here are some things I’ve learned over the last month.

Structure your day and keep social links

First, make sure to address your thoughts to your manager. It’s important to keep contact and video call them on a regular basis. Ideally, send them a short morning message with your TO DOs, blockers and questions, especially if you don’t have a sprint's daily meeting, or if you feel insecure about what to say in this meeting.

One focus at a time

Second, focus on one thing at a time. It should be your daily motto, with or without remote work. It’s even more important today since being at home is an easy trap for multitasking.

As a junior, you can’t learn ALL THE THINGS in one day. Be patient with yourself, especially when you think you can learn 24/7 because you can’t go out and you’ve already watched all the Youtube videos and browsed Instagram twice.

So, keeping these things in mind, take the time to structure your day so you can achieve your tasks, one at a time.

Create a board to prioritize your tasks (Trello, Notion, your notebook!), and do your own personal standup, to make sure you have everything you need to achieve during your day! Ask yourself:

• What did you work on yesterday?
• What are you working on today?
• What are the blockers preventing you from achieving it? What action points can help you with that?

I can’t describe how amazing it feels to check all the boxes at the end of the day!

You have too many tasks for the day? Don’t worry! Keep realistic goals and communicate when things are getting out of hand. Your manager will most likely understand.

Also, doing things well, but slowly, is way better… ;)

Imagine having three tickets to work on in one day. Two are bugs and the last one seems to be an easy feature to implement. “Challenge accepted! I can do it quickly.” At 6 pm you indeed added, committed and pushed - opened all pull requests. But you will soon realise that you forgot to write an acceptance test, called your manager three times because you were stuck on three different tickets (and they weren't available each time), you burst into tears at 4 pm because you spent one hour on an unexpected bug, and you forgot to eat and take breaks.

It’s far from being a pleasant day. Do yourself a favor and avoid this behavior as much as possible. It will help you even more to focus on learning, as well as remembering all those new concepts for future practice!

Take it easy

Yes, you have a lot to learn. Yes, it’s overwhelming. Yes, it’s not ideal to be stuck at home and blocked on a ticket.

You are not alone. Make sure you have the support you need in your team. And no, you are not a burden, so don’t stay mute on Slack when you clearly need help. It’s part of the learning process!

Pair programming is the best way to learn (from my personal experience), and communication apps do wonders nowadays. Slack allows both users to write on the shared screen, which is very convenient to show a line of code, keeping everyone focused on the right thing. And also draw flowers, because why not.

Zoom has fun backgrounds to add to your video chat which can hide the mess you have in your flat (because sorting your clothes is never the most fun activity).

What you should keep in mind

On a personal level, create a healthy routine to structure your day, and communicate and share with your teammates. Do one thing at a time, while learning one thing at a time. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to learn so much (and have the time for it!), but spamming your brain with too much information will not help for recollection.

Finally, feeling stuck is a typical situation junior devs will face, and not only once in their lifetime. Asking for help remotely should not be seen as a problem, but as a great opportunity to learn from and bond with each teammate during this uncertain and isolated time.

What the team should keep in mind

On a team level, I highly recommend that you check the reports and articles below to embrace team dynamic and get the best of remote work! Being remote does not mean we do not care for each other, nor should it decrease productivity. Go remote teams!

If you are not a junior dev, but you have a new colleague in your team, make sure to check on them throughout the week. Inclusion is key, and they will thank you for that <3

• Get the Most Out of Remote Work by Futurice
• The Best Advice for Remote Work by Trello
• What you Need to Know About Transitioning to Remote Work by Donut
• The Ultimate Guide to Remote Meetings in 2020 by Slack

I completed a coding bootcamp at Le Wagon a few months ago in order to switch to a junior developer position. My takeaways? The most intense and fun times as a student. I was impressed I could learn so much in nine weeks! In this article, I will share my personal experience with Le Wagon - to give you more context - but I’m not preventing you from joining other bootcamps! My goal is to help you to ask yourself the right questions, and find what fits best for YOU.

Hold on… What’s a bootcamp?

I’ll make it short: a coding bootcamp is a short, intensive, and rigorous course of training. It’s not an easy thing, but if you are curious, eager to go back to studies, a bootcamp might help you to go through a career change, without going through a university or private school degree (and spend years on it).

