My first week at Code First Girls
I want to share my experience of the Code First Girls 8 week beginners course, which offers a 2 hour class every week on HTML/CSS for women. My course took place at Entrepreneur First in Bermondsey, South-East London.
First off, I didn’t actually apply eek (sorry CFG!) I only found out about the course a few days before it started and I was really lucky that the volunteers leading the course kindly let me in.
A couple of the participants who actually got in through the proper route (which I do recommend!) told me that the application process wasn’t difficult at all. Apparently you just have to show that you’re committed to learning how to code.
The course format was a presentation style, the powerpoint was sent through before so you have all the notes. The first week focused on the internet and the basics of HTML.
We installed Atom and Github desktop and used Codepen. We were also given some homework which included General Assemby’s Dash course which is great and Code Academy’s introductory course.
The course instructors were half men and half women, from a variety of backgrounds. One of the instructors was a CFG alum and she had actually done a 13 week bootcamp style programme at Sky to join their graduate programme, which I thought was unreal. She told me that the BBC has just launched something similar, although I wasn’t able to find it online. It’s amazing to learn about companies being super open and having routes for non coders/compsci graduates to learn how to become developers.
The instructors were really approachable and friendly, they welcomed us to ask questions at any point during their presentations and there were lots of opportunities to code along with them, which was great.
I really enjoyed meeting the women who were sat on my table. The girl next to me, Ella, is actually also into weightlifting just like me which is just unreal! The participants were from a range of different backgrounds. Some were even still studying I think.
The atmosphere was very relaxed and there was no stuffiness or anything that made me feel uncomfortable or like I wasn’t able to complete any of the exercises.
There wasn’t much homework, it was easy to complete within 2–4 hours.
Overall I would really recommend CFG, especially if you aren’t enjoying learning the basics by yourself at home and feel you would do better learning in-person, alongside others.
