I enrolled in the course with a mentor to have a better training environment: the story of Krzysztof, a CodeGym University student

We’re launching a series of texts where CodeGym University students and graduates share their learning experiences and goals. This story is about Krzysztof Kasperek, who learns programming to land a Junior dev position in the foreseeable future. He studied on Java Fundamentals and Android App development for beginners courses.

I started learning to program in 2018 but eventually stopped for a year and a half

I’m from Poland, but since 2017 I live in Norway. I have a law degree and was working in legal publishing before my company decided to close the office near my town. Therefore I’ve faced a choice: move to another side of Poland or resign and start doing something else. It was a big decision in my life, and eventually, I moved to Norway. Since that time, my main occupation is working on a factory. I’ve been working on the production side and the warehouse side. Before I joined CodeGym University courses, I had an account at the self-paced course. I registered for the pilot version of CodeGym in 2018 but wasn’t really into it. I was very interested at the beginning, but then faced an obstacle that was very difficult for me to overcome. Plus, the website itself functioned a bit differently from what’s happening now. Later, I came back again and bought a subscription. At that time, I finished the first quest and got halfway through the second quest. And then my son was born. I stopped learning for a year and a half until CodeGym came up with dedicated courses with a mentor, which made me come back again.

I decided to try a course with a mentor to have a better environment to keep going with learning

From the beginning of my learning, my primary goal was to switch the profession and start from a Junior or trainee developer position whenever I’m ready. So I decided to try the course with a mentor to have a better environment to keep going with learning. Being a dad, working every day, trying to learn on your own, and progress is challenging. I thought having a teacher, a designated timeframe, and homework after every lesson would help me stay on track. And my guess was correct: these features helped me to progress in learning better than going through the course by myself.

I enjoyed that after every live session, I could go to tasks and solidify my knowledge

While I was learning in the Java Fundamentals course, I definitely liked the course materials on the CodeGym platform. It was obvious to me that they’ve made a lot of changes to website functionality. Having a “backup” for every session with a mentor was great. I enjoyed that after every lesson with my mentor, I could go to tasks and solidify my knowledge. As for the live sessions, I’ve faced some obstacles. The mentor was in a different time zone, and I couldn’t manage to join them – it was late for me. Of course, I replayed the lessons, but for me, it’s kinda subsidiary to attending them live. At the beginning of the Java Fundamentals course, about 60-70% of the training was easy for me, like a quick refresh of my previous studying. It’s hard to tell whether it would be that smooth for students that start with zero coding background. I suppose they will need to put more effort into dealing with some difficult topics. For me, as a student with prior experience, the CodeGym self-paced course itself can give you an understanding of Java basics. So it’s not necessary to review every new subject with a mentor: you can simply ask him questions about challenging points from the material you learn.

It was a spontaneous decision to continue with the Android development course

When I enrolled in the Java Fundamentals course, I thought that I could have, say, “a part two” of that kind of learning so I can proceed to more complex topics on Java development. I wanted to continue learning the way I did because I can return to the self-paced course anytime I want. There was no “part two” for Java, but the Android course was available. To be honest, in the beginning, it was a spontaneous decision to continue with Android. However, later I understood that, indeed, it’s a great way to broaden my perspective and get some experience and additional knowledge that will help me to decide which direction I want to specialize. I like the mentor (Milan), and I appreciate what he did for us because I saw how much he tried to explain everything at every point, starting from computer stuff to programming itself. The teacher was def a big asset for the Android course. He’s trying to share with students much content and knowledge that he possesses. However, I was lacking the kind of tasks set on the CodeGym platform, that we’ve had for Java Fundamentals. Having some tasks of different complexity – apart from practical projects we’re working on with Milan – would be good. I told Milan that I can’t imagine that a person without programming knowledge, like Java or other programming languages, could take an Android course. But if you learn from scratch at Java Fundamentals and later continue with the Android app development course, it’s fine.

I hope to change my profession in 1-2 years

My first task after the Android course is to hammer up the knowledge I got here, expand the functionalities of my final project, and create some new projects for my future portfolio. I also have a subscription to CodeGym self-paced course, so I will come back to it and progress further with my Java knowledge, apart from the Android development learning. I hope to change my profession in 1-2 years, that’s the timeframe I’m giving myself. If I had no parental obligations and could fully focus on my learning, I think it’d be possible to achieve this goal in six months or so. But being realistic, I give myself up to two years to start a career as a Java Junior or Android Junior developer.