As of late, I have been getting quite a few questions about my experience at The Iron Yard. For those unfamiliar, The Iron Yard is an intense, twelve week coding “boot camp”. The school currently has twelve locations accross the country. I have just graduated with a certificate in ruby on rails engineering. It’s been such an awesome experience for me, and I would love to share it with you.
Usually the first question I get is “why?”.
Well I really wasn’t happy with where my life was going. I have been working in the food and beverage industry for the last ten years, and I’ve loved it but desperately needed change. My work was becoming more and more monotonous. I didn’t really feel appreciated by the people I was working for and with. To be honest, I was beginning to feel helpless. Since I was young, I have been a creative individual. It started with doodling my favorite cartoon characthers and building odd structures out of legos. By this point in my life, I felt this aspect of me was being stifled.
I wanted to work with design and internet technologies when I graduated high school, but a simple cost/benefit analysis, an oversaturated job market, and a girl lead me on an alternate path. A little girl named Kailey entered my life, and I became a father. Priorities changed drastically, and her well being became my only concern. I began a career in customer service and management, both in retail and food and beverage. That changed when I saw a billboard,“Learn to Code, Get a job”. The tech community in Charleston has been rapidly growing these last few years, and the time was clearly right. I submitted an application, and then the interview process began. I met with my future mentors, Sally, Calvin, and Nick; and so it began. On the morning of July 21st, my life changed for the better.
On that morning, I found myself in a room with fifteen awesome, brilliant, anxious individuals as we started down this new path. We were thrown right in, and it was grueling. Limits were tested mentally, physically, and emotionally. But fortunately we had an awesome instructor in Nick Bucciarelli. He patiently pushed this down this path and helped us reach the potential he saw in us when we interviewed.
As of today, months after that morning in July, I am full stack developer and Ruby on Rails Engineer. As much as I feel accomplished, I know I am still very green. I have a renewed love for learning and with that really figuring out who I am. I have made new friends and future co workers. I wake up every morning wondering what I’m going to build instead of just submitting to the same routine. This experience has been so empowering. If this is something you’re considering, I strongly suggest you do it. You would be shocked the difference three months can make.