Week 1 at Metis: I'm a Survivor!

By: Nicole Semerano

You can choose to sing Destiny Child’s song right now. Or you may be more in the mood to sing Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”. Either way, let me give some recommendations for your first week in Boot Camp. I write this blog post from a unique perspective. My cohort was the first NYC cohort to go through the Boot Camp online during the coronavirus outbreak. As I write this, I hope we are the only one. And I’ll tell you more later how my experience is even more unique.

You Can Do It!

One instructor told us this on the first day. You are good enough. Otherwise you would not have been selected to Metis. I suffered from what I learned was called Imposter Syndrome. Yes, I was surrounded by people with impressive careers or degrees. However, I have realized I am not an imposter. I am smart enough and deserve to be in the same company with my peers. There is times they teach me things and there are times the role is reversed. Also, my grit, hard work, and determination make up for anything I may be lacking.

Pre-work

Be solid in the pre-work. I was a math teacher because I was good at math, no matter the level. I dusted off my old Statistics and Calculus textbooks and got myself back up on those topics. But more importantly, I made Python my main goal. I first learned Python only a few months before coming to Metis. At a Metis Open House, I heard an alumni say to know linear algebra backwards and forwards. Thankfully during my technical interview, an alumni recommended knowing Python like the back of your hand. I agree with the latter. Really practice the coding style in the pre-work. I am a visual learner so I watched numerous YouTube videos on the topics as well as practicing my own code. I would add get proficient with Pandas in Python. You are constantly using it.

Flipped Learning

In case you’re not familiar with the concept, flipped learning is it style in education where the student learns the topic on their own ahead of time so that by the time they get into the classroom the teacher can go to bigger and better topics. I looked at the course catalog to get an idea of topics that would be discussed in the first week, such as Matplotlib, Git, and Pandas. Everything I read in other blogs talked about how intense the first week is. I think I survived the first week OK because I had a basic understanding of the topics. This gave me more time to focus on the many other logistics of the first week that does make it a crazy week no matter how much you prepare for it. You are doing computer terminal and Github set up, coordinating with groupmates ( and I was with a great group of people), and being exposed to a huge NYC terminal data set.

I think this is where I will pause and explain why my experience was extra unique. Three days before the bootcamp started, my father was admitted to the hospital with Coronavirus. A day later he was intubated. In the last phone conversation I had with him, he asked about if I was ready for the first day and what were some of the last topics I had been reviewing. He was smart, he made sure to mention Metis in that phone call because no matter how bad things got later on, I knew I couldn’t give up. If you haven’t noticed, I’m writing in past tense. My father succumbed to this evil virus on April 9, 2020. That was Week 2, Day 4. All throughout the first week, I got morning updates from my mother on his latest condition. If you have read this far and have not applied to Metis yet, this is one major reason to do so. Their staff and instructors have been so caring, supportive, and understanding. But this is why you prepare. I could take a few minutes to step away and deal with something that was so much more important but yet not feel completely lost when I came back.

What?

On that note, don’t be afraid to ask questions. One instructor even explains that he will wait 7 seconds at times to really give you time to shout out a question. You may think you will show weakness by asking. You won’t. Since I am writing this later in the bootcamp, I can say it makes your life easier to ask questions. We have it harder being that our cohort is spread out across the country in our own little spaces. You may not realize it but a couple people probably have the same question as you.

Enjoy

And I’ll end with, have fun with it! On the first project everyone is dealing with MTA data. But you use this data to recommend a location for something else. Where does a store go, where should you advertise? My group recommended a new hospital location. Work with your group mates to find something that interests at least some of you. But also do the fun stuff. Jesel, our program director, has done virtual lunch dates, game nights, and more. On your later projects, make it a topic you enjoy, even if you want to gear it towards a future employer. That interest will come across in your presentation and make it exponentially better.