A Night at CodeWorks

I had the opportunity to attend Boise CodeWorks’ recent Enrollment Night that took place the evening of December 13^th.  I attended the event in the role of a prospective student. The event took place from 6 to 9pm. I was first impressed how easy it was to get to the location even during traffic time, thanks to close proximity to the freeway and central location.  I feel most people in the valley should be able to get to the location (Overland & Cole) in about thirty minutes and parking is plentiful. 

As people came in, they we’re greeted by one of about eight or so CodeWorks staff that were present. Having been in the circumstance of having over a dozen strangers waiting together, I can say that those in attendance were really quite open and talkative.  Sandwiches and cookies were provided by ICON credit union, with CodeWorks having coffee, water and even popcorn on hand.  

After giving some time for the stragglers to come in, we transitioned to one of the training rooms.  Jake introduced himself and explained the CodeWorks philosophy and the reason for its creation. Jake led us through some of the benefits of the program compared to self-taught online learning, which were all accurate based on my recent experience trying to do just that. I can certainly see the benefits of a boot camp. Jake also clearly defined the role of the boot-camp compared to a traditional computer science degree.  

We transitioned to an actual code example. Jake took us slowly through the process of creating a text-based game right inside a developer window in a Chrome browser.  Although the game itself wouldn’t exactly be a hit, even in 1980, he was able to use normal sentences, logic and explain the coding process.  We didn’t get hung up on the details, instead focusing on the logical expressions, the conditions of different elements and how the “game” would flow.  In the course of about an hour we ended up covering quite a bit of information.

After the demonstration, they discussed some of the different types of course offerings and the dates.  Two instructors began providing the Technical Interview required for acceptance into the program.  Nearly everyone that came stayed to take the test.  I tried it myself.  I was pretty nervous, not having much of a background in programming beyond using WordPress or Drupal.  I had spent several hours the weekend prior going through some of their suggested pre-course work though, which likely heightened my anxiety knowing how important all the different brackets, parenthesis, and carrots etcetera are in JavaScript. 

The technical evaluation did test my knowledge of some of the basics but was certainly not focused on the sticky details.  Instead we focused on how something would logically flow. A simple function would be laid out and I demonstrated my ability to read and understand that flow. The instructor guided me when I did not recall a certain operator. He provided me a few equations using it, which reminded me exactly what the operator did. 

Overall it was a great experience.  It was a comfortable environment. The people were all friendly, including the prospective students.  I left knowing, that I could learn how to code at CodeWorks. If you or someone you know is interested in becoming a programmer, I certainly encourage a look at CodeWorks. 

And I can enthusiastically say that I am proud to continue to work with CodeWorks on apprenticeship programs, providing more opportunities to junior programmers and helping companies in the area get the talented individuals they need.