Lessons, Growth, and Goodbyes: My Time with the Scrimba Bootcamp

Today a chapter is ending.

A little more than three years ago I found a game-changing platform called Scrimba that helped me to learn web development. At the time I was underemployed, and looking to switch careers as soon as possible. Over the course of six months I went through the Frontend Developer Career Path, learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript, git, GitHub, web APIs, UI design, and React. I say that Scrimba was game-changing, because I don't think I would have been able to learn as much and be able to apply that knowledge in that short of time if it weren't for the interactive screencasts known as scrims. It's as if YouTube and VS Code had a baby, because you are listening to a teacher explain a concept and then you get to pause the video to interact with a code editor right there in the same browser window! Keeping my hands on the keyboard was an effective way for me to learn, and a lot of fun besides!

Throughout the course of my self-study, I marveled at what a great learning platform Scrimba is. I also engaged with an amazing Discord community that added so much to my experience. I found some study buddies, shared updates in the channels, asked questions when I got stuck, and helped other coders when they needed a hand. I got so much from the program and the community that I always knew I wanted to give back to it in whatever way I could.

Shortly after I finished the Career Path, Scrimba started a new program - a bootcamp that would offer students accountability, mentoring, exclusive projects and more. I learned about another important skill that is vital in web development - code reviews. I began working with the Scrimba Bootcamp as part of the code reviewer team, giving students detailed recorded feedback on the solo projects they were building. This was a fantastic experience all around - I ended up learning so much by reading other people's code and offering suggestions for them to optimize their project or consider alternative approaches.

It was such a joy to continue to be involved with the Scrimba community in this way. I continued to look for ways to pour into the community, and secretly had hopes that I would someday join the Scrimba team. I loved the work they were doing and wanted to be a part of it. Persistence and consistency paid off, and a year after I joined the code reviewer team I had the opportunity to become the code reviewer lead, and then eventually the bootcamp lead!

For the past year and a half, I have had the great honor of working as the learning program manager for the Scrimba bootcamp. It has been such a great experience, getting to know hundreds of dedicated students, and to see them progress in their coding journeys. I feel lucky that I was able to lead the team of brilliant mentors that brought such value to the program with their code reviews and mentoring sessions.

I am proud of the work I did with the bootcamp! As I expanded my network within the tech community, I invited guests to come and chat with the group during our weekly meetings. It was awesome to learn from their experience and expertise. I also started facilitating coding workshops to augment what the students were learning on the career path. In these live sessions we took deep dives into different topics in web development. I encouraged other mentors on the code reviewer team to lead these as well, and I feel like we brought a ton of value to the group.

A few hours ago, I waved goodbye in my last Zoom session with the Bootcamp students. The Bootcamp program is coming to a close, and my chapter of working with Scrimba will be ending too. It is bittersweet, I'll admit. But as I told the students in this last meeting, everything comes to an end, but hopefully this is a chance for new beginnings. I've seen students come and go over the past two and a half years, so many of them finishing the career path and going on to find their first jobs in web development. We don't have to say good-bye though. We can say see you later. I look forward to keeping up with all of the incredible people I have met during my time with the bootcamp, and I'm excited for the next chapter for all of us.