Wow, was that 10 weeks already?? Time flies when you’re learning! But it was definitely a combination of enjoying the course and working really hard and wishing I had more time to do everything – the story of my life.
As of yesterday, I successfully completed my last day of the RED Academy Web Development Foundations course. It was Demo Day where we all got to showcase and present our final capstone projects which we were given 3 weeks to do. Procrastination and just generally being busy with work/life got the better of me, so the last 10 days leading up to the deadline, I was coding and developing my site non stop in any free moment I had before/after work and staying up til the crack of dawn, but it all really came together over several solid work sessions on Friday and the weekend.
Coding takes a LONG time! Troubleshooting and getting stuff to work takes even longer! I probably spent between 80 to 100 hours total developing my website but I couldn’t be happier with the results. And I am happy to have finished to the point that I did.
You can view the site here:
http://www.estellahom.com
My main goal going into the course was initially to expand my skill set and become more proficient in web development so that I can offer web development along with graphic design services to all my clients. But as I thought more about it, I also saw this course as an incredible opportunity for me to focus on myself first – to finally redesign a portfolio site for myself (my last version was in 2009!!!) that would market my skills and showcase my recent work, update my resume, and set up a website for Hom Kitchen, my passion and future business venture – watch for it in the near future!
Overall I loved the course and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning the fundamentals of web development or pursuing a career in it. I felt the course material was very well organized, informative, included many useful resources, and the instructors Tina and David, being actual web developers working in the field, were extremely knowledgeable and helpful in explaining things and helping each student one on one with questions/issues. I liked that it was a small class size of about 10-12 people and that the classes were very easy going and a relaxed environment. What school gives you free reign of snacks in the kitchen, beer taps and more beers, ciders, and drinks in the fridge? RED does!! We also got 2 great text books on HTML & CSS and JavaScript & jQuery which was included in the tuition fee, that served as great resources during the course and I’m sure I’ll be getting some good use from it as I continue on my career path.
I will miss spending my Monday and Wednesday evenings learning but am so excited about the future and implementing the new found skills acquired in creating beautiful responsive websites using HTML, CSS3, Javascript, and jQuery.
Want to sign up for a course in Web Development? RED Academy is currently offering a family and friends discount of $250 off! Just mention that I sent you 🙂
https://www.redacademy.com/toronto/course/web-developer-foundations/