My experiences as a HYF student
I am Anna John George and I just graduated from Hack Your Future (HYF), a coding school in Denmark last week. So while the memories of my journey as a student here are still fresh I thought I would share my experiences.
HackYourFuture is a non-profit organisation that aims to train disadvantaged groups to become web-developers and empower them by opening the doors to a very in-demand job market.This was started in Netherlands and then branches started at Denmark,Belgium.You can read more at :
https://www.hackyourfuture.dk/about
I am from India and I moved to Denmark in 2018 with my 8 month toddler to join my husband who was employed here.I am a Computer Science Engineer and I worked as a SAP Consultant for 5 years and my previous job was not related to coding.
To cut a long story short, I found Hack Your Future and I felt this opportunity suited my circumstances and I applied.
The application process was straightforward and I just had to upload my resume and a motivational letter mentioning why I wanted to join this course.
This is a 32 week program where students are trained with and without a coding background in modern JavaScript software development including React.This is a flexible,well structured curriculum which is frequently revised and further instructions will be given when you join.The duration of a class is 4 hours with a lunch break on Sundays.During the week, students are supported online in their self-study, homework and peer learning.You get a certificate of completion when you complete all the homeworks in each module and complete a 7 week project together with your classmates.
Prior to the selection, the applicants have to learn some HTML and CSS concepts from the resources provided by HYF and complete a test assignment which will require approximately 20 hours or more to complete (and you will have 10 days for it). You will then receive some feedback and make improvements to your assignment. Based on the quality of the assignment and the improvements made to it the best applicants will be selected for a phone interview.
If you are a newbie to coding and have never even written a single line of code in your life and you are apprehensive if you will be able to follow this course ,then let me give you a background of my classmates. We had people from non technical backgrounds for example a filmmaker from Afghanistan, a veterinary doctor from Syria, a dentist from India, a psychologist with a Phd degree and a UI designer from Ukraine, a graphic designer from Brazil, a project manager from Ghana, a Digital Marketing specialist and a software tester from India and rest of them had engineering degrees from Iran, Ethiopia and Pakistan.
A word about the mentors and the staff and community at HackYourFuture. Mentors are web developers working in day jobs opting to teach out of passion for coding without any remuneration. So we are fortunate to have experienced mentors and staff from whom we can ask and learn about their work experiences as well.There are also weekly study groups which have been immensely helpful for me which is a collaboration with developers from companies such as Zendesk and Elastic.The students get their homework doubts cleared during a 1 hour session with 2–3 students from a class. Also there are slack channels for you to ask your doubts for the respective module but make sure to give proper details. Be considerate of the mentors time and try to first learn to google and use developer tools debugging with the error faced and then if the doubt persists check with the above mentioned resources.
There have been many instances where people had to drop off the course because they had personal priorities to attend to and life is unpredictable. So there are options to join later and resume the course with other batches. Also if you feel you cannot keep up with the pace you can take a break and join with the later batches.You just have to be accountable and open with the HackYourFuture staff who are flexible and ready to help.But be cautious not to set unrealistic expectations and complain unnecessarily.There are some rules and guidelines you need to adhere to which is set for your own benefit.
There have also been workshops conducted in collaboration with companies in Denmark where we get a glimpse of the actual work and team structure and presents alternative career options as well for us to think and research.
Personally for me when I was struggling with the winter blues last year and disillusioned ,HYF has given me options for a wider range of job opportunities to restart my career after a maternity break . In the beginning it seemed daunting how to start studying after a long break.It is also totally fine to get confused and stuck but acknowledge it and continue studying.There is no ‘one’ resource that can help you learn. A combination of resources like Stackoverflow answers, Medium technical articles, coding channels in Youtube ,programming handbooks and asking classmates or mentors or alumni helps.I was fortunate to have the support of my family in completing my course.
HackYourFuture offers opportunities to all regardless of their own personal and socio-economic circumstances.Its up to you to decide how to turn it in your favour. So even if you get rejected you can try again and there is no bias for selection.Learning does not stop here as the job market is dynamic but this opportunity gave me a fresh start and boosted my confidence.
Disclaimer: You can follow the social media channels of HackYourFuture Copenhagen (GitHub, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook) to know more. The above post is focused on my own personal experiences.
WRITTEN BY
Anna John George
Diving into full stack web development and learning from experiences as an expat in Denmark
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