How I Became a Software Developer Without Going To a Bootcamp
How does one go from minimal programming experience to landing a job as a software developer? Is it possible without going to a bootcamp? Yes it is.
I realized too late into school that I had chosen the wrong major. I mean, of course I was wrong — what 18 year old isn’t completely wrong about their life trajectory? Unfortunately, this meant I ended up in a less than inspiring job designing safety systems for chemical factories. What did I want to do with my life (cue cliche)? Not a clue.
Thankfully a close friend convinced me to give coding a chance. He sold me on the possibility that I could build things that others would use, enjoy, or maybe even find helpful. I had spent most of my academic career interested in processes that require billions of dollars in research and bureaucracy, and now I was realizing that I could conceivably create things with just my laptop from anywhere anytime. Solid sales pitch, right?
I think many people arrive at this point and become overwhelmed by the number of options on how to proceed. A popular path is to attend a programming bootcamp. Don’t get me wrong, I believe programming bootcamps are a great option for those who can afford it, but it’s important to take a step back and take inventory of your goals, learning style, and timeline before making the hefty investment.
I was personally only looking to test the waters when I first started looking into code. I wanted to see if this was something I could be excited about learning, and I wasn’t ready to go all in on an expensive bootcamp program (haha as if I had the money or time) when I was thoroughly unsure if this was a career I even wanted. So the googling began; however, there were so many resources online that I became paralyzingly overwhelmed by the sheer volume and lack of organization.
I consulted my friend, and he pointed me in the direction of Thinkful. I signed up for a front web development course which organized materials from across the internet into a project driven curriculum. The general flow involved working on code academy lessons to learn syntax, reading curated articles to gain perspective on what I was learning, and applying it all by building a project. The course also included weekly video chat sessions with my mentor once a week for advice, code reviews, debugging help, etc. This really kept me accountable. Telling someone, “Hey, I have done absolutely nothing since we last spoke last week...” is shitty.
The three month program also had a reasonable price tag of $300/month and time commitment of 10 hours/week (you pay less if you finish sooner and more if you want to take your time). About two thirds of the way through the program I knew that this was for real — I knew I wanted to be a software developer. I was thrilled to end the course with a live personal portfolio site and a few projects. The program didn’t get me job ready, but it gave me the confidence to learn how to build things on my own.
Since I was sure I wanted a career change, I was ready for some more drastic action. I started applying to bootcamps, but I came across quite a few web development internships too! I started building more projects based on what these internships were looking for and applied to everything I could find. Luckily, I landed a fellowship at Fractured Atlas working as a full stack web developer. Instead of paying tons of money for a bootcamp, I was receiving a living stipend while gaining hands on experience building things that actual humans used! I learned how to collaborate on a team, create full stack projects from scratch, fix bugs, everything. I was mildly overwhelmed by everything I wanted to learn and do, but I couldn’t have been happier.
At the end of my fellowship I decided that building products was what I was really interested, and I started applying to every startup I came across in NYC. I sent out shameless cold emails, asked friends put feelers out for me, and attended every tech Meetup event I could find in NYC. Thankfully I came across Metric Collective, which seemed more interested in how quickly I could learn rather than how much I actually knew. I became their second engineer, and it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.
There’s still so much to learn, but it feels pretty damn great to write code for a living.
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Thanks for reading. I’ll be writing more about great places to look for tech jobs. To Read About My Recent Life Changes: Leaving (my engineering job), Launching (my own startup), Departing (the country)
