Welcome back to the Rithm School series on React hooks. In this blog post, I'll introduce useEffect, a very useful and potentially confusing new hook in React. useEffect can be used in place of three lifecycle methods: componentDidMount, componentDidUpdate, and componentWillUnmount. The details of how useEffect replaces all three methods is what we will be exploring in this blog post.
A working knowledge of some basics of hooks (especially some understanding of useState) is important for this post. If you haven't read my earlier post introducing hooks, or if you want a refresher, check it out here.
2019 is coming to a close and our staff conversations at Rithm are taking on a more reflective quality: how did we do this year, both as an organization and as individuals? Where did we excel and, more importantly, where could we improve? From curriculum and culture, to the impact of our space and the overall student experience, everything is fair game.
These end-of-year conversations include a recurrent topic that tends to swing (seemingly) unpredictably from cohort to cohort throughout the year: the number of women enrolled as students.
Now, the dearth of women employed in technical roles is not a revelation; about 25% of software engineers worldwide identify as women. And at the risk of sounding trite, this is not a simple problem to solve. From the way that girls are socialized to feel about math and science, to a general lack of awareness and understanding of what computer science is, to more nuanced cultural and social factors that result in women leaving tech all together later on, countless articles have been written from every angle imaginable.
Everywhere we turn, we’re confronted with disheartening figures and statistics, but for the purposes of this post, we’ll forgo the rehashing of the current landscape. The landscape is what it is in this moment. What we’re most interested in is what we can do within the coding bootcamp sector to move the needle.
It’s that time of the year again, where everyone is making ambitious goals they will most likely never follow through with. You have probably read about how to set SMART goals and how writing your goals down makes you more likely to achieve them. I recommend both of those strategies, but don’t stop there. Do you set yearly goals? Do you achieve them?
Welcome! If you haven't seen our first GraphQL tutorial on queries, make sure to check that out first. In this post, we'll talk more about GraphQL and focus on mutations. We previously saw how to access or read data using queries, now let's see how to change or "mutate" information using mutations! Make sure that you have a fundamental understanding of GraphQL and queries before continuing on.
At Rithm, we believe that one of the best ways to prepare students for jobs as web developers is by giving them opportunities to work on real-world projects. Working on personal projects can be fun, but working in a team or on an existing code base gives students insights into the day-to-day challenges of a developer that they might not otherwise learn. Our 13th cohort is wrapping up their company projects with JumpOffCampus, a new platform forging partnerships between Universities and safe, secure, off-campus housing. Jennifer Ma and Luke Nemy have been working on the same team using React, Ruby on Rails, and Google Maps API to incorporate a live map and rental listings with filters based on a user’s selected location. We asked them to share their experience working together with us:
Hooks are here! At Rithm School we are constantly reviewing our curriculum and making sure that we are up to date on the latest technologies. When we notice a new technology or technique rising in popularity (and also becoming a common question that interviewers ask), we have the ability to quickly incorporate it into what we are teaching.
Since the introduction of hooks into React, we have clearly seen a strong interest in the community to use hooks in new React projects. My goal is to give you a brief introduction to hooks and show you how they can be used instead of using class components with setState.
Welcome! If you're reading this, you have probably been told that GraphQL is one of, if not the best thing since the internet. Or maybe you've just been working with REST for so long that you think there's a better way. Regardless of where you're coming from, we'll be introducing what GraphQL is, how it acts as an alternative to REST, and how to get started with queries.
With a background in fine art, proudly toting her senior superlative of “Most Artistic”, Sandy Cao didn’t consider herself the typical candidate for a coding bootcamp. She hadn’t worked a full-time job in nearly 3 years (as a business analyst at a fintech startup in New Jersey) before joining us as a student at Rithm School. However, during her time with that job, she taught herself SQL and the thrill of completing code stuck with her. Sandy took some time to discuss her job search, her experience at Rithm, and her wisdom for other women looking to break into the tech scene.
At Rithm, we believe that one of the best ways to prepare students for jobs as web developers is by giving them opportunities to work on real-world projects. Working on personal projects can be fun, but working in a team or on an existing code base gives students insights into the day-to-day challenges of a developer that they might not otherwise learn. Our 12th cohort is wrapping up their company projects with Numero, a modern financial platform that Members of Congress, Senate, and Presidential candidates rely on to manage the $4.5 billion in payment processing, accounting, and compliance for their political campaigns. Gabe and Joanna have been working as a pair, as well have Andrew and Chantal. We asked them to share their experience working together with us:
At Rithm School, company projects have started. If you’re not familiar with company projects, it’s a three week portion of our curriculum where students work with instructors and outside companies on a real production code base. It can be a challenging time for both students and instructors as we’re all working together on problems and code that we’ve never seen before. But the challenge is definitely worth while. It’s a great tool for teaching good coding practices and how to work with a team. By the end of the three weeks, the students have a lot more confidence that they can contribute to a production code base.