If you are interested in a coding bootcamp but can't decide on the perfect one, there are a few things to take into account and questions to ask yourself.

The program's content

When considering a coding bootcamp, you have to think about what you really want to learn, as there are so many paths to go down. Do you want to develop an application? To design one? Or perhaps play with data? Ask yourself concrete questions: What interests me the most? Do you want to discover the hidden side of applications and dig into backend development, or on the visual/user side with frontend? Or both? Or is coding the right field you would like to study? Should it be something else?

I personally was looking for an introduction to fullstack development. Le Wagon offers this in its bootcamp.

The tech stack used

Yes, developers can learn many, many programming languages, but if you want to start, make sure to do it with the ones you are the most interested in. If you are unsure, I recommend the Developer Survey by Stackoverflow. It gives a very good insight about the technologies developers use today, and can be a starting point for your personal research.

For me, it was important to do a bootcamp matching the technologies Honeypot is using: Ruby, Ruby on Rails and JavaScript. Le Wagon is teaching it! So it was a perfect fit for me.

The learning format

Let’s face it. A bootcamp is a ‘back to school’ process. Be prepared to have stricter rules and schedules (once again).

I personally really enjoyed university, so it was not a problem. As an example, LeWagon requires you to be 15 minutes early before starting the first lecture of the day. If you are late, or absent, it will be noted by the teacher. If it becomes a habit, you will hear from them.

Commitment during a bootcamp is essential. If it becomes too difficult for you, don’t hesitate to communicate as early as possible.

So what does a day at a coding bootcamp look like?

At Le Wagon (I imagine many bootcamps are similar), you will start the day at 8:45am, with a cup of coffee or tea and chat with your fellow student before the lecture at 9:00am. Usually, it lasts two hours and it’s focused on a single programming concept that you will need to apply later on with exercises.

Then, with a buddy, you have the rest of the day to work on those exercises. If you are both stuck, you are able to ask for a teaching assistant (a former bootcamp graduate). It’s important to mention that they are bootcamp graduates because they empathize with your struggles - simply because they went through the same thing before.

At the end of the day, at around 5:00pm, everyone returns to class for live coding. Here we recap the learnings of the day and few students come to the board and code with the teacher.

So you can see the whole day is packed and it’s important to be in the right mental state for the commitment.

The medium

What is your current situation? Do you have a choice of bootcamps in your city? Do you feel like learning from time to time, wherever you like? It’s important to take your location and the time dedicated into account. Many cities all over the world offer courses locally.

Personally I wanted to study on-site, and keep this scholar atmosphere. Studying remote is very tempting, but it’s not as motivating and energizing as being with other students and the direct help of teachers.

The length of the program

Coding bootcamps are usually 2-3 months long. If you are able to take long holidays or just leave your current job for it - first, I respect that! It’s not an easy decision. Second, would you be ready to dedicate the time for it?

I personally needed to have a full-time focus on coding, which is the case for most bootcamps available. But there are new options emerging, such as part-time bootcamps, with 2-3 days per week - usually at night - for students who are not able to be there full-time. Le Wagon started it recently, and it lasts 6 months.

The pricing

Be aware of the payment conditions. Also, according to some, the state is able to help you financially. Make sure to discuss it with each bootcamp you are interested in; they will give you a better insight.

A full-time coding bootcamp at Le Wagon costs 6500 EUR. Other bootcamps can be less or more expensive. It’s an investment, so be sure to spend it on THE ONE ;)

What to expect from a coding bootcamp:

Daily structure

The structure is very school-like: Concepts are explained during a morning lecture, then applied in exercises for the rest of the day, and repeated one last time during a live coding session with the class. I really enjoyed this format, especially if you are not sure where to start and focus on as a self-taught developer.

All-in or nothing

If you choose to take part in a coding bootcamp, be prepared and organise your everyday life according to your studies. It's not an easy period - it's intense and sometimes frustrating, but extremely rewarding and encouraging. Why? Because you are not alone, and you are likely with students who also have no clue about programming as well - in the beginning, at least.

At Le Wagon, I spent 8 to 10 hours a day at the school. I usually did not go out after, because the day is intense and it drains your energy. If you are okay with less parties during weekdays, focus your evening resting (ideally NOT on a screen) and going to sleep early.

I spent my evenings mostly cooking for the next day, which is quite soothing, and gives you time to prepare balanced meals (it was quite important for me, especially because my bootcamp was in the middle of winter, in Berlin!)

