Whether you’re trying to break into tech, prepare for the job search, or level up in your current role, it helps to know that you’re not alone in your journey to build your technical skills. That’s why we’re sharing stories from learners like you: to motivate and inspire others in their learning endeavors.
Our first learner story is from Braden Cook, a senior at Utah State University majoring in Computer Science. Braden took courses in data science and software engineering on CodeSignal Learn to build his skills in preparation for going on the job market this year.
What job are you hoping to land after you graduate, and why?
“I would be open to a lot of different computer science related jobs. I’m not ready to be picky. However, I’ve been taking a lot of data science-related courses and am very interested in what can be learned and achieved through data analysis and machine learning. I would love to find a job where I can make meaningful contributions as a data analyst.”
How do you like to learn?
“I like when a learning platform has some sort of an incentive I’ll get. Your work gets scored, and there’s leaderboards so you can see how you rank compared to other people—I think that’s a fun way to learn.
And, I like examples. For coding reference, I end up on geeksforgeeks.com. They have a lot of really easy-to-copy examples of code, for syntax reference. I also just like something that’s easy to navigate if I’m looking to learn something specific, whether it’s an organized menu or a search bar. Most of the time, I’m working on something for school and I need some more direction on how to do it, so I’m looking for a very specific lesson rather than going through a whole course.”
What was learning with CodeSignal like?
“I love using the Pandas Python library for data wrangling because it makes it so easy. CodeSignal was a great way to learn how to use some of the awesome features of Pandas.
In general, it’s a good tool for more in-depth learning. I don’t go to most other learning platforms for the depth—I use them just for reference, or to solidify a very specific topic I’m trying to figure out. That’s the difference with CodeSignal Learn. It’s something where someone not knowing much of anything, but who wants a computer science-related career, could use CodeSignal Learn to build their skills and use it as their main source of learning.”
Did you ever get “stuck” when you were learning? If so, how did you get past that?
“With other courses, sometimes you get in a tricky spot and you don’t know what’s wrong with your code, and you just get stuck. I was never in a position like that for very long with CodeSignal Learn—I could just go to Cosmo* and ask, ‘Why isn’t this working?’ And he wouldn’t just give me the answer—he’s really good at saying, ‘here’s something you want to look at in your code that is wrong.’ So there’s a lot less of a waste of time just being stuck.
I’ve had that problem a lot learning programming and computer science. It’s really fun and rewarding learning how to code, but every once in a while, you just get stuck and don’t know where to go or what’s wrong, and that can be really frustrating. And I never really experienced that when using Cosmo to help me out of that kind of a situation.”
*Cosmo is our friendly AI-powered tutor and guide built into CodeSignal Learn.
How did you find the time to learn?
“I did a lot of courses over my holiday break. Since I’ve been back in school, I’ve used CodeSignal’s data analysis courses to supplement what I am currently learning about in my classes. They’re great for laying down a foundational knowledge for some of the most common uses of popular data science tools.”
What advice would you give to other computer science students?
“The best thing you can do for your success and learning is to find projects that are both important and interesting to you. Working on a project to produce a final product that matters to me makes my learning very intentional, exciting, and fun.”
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