Introduction

Hi, I am Arya Basu . A little about me:

• I am a cs student currently in clg .

• Full-stack dev currently grinding on my portfolio projects. -My tech stack-I work with react for the frontend, Django for the backend, and MongoDB and MySQL for the DB , Dart for flutter dev .

• Aspiring technical writer( technical writing has gotten me hooked. One of the reasons pushing me hard into tech blogging).

• And a quote writer .

Blogging has been on my checklist for a while now. I don't even know why I kept pushing it aside 😁😜. Finally, I am getting my hands down and dirty and kicking it off. " Drums rolling...

Introducing my third blog😍

I am glad I stumbled upon hashnode at this point in my developer journey. It's officially my new sweet spot to rant about all things tech and my tech journey other than Twitter, lol😜😂.

Coding Bootcamps, CS degree, and Self-taught

Cs degree, coding boot camps, or a self-taught pathway directly reflects my journey in tech so far and I think there are different, yes, but at the same time similar(They borrow a lot from each other).

Here's why I think so...

These are purely my opinions and for that reason, it's okay for you to have a different view on the same. Our journeys are all different and that is what makes TECH really awesome - it's a huge bubble engulfing very diverse, smart, innovative, curious, and like-minded folks.

How did it all start?

I took computer science classes in high school which gave me a clear foundation on how computers work and the crucial role of software in running computing devices.

In my second year, I got introduced to the programming concept- the intro was fun, and basically covered everything, from definitions, history of programming, an intro to programming languages, stratification of languages into generations, problem-solving procedures, flowchart, and pseudocode designs and so on.

Later on, in that course, I learned about HTML and just like any other excited teen, I played around with the markup language thinking that I was now I am a programmer, lol. 🤣

CLG

I didn't do a lot of programming in high school. In fact, after the programming course, I never revisited the concept again.

My choice of pursuing cs was majorly inspired by how "cool" the field was thought to be by my peers at the time, ooh!! and the fact that I had watched so many hacker movies and FBI and CIA series that had numerous tech scenes😂😜😁.

Learning programming

Clg can be a really interesting space to be in. There's a lot going on around, and I mean a lot. Yeah, you want to experience all of the fun and excitement, worry about school, procrastinate about your future and career life and God knows what else.

I started off learning programming after my first clg class ( end of 2021) on the intro to programming with C. I enjoyed the course so much that I craved more of it. During weekdays, I would study schoolwork however on the weekends I chose to pursue more programming material.

At this point, Udemy crossed my path and I happened to have purchased a Python development course by Jose Salvatierra . I am forever grateful to this instructor.

Pursing all self-paced coding boot camp while still learning another programming concept in school wasn't an easy fit especially if you are new to everything tech. It becomes I huge challenge putting everything together. 😢 I did struggle, a lot actually. Nothing was making sense.

The differences and similarities

A computer science degree would provide what most people refer to as a white-collar pathway to the industry itself. You will have to follow a particular curriculum already predefined by the uni. The classes and courses are structured in such a way that you will be exposed to the nitty-gritties of the CS curriculum.

Honestly, all the knowledge I have about fundamental tech concepts such as data structures and algorithms, object-oriented programming paradigms, Object-oriented analysis and design, and database systems I wouldn't have acquired and grasped them well enough anywhere else other than uni. The information taught me how large software components really work and how they integrate to provide a seamless and efficient way to solve a particular problem for the end-users.

Let's now jump to my experiences with the web development coding boot camp. This was my turning point in tech. Before I started off I had made a couple of simple programs in C, which was awesome because it gave me a feel of how the software development process feels like however I still didn't feel like I was amounting to something big in tech. I was a bit disappointed. 😢Yeah, imposter syndrome itself.

The Udemy course changed a lot about my tech thoughts. It was my turning point. I finally felt like I was actually a programmer. There's something about writing a couple of HTML lines, styling, and opening your web browser to view the end results. The end results on the browser boost your momentum and inject some rather crazy amounts of desire to build again and build better. I followed through the course learning everything about web development tacking HTML, CSS, and vanilla JS. I was really excited to finally build websites regardless of how simplistic they were.

I don't really think that there's any clear-cut difference between this pathway and a self-taught path. a lot of the projects I tackled required quite a humongous amount of time researching and googling how things are done and I guess it's from the researching that I encountered some other useful info on web development such as APIs.

Just like in a CS course, coding boot camps and a self-taught pathway will require you to handle projects, The projects will be based on the concepts taught or learned. Moreover, the projects themselves will require that you dive deeper into researching(majorly googling stuff😁😂) to solve the problems at hand.

You might argue that either pathway is different. Yes, for sure there are: for status the material acquired in either defers. For instance, CS degrees expose students to huge chunks of info in Tech. For boot camps and self-taught pathways, you only focus on a specific concept.

The bottom line is, (from my own experience) my degree will teach me the specifics in tech, while a Bootcamp and researching and learning on my own( self-taught) will get my hands down and dirty on mastering the concepts learned.

Thanks for reading. I would appreciate a like, comment, and a follow. Be sure to look out for more content on self improvement . I will be writing a lot on these plus talking about my journey one blog at a time.