Completing my Path at OpenClassrooms

I have for the last year been studying the Front-end Developer Path at OpenClassrooms. 2 days ago I got the last project approved and yesterday it was submitted to be judged by an academic jury. I’m now waiting for the jury’s feedback (which I should receive by June) and thought that now would be a good time to to share some of the thoughts, WOWs, and AHAs I have experienced since starting this study.

The mentor

Every student on a Path is assigned a mentor who is supposed to support you in where to find extra study material, nudging you to go even further than a project requires if you are ready for it, and also to talk to you when you’re feeling frustrated – which you will at some point :).

You meet up online once a week for 30-60 minutes and go over the progress that you have made. Initially I thought that 30-60 minutes a week would not be sufficient, but I was wrong. I studied about 2 hours a day in the evening and possible a bit more in the weekends. So for each 10-12 study hours I had 1 hour of mentor time which in my case turned out to be more than enough.

The Projects

The projects are all real world scenarios where you are to solve a problem for a customer. This might be integrating and customizing a WordPress solution, Creating a mock up of a website, doing UML diagrams and designing a database, learning Object Oriented Programming (OOP), using React, and more. Check the OpenClassroom site for more info.

The WOWs and AHAs

Project Briefs

Early on I found that this would not be as easy a ride as I had participated. Project 3 required doing a Project Brief which I have never done before (I actually did not even know what it was).

Having to learn more than just CSS, JS, and HTML came as bit of a surprise to me, and to be honest also felt a bit intimidating. This is something that the business side of the desk knows all about, and I felt a bit scared moving into this field. I have up until know only discussed actual code with clients and business which, because the other part did not know much of what I talked about, felt safe somehow. I was the expert.

After wrapping my head around this stuff it has proven valuable at my work. While helping out some colleagues I was asked to go over a Project Brief and revert back with my thoughts on development hours and technologies used. I has just finished up the Project on OpenClassroom regarding this and I was very relieved that I knew, not only of what they where talking, but also how to help out. Awesome!

Unified Modeling Language (UML)

This has the same story line as the previous experience. Straight after finishing up the Project on UML, I was asked to put together a UI. The Project Manager asked if I could start by reading the User Stories and Sequence Diagrams? Absolutely! I just learned this stuff so pass it here please!

Conclusion

Being able to perform better at work is an awesome feeling, especially when it is shows up while collaborating with others. I would like to point out though, that I also learned a lot when it comes to actual programming, designing and testing. I have never used testing at work, so it was very nice to get into this – especially since it was much easier to grasp than I has feared. For the last 4 projects I got deep into optimizing JS, making a website perform as best as possible, and digging into bugs.

Beside the new skills in different methodologies and coding, my skills on presentation improved immensely.

All in all, I learned a lot from doing this Path. I had a job in web development when I started this Path, but needed something to get me to the next level. OpenClassroom got me there. Thanks OC.

In case you have any questions, feel free to contact me via the form below, on Twitter (@dennis_v_jensen) or by mail at dennis.jensen@idnet.dk.