Hello! A bit about me...
Hi, I'm Callum Anderson, and I'm a member of Cohort E24 at Codeclan. I've created this webpage mainly to share my experiences of learning at CodeClan, as I know I was very interested to hear current/previous students' thoughts before I signed up.
If you're thinking about signing up for CodeClan, or you have any questions, please do get in touch and I'll do my best to help!
So... who are you??
OK, bit of background! I've worked in the NHS for the past decade, in various admin and IT roles. Prior to that, I worked in retail for a number of years, after dropping out of Uni. Definitely a big regret, but, I had my reasons at the time.
More recently, I've been involved in project work, which has piqued my interest in software development. I've seen at close quarters how good quality software can be hugely beneficial to the daily activities of staff - saving time, effort and decreasing stress levels. However, I've often thought you know, that's good... but it could be better. Whenever I've seen repetitive manual tasks carried out on a daily basis, I've thought wouldn't it be so much easier if we had an app which does all that for us?
So yes, loads of ideas and inspirations; but equal amounts of frustration because I haven't been able to act on them.
He who dares, wins!
I have dabbled with coding in my spare time, using sites such as Codeacademy and Treehouse, but I decided that I wanted to take it to the next level and actually become a developer. Somehow.
That's when I heard about CodeClan, and how they can fast track you towards becoming a trainee/junior developer in 16 weeks. A long, intense 16 weeks... putting in a minimum of 60 hours a week. The guys at CodeClan strongly emphasise this, as do the students who have been through it. A part time job while studying isn't recommended, so you're essentially unemployed for 16 weeks. Then there are the course fees, which can be postponed until after the course with a PCDL loan, which is what I've done.
Here's the big draw though - CodeClan don't just teach you how to code. They get you "industry ready", and prep you to find a job at the end of it. They teach you how to learn, which sounds kind of crazy, but I'll go into more detail in my blog. In fact, on that note, I'll stop there - but please do go on to read more in my blog if you're interested. There are contact details at the bottom of the page as well, if you want to ask me anything... happy to help if I can!