I have always liked computers but it was only a few years ago that I decided to study what I really enjoy. One day I
discovered a podcast about a bootcamp where lorry drivers were doing an online course. Every week the teacher made a
podcast interviewing his students to check their progress and feelings. In that moment it dawn on me that the reason
I enjoyed the podcast so much was because I shared their aspiration of becoming a software developer. So I started planning
how to achieve my goal, while keeping my administrative job.
As a Spanish person living abroad (in Northern Ireland), having the right certificates was a barrier to enrolling any higher
certificate course. I got my A levels and Higher National Certificate in Financial Business in Spain, and those certificates
are not transferrable to UK education scheme, so I couldn´t use them to enroll the courses I needed in UK. Therefore, I
decided to take an online Higher National Certificate in computer´s software in Spain, specifically for Development of
Multi-Platform Applications.
I decided to follow the typical path and take all the subjects of the first year. Then I realized the workload was too high
to balance it with work. The online training did not work well for anyone. The majority of students couldn´t manage to follow
the pace of the course, and some teachers lacked the training required to impart the subjects online. After finishing my
first year I managed to pass 2 subjects, which did not fulfil my expectations. I also realized that it would very hard to
manage travelling to Spain to take the exams, so I decided not to continue with this course and take a different approach.
I started some online courses to get the basics of multiplatform programming and decided to retake the higher certificate
in Development of Multi-Platform Applications in the future.
Given that the course covered HTMS, CSS, PHP, SQL, C# and Java, I started with some certificated courses to complement those
areas, such as:
- SoloLearn, where I have learned the basics of:
- SQL Fundamentals
- Java Tutorial
- C# Tutorial
- JavaScript Tutorial
- HTML Fundamentals
- PHP Tutorial
- FreeCodeCamp, which I found very useful and I would recommend to everybody.
- Responsive Web Design Certification (300 hours)
- JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures Certification (on-going)
- EDX course in Java organised by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
- IT.1.1-ESx: Introduction to programming with Java: programming basics
- IT.1.2-ESx: Introduction to programming with Java: best practice in coding (on-going)
- Linkedin Learning.
- Become a Java Programmer
- GIMP Essential Training
- Become a Full-Stack Web Developer
- DataCamp.
I have also used the following resources for self learning purposes:
- Youtube Tutorials
- Udemy
- W3schools
- Greenfoot