Make friends

This bootcamp was also a great opportunity to meet people from many different backgrounds in one class - some were in marketing, design, administration, sales, banking, education, sport and even art.

This supportive and inclusive environment helped me a lot through the tense moments (you know - when nothing is working because you missed a semi-colon and you can't find it anywhere) in the early stages of becoming a developer.

Today I’m still meeting my buddies, checking on their job hunt, and current projects. Most of them are still in Berlin, and as a former recruiter, I’m also helping them to prepare their CVs, job interviews, and a few of them became teaching assistants themselves.

Making that final decision

So, is it the right thing for you? If you are still asking yourself, it’s probably a first (and good) step to continue your research.

If you are currently working, and your company is open for career change and personal growth, don’t hesitate to ask your manager. Someone switching team, even as a junior, can bring a fresh insight and still know the product well, but from another perspective.

Now bootcamps are getting popular, they develop different options for people to learn (location-wise, time-wise, etc.). And some are recognized by the state and offer financial help, if you are willing to continue your studies, or if you are unemployed.

You can continue your research by checking the top ranked coding bootcamps by SwitchUp, and I wish you success in your quest.

I still remember my first day like it was yesterday. I was setting up my machine with a colleague. I had no idea what was going on, I felt overwhelmed for a while and even questioned myself about my career choices.

“Why did I decide to become a developer again?”

It hasn’t been a calm journey. Changing mentors, changing teams, not focusing on the right things, and COVID-19 forcing me to work remotely since my second month.

But I learned so much from it! That’s the perk of being a junior developer. There will be days where you make mistakes, and that’s normal. Everyone does. There’s even a saying for it: all devs mess up on one day in production.

So, here’s what I’ve learned in the last six months (don’t worry, I’m not about to upload my codebase ;) )

The importance of keeping focused

Yes, it’s obvious, but you can easily get distracted if you don’t keep it as a top priority.

Here is my personal experience:

As a former tech recruiter in the same company where I am now, I completed numerous projects and continued to receive suggestions from other teams: “Can you do a presentation of our platform to bootcamp graduates?” “Can you share your transition into tech at online events?” “Can you be a remote speaker for our next webinar?”The requests seemed endless.

Why did I say yes to them?

Because I liked the idea, the aim, but also how easy it is, compared to programming.

At the moment, it takes about a week to work on a ticket from the start until its deployment. It takes only a couple of hours to get everything ready for a presentation on tech interviews for bootcamp students.

When I was filling other requests outside of my programming work, I grew in confidence, and they were more efficient and faster to complete. And, let’s be honest, it was part of my comfort zone. But at this time, I had no idea I was getting side-tracked.

That’s why it’s important to:

• Keep clear priorities and goals, even if you have to repeat it to yourself every day.
• Be surrounded by a caring team/manager/mentor, who are not afraid to put you back on track.

The first point is easy to do. As a junior developer, you need to constantly learn. Easy, you might think. I thought I was learning, but it was clearly ineffective. We’ll get to that in a minute. What really helped me understand that I was doing too many non-tech projects were my team and my mentor. This wake-up call allowed me to take a step back and see that I was spending half days doing things that are not even part of a dev role.

I still remember it as the best feedback I ever received, and helped me reflect on my experience so far. So, here are a couple of takeaways.

1. Spend more time on learning.

Even if the learning is totally out of your comfort zone. Even if you have to say no to easier work. Otherwise, you won’t grow and will stay stuck in a role with very basic skills. Give yourself a few goals, define them as your priorities and recite them as your motto.

2. Focus on your priorities

You’ve set and defined your goals; now focus on them. You need to learn and learn well. We’re not geniuses. We need time to understand, remember and repeat our learnings (or remember our mistakes), and even more so in software development, where things can get abstract pretty fast.

3. Get a mentor, ASAP

Don’t be like me. Don’t go on a hunt for an online course that will explain everything to you about a framework. They don’t exist, and they can’t answer you when something is unclear.

And don’t get me started about books and courses being obsolete because the technologies grow super fast.

What really helped me is the support of a mentor. It can be someone at the office, from your school/university, a friend, or even someone you met at an event or workshop. I had the opportunity to have a mentor who is passionate about and has a great experience in the domain. Big thank you Ronnie if you read this article :)

Having a mentor is not only about someone being there to answer your questions. It’s also a great way to structure your way of learning, together, with a more experienced developer.

