mentornation / first-mile-getting-started

Getting Started

Welcome to Flatiron School!

Over the next 1000 hours you will learn everything you need to know to get started as a Full Stack Software Engineer. As you dive in, we’ll share a few thoughts about how you can make the most of your program experience. It's going to be harder, and also more rewarding than any other learning experience you've ever had — we promise. Know that you are part of the Flatiron Community now, and although you may often be working alone, we’re in this together.

Learning How To Learn

The most common misconception we hear when people start this course is that we're teaching you Ruby, Javascript, HTML and CSS. You will definitely learn those things, but that's actually not the most important set of things you're going to learn.

Over your career as a professional developer you're very likely going to end up programming in languages that haven't been invented yet. The most important thing we're going to teach you is how to learn. Using the technologies above, we'll work with you to build the skills required to read and understand error messages and to strengthen your Googling skills to effectively search for answers. When you get a job as a developer and you have to learn a new library, framework or language, you'll know just how to go about doing so. We'll also teach you this first set of languages so that you can contribute immediately using them as a junior software developer.

A Growth Mindset

Students who are most successful in this program are those who exemplify a growth mindset - and embody a couple of key qualities that we know make great developers:

Act like an owner. Own your education and experience in this program, ask for help when you need it and be resourceful.

Be patient and expect delayed gratification. Learning a new language takes time and patience to master. Give yourself that time.

Be adaptable and handle ambiguity. As a developer, it’s critical to be able to be comfortable in not knowing the answer (yet).

Be mindful. Self-awareness of how you work best is key. Create your own structure that helps you work effectively. Actively read the lessons and reflect on what you’ve learned to take with you in completing the labs.

Communicate effectively. Get to know your Support Team at Flatiron, and each other. Raise questions and share feedback along the way.

“Effective beginners afford themselves the leeway to be shamelessly bad at something for long enough to learn from their mistakes and get better. It’s hard: given the choice, most people like to be good at things, and learning comes from exposing our ignorance, leaning into uncertainty, struggling with the unknown — not rehashing what we’ve already mastered. Perfectionists aren’t good learners. Beginners are. No matter how much we already know, a beginner’s mindset gives us the curiosity and sense of adventure to learn more.” - Paul Graham

Flatiron School Values

We are a values-driven community. We believe - and have seen - that if we can all behave by these guiding principles, amazing things will happen:

RADIATE POSITIVITY

1. Be nice.
2. Have fun.
3. Find what to love. Leverage passion as a force for motivation.

PURSUE MASTERY

1. Be a beginner. Always be learning.
2. Do a lot better. Greatly exceed the minimum bar.
3. Measure and improve using data.
4. Actively seek out and embrace feedback.

WORK TOGETHER

1. Collaborate.
2. Embrace transparency.
3. Empower others to succeed.
4. Listen intently and over-communicate.

MAKE NO LITTLE PLANS

1. Build for scale.
2. Create for the whole world.
3. Execute short term goals in view of long-term strategy.

BE SCRAPPY

1. Get S#!t Done.
2. Embrace change and thrive in ambiguity.
3. Be resourceful.
4. Take ownership of opportunities.

View Getting Started on Learn.co and start learning to code for free.