6 Things to Anticipate — Flatiron School Week One
Full-Time Software Engineer (Remote)
1. Orientation
While in pre-work and before day one, your Flatiron Campus Lead will introduce everyone on Slack, including your instructor and other cohort-mates. Rest assured, you will go into your first day already feeling included in an exciting new community! Spoiler alert: No grandiose campus tour or first-day celebration. Given the state of the world, campus orientation is sweet, simple, and virtual. Flatiron makes up for it by creating a remote environment that feels just as intimate yet oddly more satisfying than what would have been a classroom.
2. Mixers
nobody:
literally no one:
2020: “So, here’s the deal. We want you to learn new skills, meet new people, make new friends, network and fork an entirely new career path without ever actually meeting someone in person. GO!”
Whether you are introverted, extroverted, type A, INFP, or the social butterfly that can work any room, navigating social gatherings and networking opportunities in a remote environment is a new challenge for all of us. (One of the more exciting ones that 2020 has dealt us, let’s be real.)
Luckily, week-one at Flatiron provides countless opportunities to conquer this new challenge. Zoom mixers are built into the course schedule and provide extra time to learn about your cohort-mates. Later in the week, you will even have an opportunity to mix with students from previous cohorts, which proved to be very insightful regarding upcoming challenges and projects. (hint: ask them LOTS of questions!)
3. Lectures
‘Lecture’ has such a sad, sad connotation. At Flatiron, you won’t be sitting through an entire day of lectures. Most days include only one or two, lasting one hour to 90-minutes. Each one coincides with the previous day’s reading and labs (see labs) and highlights Flatiron’s gamification of the learning process. With an emphasis on debugging, reading errors, and problem-solving, Flatiron instructors act as a guide on our journey of learning, understanding, and unlocking each level of the course.
4. Labs (Get comfy, there are many!)
By comfy, I mean, grab a coffee, grab a snack and get into it. Beginning day one, you will dive head-first into Ruby and continue into the week covering technical concepts like object-orientation, building complex class objects, class variables, methods, and object relationships. Like pre-work, labs are designed to fail until you have a grasp on the concepts and can implement passing code. You may feel overwhelmed at the sheer volume of information that power-punches it’s way into your brain during your first week at Flatiron. However, know that each day is a level in Flatiron’s game of learning and unlocking the next level is rewarding and exciting!
5. Code Challenges
I know you’re probably thinking, “wait, in the first week?” Don’t worry, the code challenges in your first week come in the form of mini-challenges, practice challenges, and mock challenges. Complete all of your pre-work and expect to spend time outside of the lecture schedule if you want to be successful in completing the first week’s challenges. I’m old-fashioned and took a lot of notes during lecture and while completing online readings. My notes helped extensively in completing the technical challenges, labs, and in applying concepts we learned throughout the first week.
6. Feelings Friday
The best part of a Flatiron week? Yes.
Our instructor did an excellent job of introducing this Flatiron tradition which lends an even stronger hand in a remote learning environment. “Feelings Friday” fills that void of not being able to go out at the end of a stressful week with your cohort.
This one-hour remote chat manages to peel back our screens further, creating an opportunity to go there while offering up support and snaps where needed.
