What it is like to be a part of Start.ng and HNGi.

Photo by Fabian Grohs on Unsplash

If you’ve been scraping the internet for information on start.ng and HNGi and you won’t mind reading an article written by a participant , please go ahead.

TL:DR ; It all ends with you leaving better than you came in or worse, depending on you.

Start .ng

Start.ng is a FREE virtual training program for newbie developers who need a head start in software development. Start.ng 2020 was held from March — May 2020.

Why should you apply (or rather why did I apply)?

1. If you’d like to figure out gaps in your learning.
2. If you have some free time (Super busy people also participated but this was 1 of my reasons).
3. If you’re taking a course you’ll like to complement it with.

My story/What to expect

I got into the program and decided to go with the c# track and eventually learn ASP.net core for web development. I was super lucky to have been taught by Vincent Nwonah who recorded Youtube tutorials for more than 500 of us in the c# track. The main topics included Variables and Types, Conditionals, Arrays, Lists, Loops, Classes and Objects and eventually Web Development with ASP.net Core. I was also selected to be the rep for the c# track.

In addition to specific track, we also had other classes on Git, Pricing as a freelance developer, Quality Assurance, Testing and some motivational talk.

To move from 1 stage to the other, we were given tasks i.e General tasks and track specific tasks and one moved based on how much points you got. Sometimes, fear made some people not attempt tasks. Submitting original code is a good starting point I’d say. I got to meet some amazing people who remain friends till now.

At the end of the program, we carried out a project that required working with frontend and backend developers and designers.

What I learnt

1. Never be afraid to ask for help.
2. Nobody knows it all.
3. Help people.
4. Leadership skills.
5. Not everyone can use slack.
6. It’s difficult managing people.

Proud Moments

1. The c# mentor Vincent asked me to compile the list of everyone in the channel. More than 500 people!!! I did some research and found a tool called Phantom Buster and used it to extract names via d session cookies.
2. Built a couple of small project as assignments. Check out my Github.
3. Made it to finals.

HNGi7

HNG commenced 1 week after Start.ng with a whooping 11,000 people. It’s a more intense version of start.ng but with more people. Also a FREE training. HNG is also virtual, always has been and is global with participants from as far as Asia, Europe, America etc. By stage 5 we were already less than 1,000. I decided to go with the backend team using ASP.Net , however, I ended up using node js and PHP as well for some projects. Anybody can participate in HNG, students, married people. We even had a HNGi baby i.e the lady had the baby during the internship.

One thing I learnt is to get fully involved in projects right from the start as it makes things easier as you advance but also never be afraid to try new things and finish them.

I got deactivated on my way to Stage 7 though. From the experience I learnt to submit in good time even if it’s not complete but I guess it also depends on context.

Proud moments

1. I contributed to more projects. Including the MicroAPI project, built a Piggyvest Investment app, learnt about Wallet.africa api and how to integrate API’s to projects using c#. I also built a quiz app from scratch, super proud of this.
2. At some point, I had to join the devops team and I did. I helped with publishing an app to google play store and setup docker myself.
3. The Micro API project is especially nice because the read me is very detailed and the process of making Pull Requests and submitting issues is of industry standard.

What I learnt

• I was also team lead here twice and I learnt that human beings are political by nature. (Good morning : ))
• It’s important to have very good Time management skill.
• Don’t kill yourself. Work hard and smart but also play hard and rest.
• It’s important to follow rules but also question them in order to understand.
• If you want to succeed many people are ready to help you. By default people are super helpful.
• I learnt not to be too attached to my code and stack. I got a nickname — c# legend (story for another day).
• Lol, you won’t save the world with your code but you can make sure you write clean code. (Save the world by doing a good job)
• Help people.

Proud moments

1. I got a laptop. Here is Mark Essien’s tweet.

2. I met super amazing people.

What Next ?

I am now working at a great place Erbaver as a Software Developer (I started working here after Start.ng) and these past few months have also been as exciting as HNGi. If you dig quality digital products (Web apps, Websites, Mobile Apps), Erbaver is your best bet. Follow us on twitter.

Conclusion

I am lucky to have a highly supportive and understanding family and an entire tribe of friends who cheer me on. I am excited about all I have learnt and I am open to share what I now know.

If you’ll like us to work on something together, Follow me on Twitter , Github and LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading.

UPDATE : 25/07/2020 — Added some more description about the HNGi internship.

UPDATE 2 : 04/08/2020 — Included the what’s next section.

Post available on my blog.