My Journey to Code Platoon -Preparing for November Platoon

This post is part two of a series of posts by Cristian Baeza that document his Code Platoon journey from choosing a Bootcamp through his classes as part of the upcoming November Platoon.

With November Platoon starting on February 1st, Code Platoon provided a month-long prework that is common among coding bootcamps. Code Platoon’s prework, however, offers a different structure from other programs. 

First, this prework is only available to those enrolled in the program. Not to be confused with the Bootcamp Prep Course that anyone can attend (that I would highly recommend). During Thanksgiving week, I attended the initial prework Zoom meeting where a Code Platoon instructor explained how the next month would work. Along with access to the prework, everyone in my cohort received access to a private Slack channel. The channel essentially allowed the cohort to meet, discuss, and help each other out two months before the program even began. 

Having done the month-long Bootcamp Prep Course in July, the prework was a great refresher on algorithm challenges. Each week we had to complete three coding challenges and a graded assessment. I felt like this was a small number of challenges, but it allowed me to be proactive and spend time on other resources. I didn’t find them overly complicated, but some of the graded assessment questions were much harder, yet fun, to solve.

Additionally, each week had additional resources available to be better prepared. The prework provided a copy of Eloquent JavaScript (a great book) to review, and it got us started on our algorithm and data structures certificate on Freecodecamp.com (another great resource). There were also two scheduled “check-in” meetings during the month of the prework. In these meetings, I would meet with two of my future classmates and talk to a Code Platoon instructor. He asked us how we are doing and encouraged us to ask any questions that we might have about the prework or our upcoming cohort. 

The prework ran for about five weeks. The schedule would leave all of January without prework, but Code Platoon’s program gave us the study guide and resources to obtain an Amazon Web Services certification. I find this to be a huge plus, and the ability to get this certification, along with the Agile certification, is one of the main reasons I chose  Code Platoon.

The prework might have lacked in quantity of coding challenges. Still, it made up for it by connecting the whole cohort in the Slack channel, providing resources to obtain the AWS cert, and meeting with the instructors to answer any questions. The instructors were always willing to connect and answer any questions I had about the coding challenges or software development in general (shoutout to Ankur!). Any certification to pad our resumes is a fantastic opportunity to be competitive when applying for jobs in the future. Code Platoon certainly has provided that opportunity with this prework. 

Cristian Baeza is a Marine Veteran. Cristian has been accepted to Code Platoon’s November Platoon, which begins in February 2021. Cristian is sharing his Code Platoon Journey through a series of posts documenting his search for a Bootcamp, acceptance to Code Platoon, and his classroom experience throughout the 14-week immersive Bootcamp.