I started my studies in February 2021.... I graduated in March 2022... Got my first job, after my training, in May....
It started with a moms group on Facebook (that's where inexperienced moms like me ask other moms about things I'm not going to write about now :) ). As you may have realized, I was on maternity leave, and while opening Facebook for the umpteenth time, just out of boredom, I came across a post from one of the group members about a Java programming school. Before my arrival in Korea, I had thought about learning programming, but then, after searching for information about different programs and schools, I decided not to start.
First of all, I had little free time, and secondly, I didn't like the reviews found on the Internet: having studied, there is no guarantee of employment, and then why pay for knowledge that will not be useful later? In - third, the cost of such courses was not insignificant, quite tangible hitting the wallet. In addition, many advised not to work, but only to study ...
Perhaps I am not all now understand and "moms" will throw slippers, but during maternity leave I began to degenerate mentally ....
Memory became worse and in general intelligence too. Not better was not better and financial situation, because in Korea, you know, if you do not work, you have to save on everything and therefore many leave back, where they came from, for two or three years because of childbirth.
So, I saw this recruitment ad and thought about the fact that soon I have to go to work, back to the factory..... And I've been in Korea for about five years now and my health is not eternal working in factories. I will not speak badly about the working life in Korea, after all we were given such an opportunity to come and earn (you can earn decent money), but all this affects your health very quickly.
All these thoughts flashed through my head and I started searching for information about Java Mentor School (now Kata Academy) on the internet as there was information about JM on the Habsida website. I thought, "Aha, now I will find bad reviews as always and it will all become clear what kind of school they are!".
To be honest, I didn't find any bad reviews - on the contrary, everything was very open and you could write live to employed graduates of the school. I googled and went to ask my husband's opinion. My husband was supportive, he said give it a try.
I wrote to Habsida and they replied with a letter with information about the test assignment and links with information for those who, like me, didn't understand anything about programming. The assignment was to write a program for a console calculator. The word "console" didn't say anything to me, so I just made a graphical "shell" of the calculator using a ready-made template from the textbook (which I downloaded online at the link provided) and submitted it. Of course, I didn't have such a "solution" accepted and was sent to solve again.
Knowledge was clearly lacking and I decided to take a Java beginner course with a mentor from JM for 300k Korean Won. My advice to beginners, if you have limited finances, just take a similar course on Stepic, but it's without a mentor, but it's free :).
During the day I was busy with the baby and household chores, and after the baby fell asleep for a night nap, I sat down at my old laptop and slowly made my calculator. By the way, when I asked whether it will go to study a weak laptop, I was told that you can code and in a notebook, so do not worry, but it is better to be concerned about the acquisition of a device to help. Tip number 2 - you should definitely worry! Because you will code in a special development environment, which my old laptop with 4 GB RAM "pulled" slowly. And during the pre-project and project after installation of all databases (MySql, PosgreSQL, LiquiBase) it started to hang for 30 minutes and sometimes I woke up at the laptop with a stiff neck.
In general, it was a torment to wait for SpringBoot to start or BootStrap page to load. Buying a new laptop wasn't an option at the time and I just kept learning on the old one. I wrote the calculator for a month at night, during the day I slept during my daughter's afternoon nap. It wasn't possible to study every day - one year old babies sometimes cry at night, like when they are teething :).
If anyone asks me why I chose Habsida, I would say because of the post-payment and job security - in case of no employment, there would be no need to pay anything. While studying, my brain started working actively and there was an outlet from the mom routine.
Of course, not all studying was easy, like Java Core, and it wasn't all pros. I needed less sleep, there wasn't always quality feedback from my mentor, there were disagreements with the flow of classmates.... and my studies took longer: instead of 6 months, I studied for a whole year or more, with interruptions for family reasons. Honestly, sometimes it was very hard both mentally and physically, but I remembered the signed contract and studied further as much as I could. I reminded myself why I got into this in the first place: for the opportunity to change my job and not to do hard physical labor 3D (Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult ). Thank you