I've now completed my journey with IT Career Switch and secured a role in software development, thanks to all the experience I accumulated throughout the coding traineeship as well as the high quality service I received from all the staff at ITCS.This will be a very long read, so I'll save you some time by leaving my conclusion here: I strongly recommend going with IT Career Switch if you're looking for your first role in software development, even if you're someone like me with zero commercial experience. Special thanks to Peter and Belinda for all of their effort and support during this journey - I'm grateful for the excellent service they provided.It's important to mention that this programme demands total commitment, and anything short of that simply won't do. This is a true marathon during which you'll be covering some advanced topics and concepts that will require a lot of reading, a lot of coding, and a lot of patience. There will be moments where you feel frustrated, and later there will be moments when you begin to unleash the power of what you've learned and you'll be amazed by the sorts of complex applications that you can create.The coding traineeship is split into 3 phases: course-based training, practical projects, and the job placement stage. I'd like to go through each phase briefly and highlight some important points and observations.Phase 1 takes the longest to complete (it took me around 6 months). This is the toughest part of the programme, especially if you're coming into this with no prior coding experience. I'd recommend fully immersing yourself in this part of the programme because it will set the stage for what's to come next. I'd strongly recommend supplementing the required learning with something extra (e.g. an extra full stack project or two), if you have the time. Remember that much of what you learn during this stage will be essential for your work as a developer, so make sure you've mastered concepts such as version control with git, responsive design principles, the request-response cycle, the client-server model, application architecture, and so on.Phase 2 was my favorite part of the programme. This phase was relatively brief but was so much fun all the way through because it provides a great insight into some of the basic aspects of real-world development. You have to complete 2 practical projects that rely heavily on front-end JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap and PHP. During this phase, I had a lot of contact with the head coding tutor (Peter) who provided extensive and in-depth feedback, guidance and recommendations about various kinds of application design principles. To succeed in this stage, you need to have mastered the content covered in phase 1, so make sure to give all topics the attention they deserve because you're going to need all that knowledge moving forward.Another important aspect of phase 2 is your portfolio website, which will be one of the primary means by which you promote yourself. You'll receive some excellent guidance on how to structure this, and I'd recommend taking the time to really make sure that your website looks as good as it possibly can. Don't cut any corners when it comes to responsive design and make sure to apply good design principles relating to whitespace, typography, color palettes, layout and page structure, performance, and so on. Don't be afraid to keep things simple - you'll see plenty of examples of developer portfolios that achieve a stylish, professional appearance using a minimalist design that doesn't rely on complex CSS animations or other advanced front end techniques.Lastly, let's talk about phase 3, the job placement phase. I was assigned to Belinda who did an absolutely fantastic job overhauling my CV and creating a very professional, tidy and targeted document in a style that gets the job done. In fact, I think that this may have been the single most crucial part of the whole programme, as I managed to secure a role after only 2 or 3 weeks into this phase (after applying to around 100 roles and getting a single interview invite). I suspect that the CV that Belinda created for me had a big impact (she did a really amazing job), as recruiters don't spend much time on each CV and so it helps to have a document that stands out and holds the reader's attention.During phase 3, you will be sent a weekly list of jobs to apply to, but outside of this, I strongly recommend searching and applying to as many jobs as you can on a daily basis. This will significantly boost your chances of being noticed, getting invited to interviews, and eventually securing a role. While on the topic of boosting your job hunt, you also want to make sure that you've properly filled in your employee profile on sites like Indeed, Reed, CV Library and Totaljobs.
Claim your business profile now and gain access to all features and respond to customer reviews.
Award winning training provider and recruiter who specialise in IT, Health & Safety and Project Management.
