Thoughts Post-Grad. What Do I Learn Now & How?
Tags: flatironschool, bootcamp, refactorit, devjournal
Published: 2021-05-23 06:27:51

I have now, officially, been a graduate from the Flatiron School's Software Engineering program for approximately two months. In that time, I have taken some much need time for self care (bootcamps are not easy y'all), searched for jobs, had some interviews, and searched for what to learn next. There is an _OVERWHELMING_ amount of things to learn in tech, that is what drew me in after all. With the vast amount of learning possibilities comes an even larger amount of tutorials. This can make it very easy to feel lost and get a tad scatterbrained. Believe me, I know, I have a million and one freeCodeCamp videos, tutorials and articles bookmarked along with a small collection of Udemy courses and YouTube playlists. So, I figured I would write this blog about how to better organize your learning without overwhelming yourself.

First and foremost, **WRITE IT DOWN**. 

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I am the type of person who prefers to see things laid out in front of me otherwise my mind becomes jumbled. Make a checklist of all that you would LIKE to learn or take a stab at. Then, organize your day, week or month. Whichever makes the most sense to you. I personally prefer going week by week. Every Sunday evening, I sit and plan out my upcoming week. Take a look at if you have any scheduled interviews, meet ups, hackathons, etc and add write them it. Fill in the remaining blanks with time blocks for specific goals. Choose at least **ONE** thing to learn each week. It is very easy to want to learn too much, but setting bitesize goals for yourself will help you see all your wins. Besides, you can always add to your goals for the week after your knock one off the list. Start by learning a new method in a language you are already familiar with. If you have a project in this language, figure out a way to implement what you learned. 



If you want to learn an entirely new language please allow yourself some grace! Teach yourself the absolute basics and see how they can compare to a language you may already now. Allow yourself to connect these dots to fully understand the inner workings. I would recommend building the tiniest project you can think of to get a kickstart (I'm talking "Hello World" size, remember that small but mighty victory?). Maybe this can be your goal for the month, where each week you improve your tiny project into something bigger and better. This then goes back to learning a new method each week to add to a current project (the circle of life, am I right?).

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If you have some fellow devs in your circle, reach out to them and see if they would like to learn something new with you. Ask if they'd like to collaborate on a new project together. This will help you keep up with pair programming and version control skills. It has also been said that when you teach others it helps cement your knowledge on the subject. Teaching and helping each other understand becomes an all around win. 

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Lastly, give yourself time to unwind and relax. Go to the gym, take your dog for a walk, read a book, watch a movie whatever you do to recenter. Do not burn yourself out. There is always going to be something new to learn and let's be honest, you will never learn it all, so why burn yourself out trying to do so. Your brain, just like everything else, needs a break at times. 


###So, what do you plan to learn next?