GoTo Engineering Bootcamp: A Spiritual Journey

I want to share with you a story about my time participating in the GoTo Engineering Bootcamp, and for me, this is a spiritual journey.

A spiritual journey refers to the process of seeking deeper meaning, purpose, and connection with something greater than oneself.

Maybe the term "Spiritual Journey" here is a little bit different from what you expected, and you think this term has nothing to do with engineering. You are right! But give me a chance to tell you a little similarity between an engineering bootcamp and a spiritual journey, which is that in this bootcamp I learned to seek deeper meaning, purpose, and connection from the code that I wrote. First, let's start with the Core Engineering module.

Core Engineering

This is the very first module that we learn in the GoTo Engineering Bootcamp. In this module, we learn about writing code from the basics, like creating a class, properties, naming functions or methods, and solving simple problems. Sounds easy, right? And I'm sure every participant in this bootcamp has already tried this before. But this time is different. We must ask ourselves: does every line follow the principles we decided on before? Is this code the best choice for the situation we are facing now? Are we sure the code we write today will give us minimal debt in the future? This module made us unlearn what we already knew, seek meaning and purpose in what we created, and start questioning a lot of questions to ourselves (sounds spiritual, doesn't it?).

The final touch of what we do in core engineering module is NNE (Non Negotiable Etiquette) or set of rules that we agreed before and if we brake one of this rule we must start our project from zero again. This is really change my habit when writing code to give my best on every line that I wrote 📖.

DevOps Module

Next module is DevOps. Before I joined this bootcamp, I only knew that a DevOps job involved deploying something. Later on, I learned that DevOps is much more than that. The most important thing is that DevOps is not a role; it is a culture. This module taught us basic things about virtual machines, Linux, automation, containerization, container orchestration, and monitoring. From know nothing about linux and start writing my first command, and end up deploying application and monitored it, I learn a lot from this module.

The DevOps module feels like learning about magic. Previously, I would just click a button or push to the main repository, and tadaaaa 🪄 my application deployed. But now, I have the chance to look behind the scenes and learn the "magic tricks" of DevOps by understanding how it works and trying to replicate it myself. This whole experience is really fun and exciting, just like discovering magic.

Mobile Module

The last module we learned in this bootcamp is Mobile. We learned to create applications for something we use every day, which is our phone 📱. We learned to create Android applications with Kotlin and iOS applications with Swift. We could apply what we learned from core engineering here, but we still had to learn a lot about the platform, like threading and integrating with device hardware. It's really relieving to learn how to make an application for a device we use every day. In this module, we also got a glimpse of how complex Gojek apps are built to provide the best experience to users.

Appreciation

I really want to say my biggest thanks to the folks who helped me maximize my learning experience during this bootcamp.

Peers

Mgs. Tabrani, Sulthan Afif Althaf, Hans Geovani Andika, Ari Syuhada, Ibrahim Zhilal Faruqi, William, Muhammad Tamiramin Hayat Suhendar, Frederick Wijayadi Susilo, Thoriqulhaq Jibril Al Qudsy, Thariq Zhafran Satyagraha, Abdul Hafiz Ramadan, Yoseph Simanjuntak, Muhammad Fawwaz Naabigh, Derrick, James Rafferty Lee, Dzikri Qalam Hatorangan, Riza Maryudi, Yogi Tri Nugraha Eddy Soetopo, Isa Randra

Coaches

Raydhitya Yoseph, Fadhriga Bestari, Ajat Prabha, Ali Qornan Jaisyurrahman, Ronauli Silva, Wito Chandra, Saptanto Sindu, Arinda Arif, Bala Sekar, Muhammad Hakim (Rasyid Hakim), Raditya Saskara, Gopinath Langote, Taufan Aeroperkasa, Theodore Gautama Chandra, Fajran Iman Rusadi, Giri Kuncoro, Clavianus Juneardo (Jun), Joshua Abednego, Kanisius Kenneth Halim, Ahmad Kamil Almasyhur, Deepanshu, Danviero Yuzwan, Teddy Santya, Sreehari Nambiar, Ashutosh Singh

Learning Team

Mutia Hersanti, Caeshania Wianda, Altamahira Indrawan