At the Flatiron Bootcamp Software Engineering program, I had to do as many labs as possible to really get the content. At the end of each section of the curriculum, I had to prove myself and build an application that became the foundation of my programming portfolio: CLI (Command Line Interface) Gem (ruby), Sinatra, Rails, Javascript and React/Redux.

After finalizing all the projects and graduating from the program, another journey started: the job search. I prepared to answer many types of questions, but then I got one which I wasn’t expecting. What was your most challenging project? Thinking about it made me realize that although my first project was very challeging, it was not the most difficult.

The first project was like a blank canvas. I did no know what to do. To make this enjoyable, I decided to combine my hobby with coding. As an anime fan, I decided to rate the best animes of the season. Unfortunately, I had my first technical issue; the API was in GraphQL, and at that time, I was not comfortable in using it.

After doing some more research, I decided to use the Studio Ghibli RESTfull API.. I had to read a lot, ask questions, and interact with the Flatiron community on Slack. I had a lot of fun building it, and after that, I realized I could build anything, I felt powerful. ;)

I believe every challenge, independent of how big it is, can be overcome if I keep learning, iteracting with the community, and improving myself.

You can check my CLI Gem here.