Making it through Andela Technical Leadership Program(ATLP).
Tags: career, webdev, javascript, rwanda
Published: 2023-02-22 16:38:10

The ATLP(Andela Technical Leadership Program) is a 9 month bootcamp for university graduates who want to get into coding in Rwanda. In this blog, I'll be sharing my experiences surrounding the program and some tips that will hopefully help you gain some insight into it.

![ATLP IMAGE](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/cx8ktbwly5cxauvje33z.png)

**Elibility**
- You have to be residing in Rwanda during the whole bootcamp.
- Willing to commit 30 Hours per week (6 hours per day)

* The Application process*
Applications to ATLP opens once a year - in October to November. You'll get 2 weeks to submit your application.

**Step 1: Complete the application form**
The first step is to complete the application form which is usually on GlassDoor, which I did in October, 2021.

**Complete the technical assessment**
After completing the application you're required to complete a technical assessment on HackerRank which test your problem solving capabilities with question in HTML, CSS, JS and logic. I completed the assessment and my codes passed all the tests. 
I was given a simple project to complete before the interview.

**The Technical Interview**
If you pass the technical assessment you are invited to an interview. During my interview, I was asked about how I developed the project I was given and given a challenge which I also did.

After a week after completing the interview I received the acceptance email which was delightful.

![ATLP acceptance email](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/klhjz9zn3z53s7xe530x.png).

**My Experience ✨**
After being accepted, we were onboarded and given the timeline of the program. The bootcamp was to be divided into 3 sections.
- **Core Concepts** (2 month): Where trainees would learn basic web technologies, version control and best practices.
- **Team Projects** (3 month ): Where trainees who were able to progress from the previous phase, would collaborate to develop a project using PERN(PostgreSQL, Express, React and NodeJS) stack.
- **Apprenticeship** (3 Month ): Lastly, progressed trainees would be assigned to local and international companies for internship. 

**1. Core Concepts**
We started core concepts where we learnt using Figma, Trello, Git and GitHub but I was lucky because I was already familiar with everything so it was easy for to progress to the next phase.
We were required to build a personal website using the skills we have acquired which can be found [here](http://www.rukundokevin.codes).

**2. Team Projects**
In the second phase I collaborated with 4 other trainees to build accommodation booking website using PERN Stack. 

During this phase I knew some of the things but It was my first time collaborating with a lot of people so it was challenging but luckily our Manager and Team Lead were helpful and helped us. 

All 5 of us progressed to the next phase.

**3.  Apprenticeship**
After team projects, I was placed on an internal project because I was student and couldn't be assigned to external company.

I was onboarded on the projects trainees from other cohorts were working on, a website for education institutions to record and track student or trainee performance called DevPulse(https://metron-devpulse.vercel.app ).

During this phase I when I met the real challenge as we were using GraphQl, TypeScript, Nexus most of  which I was unfamiliar with. But with the help from fellow trainees and Manager I was able to familiarize myself with different tools and concepts and finished the last phase.

Thank you for reading! I hope this was worth your time and provided you with useful insights. Please feel free to reach to me if you have any queries (or if you'd simply like to connect!) via [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rukundokevin). I'll be happy to help! Good luck!