From Start to Now!
My journey to completing this 100 Days of Code Course in Python is a long journey that has been three years in the making. On this page I will discuss the journey from where it started to where I am at now. Although the course has been completed, there is plenty more work to be done!
December 2020 - June 2023
Starting and Pause.
I had initially started the 100 Days of Code Course by the AppBrewery around December of 2020. At that time I was working as an IT Technician for a local school district and was interested in pursing something new to learn. In my college work, I did have a Python course that I completed and felt like Pythong would be a great skill to expand upon. When I initially attempted this course I made it to day 25 of the content. I would say the content was challenging but I was able to understand most of the concepts.
I did have plans to make it through the entire course. Ultimately... I decided to put a pause on this cource and pursue completing an IT certification that I had a voucher for. With the voucher expiring, my focus needed to be shifted to completing that.
Shortly after in July of 2021, I started a new position working with the state of Nevada. That position required me to focus on completing other IT certifications and courses in order to maintain my jobs requirements.
Fast forward to November of 2021, I returned to a new position with my previous employer and that also was a solid comitment as far as my learning time went. Determined to move up the IT ranks, I decided to put my focus on completing a few mid-level and advanced certifications to boulster my Resume.
In 2023, I was finally able to land a role with the University of Nevada that I feel was a step in the right direction. After starting my position with the University, I was able to finally achieve my goal of obtaining an Advanced/Professional level IT certification. That left me with the question of where to go from there?... I did not see any point in pursueing additional certifications unless they were required by a job. As an avid learner, I knew I had to pick something up and grow my knowledge...
July 2023 - May 2024
Python Revisited!
After completing my advanced level certification, I thought of a few avenues I could pursue. Honestly, Python was one of the top if not the one on the top of my list of subjects I wanted to tap into.
I looked back at the progress I made on the 100 Days of Code course and thought to myself that I would be easy to jump back into the subject even though it had been about two and a half years since I last looked at Python code. I restarted my progress on the course and made it to about days 8 and 9 and thought to myself that I may need to revisit the fundamentals before proceeding with further lessons. Especially if it is my goal to absorb the knowledge and be challenged vs. copying the code that I was seeing on the screen.
My solution to this was to visit other courses on uDemy. The courses I took on uDemy were "Python: From Zero to Hero" and "Automate the Boring Stuff". If the two courses, I would say that the most helpful one was the Zero to Hero course. That course really focused on hammering in the fundamentals. The Automate the Boring Stuff course was also helpful in introducing me to concepts not covered in the other course.
Having strengthened my foundational knowledge, I had decided it was time to return to the 100 Days of Code Course. My progress on this course resumed in September. By the end of September, I had finally reached my previous spot in the course. October, November, and December, I really spent a good amount of time chugging through the course work leading me to where I am now!
For days 81-100 the goal was to complete 19 portfolio projects that do not have any solution code. I was able to complete the 19 projects. These projects included projects in automation, games design, web app creation and data science projects. The projects were challenging but as I completed them, I feel as if my skills were further sharpened, and the concepts of the course really clicked!
On this website, you can view my reflections and thoughts for the 19 projects and within each project, is a link to my repos for the projects on GitHub.
Crossing the Finish Line 🏁
Course Complete!
After taking the other courses to strenthen my knowledge. This course did not feel as if it was moving to fast when I initially restarted the course in July.
Overall, it was a fun experience. There were some challenging portions in the course that did require me doing a bit of extra work and reflection to make sure I understood the concepts being covered. Especially when it came to the data science poriton of the course. This sadly, also reminded me that I should brush up on my math skills 😅. Of all the content that was covered, I would say the sections I enjoyed the most were the sections on using Flask and interacting with APIs.
This was a fun experience and I would absolutely recommend this course to anyone!