It might be overwhelming to keep all of these points in mind. But I’ll add one, which is probably the most important: Be patient with yourself. Learning can be at the top of your list, but also the most challenging.

At the end of the day, we’re just human beings, trying to do our best, from home, when the wifi allows it. There will be good days, there will be bad ones.

Give yourself time, and when you will reflect on what you’ve done, for the past 6 months, a year, you will see how much you learned!

If you are interested in becoming a mentee, there will be a following article about Mentorship & Learnings. In the meantime, feel free to check these resources to help you to find a mentor:

• Codementor
• CoderDojo
• Codebar
• RookieUp
• MentorCruise
• Exercism
• Tips to find a developer mentor by Sitepoint

Back in February 2020, I was struggling with learning a framework. I honestly had no idea on where to start, and I was stagnating with very basic understanding. This is when I realized I needed a mentor to help in my learning journey!

Luckily, I had the chance to partner with a colleague who had been a mentor before and he immediately took me under his wing. Thank you, Ronnie — if you read this article :)

If you’re interested in becoming a mentor, or a mentee interested in bringing more structure to your mutual project, here are a few tips from my personal experience:

Your goals and priorities

My personal and main goal is to learn and be more comfortable using a specific framework. My mentor, as a Senior Frontend Developer, suggested creating a common project from scratch, using only this framework. I decided my project would be to create a forum. A forum has a lot of functionalities and enough material to dig deeper into the framework and its mysteries.

But there are a bunch of different ideas you can also check out if you want to start your own project from scratch :)

How much time can you spend working together

We spend two hours per week pair programming. For me, I find it’s just enough time to learn, ask questions while staying focused. But also not too much time out of our work-related tasks.

Learning time is something you can discuss with your manager. The more, the better. The minimum in my opinion would be 1h30 per week, to be effective.

How do you want to reach these goals? How do you want to structure it?

Finally, the structure. I guess your mentor will talk you through it, but keep in mind that your sessions need to have their own goal:

→ At the end of the session, we have worked on data models, form validations, etc.

For example, a typical session for me is a recap from the last session, my mentor will then share the main goals of today’s session: e.g. Ember Data Model & Create your first model. He will lead the first part of the session, to introduce the topic, and then we will pair program to implement what we just learned.

Benefits of having a mentor

Asking any question, anytime

Of course, having a mentor is also an amazing opportunity to ask ALL THE THINGS!

If you have to be at ease with one developer, ideally it would be this person. You shouldn’t feel stupid or embarassed to ask a question or need them to repeat something. It’s part of the learning process, we all have been through it, your mentor first ;)

Broaden your understanding outside of company codebase

Working on this side project helped me so much when it came to understanding concepts I did not get from the company codebase. By creating something from scratch, you and your mentor go through the most basic to the most advanced parts of the codebase. The codebase is more familiar and less impressive than a company’s one :)

This project takes time, but it’s perfect to learn at a moderate pace. It won’t spam your brain with too much information and gives more room for questions and discussions.

Gain confidence with your own skills!

After working on my first project with my mentor, I went through all the commits we did since the beginning, to see all the concepts we went through. That was a lot. I felt so proud to see how much I learned, and I can see how impactful it is in my everyday work. Mentorship is not only about learning, but also about becoming confident in yourself, what you learn, and all the things you will learn.

Conclusion

Give yourself time, be patient when it comes to learning. You are not in a race, you don’t have to understand everything and be an expert in 6 months. Nobody will expect that from you, so don’t pressure yourself in your journey.

There will be small steps, there will be bigger ones. Keep learning, even if it requires more time and effort. Do it slowly. You are building your own foundation in software development. Today is probably the most important part of your learning journey.

Do it slowly, but surely.

Here are resources to start your network and find mentors:

• Codementor
• CoderDojo
• Codebar
• RookieUp
• MentorCruise
• Exercism
• Tips to find a developer mentor by Sitepoint

Here are resources to find project ideas:

• 21 Interesting Web Development Project Ideas for Beginners by Arjun Mathur
• App Ideas you can build to Level Up your Coding Skills by Florin Pop
• Projects to Practice Your Web Development Skills by Gaurav Belani