Read this if you want to attend a coding bootcamp
This is NOT a post talking smack about coding bootcamps. If that’s what you want to hear, then move on.
These days ads for coding bootcamps are everywhere. You see them on trains and buses, in large prints and newspapers, on the Pandora app in-between songs, and of course, the ubiquitous billboards that you can’t seem to escape no matter where you go. These ads tell you a high-paying job with a salary anywhere from $70,000 to $120,000 are just 10 to 12 weeks away, which is the average length of bootcamps out there today. Most of these bootcamps boast job placement rates of 90% or above. Not too shabby huh? Even colleges can’t say that confidently. So should you drop everything, pay a tuition fee in the ballpark of $12,000 to $15,000 to attend the nearest bootcamp?
I did that. I was a consultant doing mostly ERP software implementation prior to attending a local coding bootcamp. It was a complete career switch for me. Today I work as a software developer at a company that makes software for retailers. I have been there for more than 2 years and am still happily coding and learning about code everyday. I also became really interested in startup and tech entrepreneurship, and being a developer allows me to break into that space with a certain level of comfort and credibility. Suffice to say, it worked out for me. So as a bootcamp graduate who has “made” it, according to those ads at least, I feel compelled to share what I know and observed with future fellow bootcampers so they can have an extra bit of informed information to help them decide if coding bootcamps are for them.
You must be interested.
It goes without saying the more interested you are about something, the better you will do. To succeed as a hirable developer at end of 12 weeks (that’s how long my bootcamp was), you have to want to learn about coding. You must have the burning curiosity to want to understand how software is built. And you should start exploring that interest today, right now, immediately if you are going to spend more than $12,000 on a 12-week intensive program. A lot of you will need to take out loans to pay for this, so carefully evaluate your motives for going. If you are more enticed by the promise of high salaries, you will suffer a lot! Learning to code in the beginning is not that easy, especially for people with zero programming background. Getting frustrated and hating your brain at times are frequent and normal experiences. So if you aren’t genuinely interested, you will give up more easily. If you give up more easily, you will fall behind. If you fall behind, you will not be able to ace technical interviews. If you don’t ace technical interviews, you will not be able to get a job. See the vicious cycle? So start exploring and cultivating that interest today. Get on the Internet and just type “learning to code”. Google, or for the paranoid amongst you DuckDuckGo, will give you plenty of resources. Do some online tutorials. Watch a few coding videos. Read a book or two about coding and software. If you can cultivate your interest, you will have more motivation when times get tough.
Full disclosure: Before I went to bootcamp, I started learning to code on my own. I actively sought out meetups for beginners. The more I played with code, the more curious I got. That’s how I found my interest in coding.
Oh one last thing, what I observed is that people who do really well now were the ones who told me they actively sought out to learn coding on their own first. I saw an intense interest in all of them.
You don’t become a butterfly overnight.
The road to become a full-fledged software developer or engineer might start with internship or apprenticeship after bootcamp. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact I think it’s a more sustainable path than most people realize. It’s the path I took. After graduating from bootcamp, I accepted an apprenticeship position at my current company. Initially I was reluctant. I thought I was supposed to get a job as a developer right off the bat. It paid more than an apprenticeship. It was a better validation of my ability. Plus the bootcamp “promised” (perception from ads) that I would get a job as a full-time dev after I graduate. I had only 48 hours to decide and at the time I really was struggling. I thought I was settling for less if I accepted the apprenticeship.
I was very wrong. I am really glad that I took the job to be an apprentice. It was the right thing for me because it helped me solidify the 12-week coding knowledge and gave me confidence to make quality contributions at the same level a competent developer would be. If I had accepted a job as a full-time dev right away, I might not be fully equipped simply because there’s only so much one can learn in 12-weeks. In the real world, many more skills are needed. And we acquire those skills by learning from people who have done so, then doing it ourselves. In my position, I felt that being an apprentice for 2 months freed me from urgent business expectations and allowed me to learn at my own pace and build on what I already know. Today I am happy to report that I am a highly-valued member of the engineering team as a developer, and my impact on the codebase is well, impactful.
The point of sharing my story above is to advise future bootcampers to not undermine internships or apprenticeships. No opportunity is too small, or too inconsequential. So at career day, pay just as much attention to companies hiring interns as the ones hiring regular employees. They want to invest in you, so prove to them that you are worth it.
One company, two companies, three companies…
Some bootcamps make the list of companies they partner with readily available. If that’s the case, take advantage of it. Before enrolling in a bootcamp, ask for a list of hiring partners. These are companies that come to career day and hire bootcamp graduates regularly. Ask the admission officer or career counselor approximately how many grads these companies have hired so far. Pay extra attention to the ones that hired the most. These companies obviously believe in the bootcamp model and have validated that particular bootcamp’s quality of grads; this is why they hire such people again and again.
There are too many naysayers of the bootcamp model. They don’t believe bootcamp graduates can be just as good as people with a traditional 4-year Computer Science degree. Don’t let this however sway your pursuit of coding. We all have to start somewhere. So it’s very important you learn about these companies and start building relationship with them. Tell them who you are. Let them know you appreciate them taking a chance on bootcamp graduates. And do that long, long before career day. These companies understand they are hiring relatively inexperienced people; after all, what you just went through is the equivalent of one semester of graduate school. The qualities they will value the most are your drive and proactiveness. Letting them know who you are is the first step. You can impress them with your awesome coding chops later.
I hope my two cents help with your decision whether or not to attend bootcamp. If you have any questions, leave a comment or tweet me at @heycai_.
Cheers.
