Why You Should Hire A Bootcamp Grad
Four months into my job search after graduating from The Iron Yard’s 12-week front-end development bootcamp, I opened my email to a rejection letter. I had gotten a few of these over the past couple of months job searching, but this one was different. I made it through a personality test, a phone screen, a complicated take home JavaScript test and a video-call to review that test only to be told that even though I did better than most of the other applicants that I was too “green”. TLDR; I didn’t get hired because I was a bootcamp grad.
Bootcamp grads are some of the most dedicated and determined people I have ever met and if you’re looking for someone who is passionate about what they do and committed to keep learning then there’s no need to look further.
I attended The Iron Yard about a year before they shut down nationally. I quit my job as a music publicist (more about my career transition here) on a Friday and started classes at TIY the following Monday. Nothing was going to stop me from working my ass off during those 12 weeks to finally land a job as a developer and the same goes for my classmates. They are all amazing people who took a leap of faith to better themselves and their career path.
The argument I hear a lot against bootcamp grads is that they’ve only been coding for three (or six, depending on your program) months. So what? Bootcamp grads put their entire lives on hold for three plus months to learn an entirely new skillset. Not many people can say that. Look at what they learned in those three months and imagine what they could do in that time for your company.
Having someone with a different background than the rest of the developers at your office is a huge asset as well. As someone who previously worked in public relations, I would be in constant contact with clients. Because of that I gained the confidence to step up and lead client calls now. I have even been in a situation where a project manager was struggling with how to phrase our needs to the client. I was able to lend a hand and explain things in non-technical terms so they completely understood what needed to be relayed to the client’s IT team. You never know when someone’s background, no matter how different from the tech field, could come in handy.
So if you’re on the fence about interviewing that bootcamp grad who just sent you their resume, do it. Take the time to talk to them, see what they’ve learned and why they made the leap to transition to tech. That fresh-out-of-bootcamp-grad could become your next senior developer in a few years. Give them the chance.
Thanks to Chloe Condon for inspiring this article. Check out her reasons why you should hire a bootcamp grad below!
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