Brittbot

Upgrading from Data Center Tech to Software Engineer

An image of a black woman wearing eyeglasses with natural hair sitting in a chair at a table in her room reading a book laying on top of the table. Next to the book is a pen and spiral-bound notebook.

My Python Study Schedule

—

by

Brittany Gates
in

In this post I’ll explain my Python study schedule as a full-time employee hoping to apply to entry-level Software Engineer roles at my employer later this year. My objective for writing this post is to help other full-time IT employees determine how to create their own study schedule so they can upgrade in their careers. So let’s get right into it.

My Python Study Schedule

My Python study schedule is every day of the week. The only time I don’t study is when I’m vacation, or when I’m sick. I want to enjoy my vacation, which is why I take a break from studying. Thus, I leave my programming books and laptop at home. When I’m sick – and I don’t get sick often – I’m not fit for learning anything. If I try to, I’m won’t remember much. And if I try to code I’ll write so-so code at best. Thus, it’s better to wait for my body to recover.

Since I’m a full-time employee I don’t have much time to learn on the weekdays. I get about one to two hours to be studious each evening after I get dinner. Usually I break up each session into some combination of reading one of my programming books or technical documentation, and writing code. I may work on an exercise from the book, or work on one of my projects.

However, on the weekends I can dedicate six to eight hours to study. I can spend more time than that, but I do go outside to get fresh air, go to gym, run errands, stuff like that. Weekends provide me the best opportunity to make extensive progress with my projects due to amount of time I have to code.

Difficulties With My Schedule

With my Python study schedule I do run into problems.

My first problem is I don’t have any time in the morning on the weekdays to devote to learning. This is how my morning starts:

  • My alarm wakes me up at 5 AM.
  • I arrive at my apartment’s gym by 5:30 AM.
  • Perform my forty minute workout.
  • Leave the gym around 6:20 AM to commute to work.
  • Arrive at work around 7:15 AM.

Yes, I have a long commute. Due to various reasons I live one hour away from the data center. That’s the main reason I can’t devote any time learning in the morning.

Can I change my living situation to live closer to work? I could, but it’s going to make other parts of my life more difficult. Thus, I won’t make those changes.

Could I study at work? I can, and have, but not anymore. I used my lunch break to read, but I only take a thirty minute break so I can leave work earlier. Hence, I don’t get much learning done. Also, sometimes I end up using my lunch break to eat and do something else unrelated to learning.

Ease With My Python Study Schedule

While I do have some difficulties, there’s three reasons why I have so much time to devote to learning:

  1. I’m single with no pets or any dependents.
  2. All my free time belongs to me.
  3. I no longer play any video games.

I say this to be fully transparent. I know there are other people who don’t have the amount of free time like myself to learn. My schedule works for me, and I think it could work for others in a similar position like myself.