The course experience
In the autumn of 2020, I enrolled at Thinkful and moved from Puerto Rico to Florida. My final goal was to move to Madrid and work there as a software developer. I've been interested in programming since middle school, so I was excited to delve into an intensive program and have formal education in software development.
What initially piqued my interest in Thinkful was their pledge of $0 in tuition until getting hired. I was definitively committed to starting a new career, so it was reassuring to see that they were calling my bet. However, after the first few lessons, I outgrew this mere sense of security and got immersed in the learning experience instead. The foundational knowledge and skills gained felt valuable in their own right.
The curriculum promised lessons in best practices and modern practical web development standards using HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, React, NodeJS, and PostgreSQL and fundamental knowledge of data structures and algorithms. They delivered. The pace was intense but not choking, and each course ended with a capstone project and mock technical interview that put every lesson into practice. It all felt like setting a solid foundation to grow on.
The best part of the experience was the mentorship and coaching. I'm thankful for Valerie, my mentor, and Keiko, my career coach. Valerie's advice helped me identify blindspots in my studies and projects. She also provided knowledge and resources that encouraged me to research and explore topics beyond the course material, and not to be intimidated by any technology or implementation. Keiko was incredibly supportive of my goal of finding a job with the flexibility to work remotely from Spain. When I was hired at InfiniteWorld in July and moved to Madrid in December, I kept thinking of her enthusiasm, shared experiences, and great advice.
My projects at Thinkful
Harvest
Mar 2021
- React
- Express
- Knex
- Postgresql
- Javascript
- HTML
- CSS
A tool to help users keep track of their garden's progress. The user can organize their garden by areas and save information about their plants with the option to look for plant data using an external API (trefle.io) or fill the plant's data themselves. The users can also save notes related to their garden or a specific plant or area.
- Implemented JWT authentication to handle user data.
- Integrated data from external API to complement user input for plant information.
Statementflow
Feb 2021
- React
- Express
- Knex
- Postgresql
- Javascript
- HTML
- CSS
A tool to help accountants in the preparation of financial statements. It uses templates based on worksheets to structure and fill the information needed for the statements. These statements can be then exported as a .doc file.
- Designed a structured model to store form templates as JSON data.
- Developed a component for the client app to parse and render forms based on JSON templates.
Mellifluous
Nov 2020
- jQuery
- Javascript
- HTML
- CSS
Help users find new songs and artists by getting recommendations based on a song or artist they like and several other preferences using Spotify's API.
- Created a single page AJAX app that integrates with Spotify's API that helps users find tracks based on songs or artists that they like.
- Combined data from multiple sources to make the user's experience interesting and fun.
Bonus project
After I finished Thinkful, I made this additional project to apply as a participant of a Chingu voyage.
Rover-explorer
May 2021
- React
- Express
- Javascript
- HTML
- CSS
Let's you explore Mars' terrain through the lenses of the Rovers living in the Red Planet.
- Created a service to handle requests to Nasa's rovers API.
- Designed the client app with an infinite scroll and lazy load of pictures as the user browses.
- Allow the users to search for pictures by date, rover and camera.