My Experience at Horizons Coding Bootcamp

This past summer (June ’17 — Sept ’17) I spent my full three months at The Horizons School of Technology learning how to code! Crazy, right? What idiot would spend a full summer, especially their last summer before the real world, learning how to code? Me! Well to be fair…I finished school December of 2016 and took 8 months off before my full time job in September so it wasn’t that much of a sacrifice. But still, three months of 12 hour days staring at a screen is tough, but in the end it was well worth it.

I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a dual degree in Accounting and Finance. Prior to Horizons, I had no experience with coding besides Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which is only used in Microsoft excel (i.e. only business kids use it). Creating spreadsheets, analyzing market structures, SWOT analyses, and balancing Assets with Liabilities and Equity was all I knew. I always had a ton of ideas but never knew how to execute them and bring them to life.

In February, 2 months after graduation, I was crashing on my friend Asif’s couch back on campus and I promised myself I would use my time wisely. I wanted to create a website so I took the first step — I bought a domain. That was the easy part, but then I had to learn how to actually build it. I began running through Code Academy tutorials and learned how to write in HTML and CSS. The tutorials were very basic but helped me begin to understand coding, different syntax’s, and the dreaded debugging.

While I was dividing my time between studying for the GMAT, reading, and attempting to learn to code, Asif told me about a coding bootcamp that he enrolled in for the summer. At first, I was skeptical, but I decided to do a little more research and see if it would really be worth it. I didn’t have much money and was Ubering on the side to make some extra cash, so dishing out $10,000, that I didn’t have, for a 3-month coding camp had me erring on the side of caution.

I reached out to some of my friends who code and they all gave me pretty much the same advice: If you’ve got the cash, then go for it but at the end of the day you can learn this on your own. Made sense, right? 90% of coding is Googling documentation and learning from others, so why pay money for a camp?

Personally, I learn better when I am in a structured program and am able to get guidance when need be. Most of the time during college I would learn on my own and ask for help from the teacher/TA whenever I needed it. However, having projects and exams really helped solidify the knowledge. Learning on my own was more difficult as I would get distracted easily and since there weren’t any deadlines, progress was slow.

So, I decided to bite the bullet and commit to the bootcamp. I applied to many different camps and weighed my options before committing to Horizons. I pulled out a loan and put money down for the summer. Here I was, already in debt and living off the little money I had to pay for my 8-month vacation, and I was pushing myself further into debt. But let me tell you, it was definitely worth it.

What did you learn from the bootcamp?

Throughout the 3 months, I learned to write both front-end and back-end code in JavaScript. Class was structured as Monday-Friday from 9am — 6pm with lectures from 9am — 12pm and partner coding from 1pm — 6pm. Lectures were either in person or pre-recorded videos. On Fridays we would usually have a deep-dive into certain topics and a review of the week. The coding challenges on those days consisted of mini projects that would tie together learning from the current and preceding weeks.

The first 2 weeks we focused on front-end and learned HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and jQuery. On top of the CSS, we learned Bootstrap and Flexbox, which made everyone wonder “Why does anyone bother with front-end?”. The next two weeks were spent on building back-end skills like, learning how to work with servers, databases, sockets, promises, and touching on cyber security. During this time we made basic versions of Facebook, Amazon, Momentum to solidify our learnings. The week after was spent getting familiar with writing in ES6 and learning React, and Redux. The last week of learning was spent working with React Native and dabbling in mobile development.

After those 7 weeks of learning, we had a few paths we could follow:

1. Start up — Spend the remaining 5 weeks working on your own idea or a startup you currently have.
2. Further Learning — Spend 2 weeks on 2 different projects (a schedule bot for Slack and a simpler version of Google Docs) and then 3 weeks on your own project.
3. Job Prep — Get introduced to algorithms, data structures, and sample job interview questions. This was for those looking to jump into a software development gig after. Job Prep lasted 3 weeks and the last 2 were spent working on your own project.

I chose to create a mix of #1 and #2. I worked on creating a schedule bot for Slack, which I named Snoop Dogg, and then spent 3 weeks working on my own project, which was a simple travel app. You could put in a starting location, decide what you wanted to eat, drink, and see in that town, and the app would aggregate all of this information. Then you could dynamically create an itinerary for your trip, where the search engine rendered new options based off the new location. Finally, you would see your itinerary and get it emailed to you and be on your way.

What was the bootcamp like?

Honestly, it was like drinking from a fire hose most of the time. There was so much information constantly being thrown at me and I had to ensure I was keeping up with the daily material. Falling behind wasn’t an option, since it was a struggle to pick up the following concepts alone. But hey, it’s called a bootcamp for a reason, right?

