The first Phase of Flatiron: a Post for the Prospective, and a Reminder to Current Students

It’s a late Saturday evening just before the beginning of February — marking not only the second month of 2021 but the second phase of the Flatiron School’s first 2021 cohort. I’ve just gotten around to putting some words down on paper for a blog post, as required by the 15-week in total intensive bootcamp curriculum, which I’ll need to present on in just under two days’ time. This will be a first for me — which in the past three weeks there have been many of — and is coincidently the first chance I’ve had to really reflect on my progress. The first phase of the full-time curriculum for Flatiron’s online intensive course is a fast-paced ride that will without a doubt, continue to make true on its promises that the program’s title suggests; a full-time and intensive experience.

If there’s anything that the first phase taught me it’s that “getting comfortable with being uncomfortable” (to quote something the FIS staff will say many times over) is not just a requirement, but a given side effect that you may not realize you’re picking up until you finally take a moment to catch your breath. In the first week alone you’ll go from casually perusing reading material on what makes an efficient programmer and iterating over arrays and hashes a few hours a day in the (mostly Ruby focused) pre-work to plunging into a sea of labs, new concepts, and building on everything you thought you knew about coding in pair programming exercises for gruelingly long days that seem to only last minutes. Now breathe. It’s the weekend, that was a mouthful… and there are about 20 labs you need to complete by Monday to really feel as though you are caught up. Because once you’re behind, you’ll find that you will stay behind if you don’t put in the time. That’s an additional 3 to 4-hour minimum daily workload on top of the already 9-hour day for those that like to slowly digest what they’re learning like I do. Now here’s the strangest thing about it: you’ll love every minute of it.

By the second week you’ll be preparing for the first code challenge, which is exactly what it sounds like. A challenge… of code… and a phrase you’ll come to dread every time you hear it mentioned. For those that feel the need to take their time with their digesting of material like myself, you’ll soon discover that this challenge arrived faster than you expected, and you are many labs away from fully understanding the material. But you are not alone. The greatest part of the Flatiron School experience so far, and the greatest feeling of relief I can remember in the last few weeks, was when I realized the cohort and I were in this together. For those who are feeling this way now, or might be feeling this way soon, not a single person there is feeling any different from you. Well, there may be one. There’s always that one student who is five steps ahead of everyone else and never loses their cool. and maybe that will be you, but it certainly didn’t feel like me. Regardless, once you come to this realization, you’ll experience the unparalleled joy of being a part of a collective of amazingly talented individuals who are all completely and utterly as “behind” as you. Because in truth, you’re not behind. You’re exactly where you need to be. Although, you may feel that you’re walking the Vantasner Danger Meridian line to quote a favorite show of mine, Patriot — which if you’re familiar with, you should be able relate to the protagonist, John Lakeman, in more ways than you might appreciate at that moment. Although, you will, like John, finally discover the support you needed from within your unexpected allies.

Having found this support and absolutely crushed the code challenge like the nimble software-engineer-to-be that you are, you will also come to value the time you have to yourself. That is not to say the sharing of knowledge in return for knowledge isn’t going to be a major resource — it will, however, you will need to supplement your understanding by independent research. Especially coming into week three. The final week of phase one, and what might be the most enjoyable: project week! The moment you finally get to apply all you’ve learned in the last few weeks to a culmination project in which you’ll be tasked to build a simple command line application with a member of your cohort. Without going into specifics of the project, I consider this to be one of the most productive feeling weeks of the phase. I was able to walk away with a working application that I genuinely enjoyed creating. On top of this productivity is a crisp layer of something inherently relaxing. Being able to focus on one project spanning multiple days. From the first commit on git-hub to completion, you and your partner both will make long hours feel short as the days go by and you slowly print the big picture of why you’re here. The hours spent in coding class will likely bleed into the hours spent coding out of class. As you both go your separate ways (or not) for the day, you may find yourself building on what you learned until the late hours of the evening. These are the hours that I appreciate the most. The hours that I spend learning the things that that I want to learn not because I’m being taught, but because I’m learning the little details that only arise by doing. By trying — and failing — and trying again — and learning.

This is when I finally felt caught up. When I finally took a moment to appreciate what I’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time and recognize that no matter how hard this feel at times, I’ve started to grow comfortable with being uncomfortable. This is me now, taking this moment to reflect, mentally prepare myself for the weeks to come, and reminding anyone else to do the same. By the time you present your phase one masterpiece (or minimum viable masterpiece), your eyes and brain will have decided to hate you more than they have in the last three weeks of constant strain. You’ll end the day feeling accomplished, having completed phase one with only a blog left to write, ready to take finally catch a breath, and about 20 more labs to catch up on by Monday.