Northcoders has undoubtedly been one of the most dynamic, hectic and energetic environments I have ever been involved in. The fast paced rhythm and steep learning curve, together with the sense of camaraderie amongst everyone means that no two weeks are alike and there are new challenges every day.

We start every morning at half 8, although the majority of people will be in around 8, chatting and having some much-needed coffee. We kick things off having an hour of individual problem-solving time, generally in the form of coding challenges, followed by a morning lecture, always focusing on some new aspects of our curriculum. The rest of the morning is generally dedicated to getting our heads around the new technology we just learned, finding out who you’ll be working with for the next couple of days and starting to plan with them how to structure the next sprint.

Then it’s lunchtime. Because we’re right in the centre of Manchester there are tons of places to grab a sandwich, although Pancho’s enormous burritos seem to be our cohort absolute favourite.

The afternoons are then generally dedicated to working in pairs on sprints. Although these can sometimes be a little challenging they’re also one of my favourite things about Northcoders. Being able to immediately put into practice what you’ve just learned and to use new technologies to create ‘real world’ software (in my case a back-end Twitter app and a command-line interactive Pokemon game) from the start not only helps you consolidate the lectures but also gives you an amazing sense of achievement.

At the end of each week, having worked hard and picked up lots of new skills, it’s hard not to feel a great sense of accomplishment as well as, at least for me, a genuine desire to head down to the pub and have a couple of drinks with everyone.

All and all, in my experience, a week at Northcoders flies by in a heartbeat and leaves you slightly tired but also immensely proud and happy to be part of this community.