The program usually ended around 6pm every day but the first 5 weeks consisted of longer hours since we plowed through a lot of material. For those who came in with coding background/experience, the day ended early, but I was usually stuck working on the day’s project until around 9pm. I would hit the gym around 6pm to get away from my computer and blow off some steam and then I’d come back and continue coding a little longer.

It was tough. Sometimes I would get very frustrated because I was exhausted. Sometimes I would feel defeated after hours and hours of unsuccessful debugging. Most of the time I felt lost and I thought I was way behind many of my peers. Towards the end of the camp, while I was working on my travel app, I saw my long hours of coding and many hours of frustration come to fruition. Things started clicking and I began to not need the help of the TA’s as much anymore. I began to feel confident enough to code without any hand holding, not because I became a kick-ass coder, but rather because the camp taught me how to learn to code. In other words, when I was stuck on a problem I knew what tricks I could use to debug and how to research and test out different paths to a solution, but most importantly: Horizons gave me the confidence to want to learn anything thrown my way.

Why did you eventually decide on Horizons?

I applied to many different programs, some abroad, some within the US. Each taught a slightly different curriculum, but were located in some cool places. I decided on Horizons due to a few factors:

1. The Network — Horizons has had some awesome and successful people join the program. Students from top schools like Yale, Princeton, U-Penn, UIUC (shameless plug), and more were admitted to the program. The application for Horizons was different than the applications for other programs I applied to. It was certainly more challenging and there were many steps I had to take before a formal acceptance, including a lengthy written application, a 35-minute assessment, and a coding interview. The challenge was a sign that they were looking for high performers, which was exciting to see.
2. The Speakers — We had many famous people come and speak during the program such as Keith Rabois, Punit Soni, and Bing Chen. It was awesome to see such successful and influential people take the time to speak to a bunch of college kids. Being so early on in our lives, it was valuable to hear their perspectives on tech, life, and career building.

Most coding bootcamps are pretty similar in how they are structured and what they offer but these factors helped push me towards choosing Horizons over other programs.

What did you enjoy about Horizons?

The biggest thing I enjoyed about Horizons had the be the culture of the camp. It was a bunch of college kids, spending a summer struggling together to work on their coding skills. There was always energy in the room and each person brought something unique to the table. There were a lot of talented individuals in the program who were more than happy to help each other learn.

Some students formed a cryptocurrency group and learned how blockchain works, others joined a design group and learned about tools and techniques used by UI/UX designers, and some people joined a group focused on creating technology solutions focused on mental health. There were a variety of groups, but the beauty of it was that you could create any group or take on any initiative you wanted, and you would find people who were interested and willing to help.

It’s difficult to find such a highly motivated and hard-working group of individuals who really are dedicated to bettering themselves and those around them. It was stimulating to have been surrounded by these people and it really pushed me to learn more and create more.

Would you choose to do a coding camp again? Would it be Horizons or somewhere else?

Choosing to do a coding bootcamp came out of left field for me. However, it was an awesome experience that exposed me to a different side of life that I wasn’t used to. Before Horizons, I never realized breadth and depth of the tech world and now I am inspired to keep learning about technology. If I had to go back in time, I would choose to learn to code again and I undoubtedly would choose Horizons.

There are many intangible benefits to choosing to do a bootcamp, like Horizons. Of course the price tag was pretty high, but I came out of it a better and more educated person. I saw it as an investment in myself because it was a unique opportunity that allowed me to better myself and grow as an individual.

During camp I made some awesome friends who I know I will be staying in touch with for a long time to come. After the program, I felt that I learned way more in those 3 months than I did in many of my college classes, which is sad to say but true.

Horizons is a relatively young program, and it is still growing and developing. Just like any other start-up or new business there are always kinks to work out and areas of improvement. The most important thing that I saw in the leadership and staff was that: they were honest and hard-working people, and they handled any issues or problems that arose with professionalism.

They really listened to any feedback we had about the program or curriculum and they genuinely wanted us to learn and succeed. It was more than just a job for them. The staff truly wanted to make sure that the students were learning the material and the TA’s were willing to repeat concepts to us multiple times to ensure we fully understood any topic (trust me, I asked many, many times about certain topics).

Many of the staff left some awesome, well-paying jobs in order to come and teach at this bootcamp because they valued education and wanted to impact the lives of people who were eager to learn. It’s difficult to find such a dedicated, caring, and friendly group of people who worked tirelessly to better the program and give back to others.

If you wish to talk more about the program or my experiences, feel free to reach out. I’m more than happy to talk!