Is it possible to become a web developer in 9 weeks?

You may have heard about some training programs, called “Coding Bootcamps”, that teach people with no technical knowledge to become web developers in less than 3 months (generally 9 weeks).

If we compare these coding bootcamps to traditional schools that take 3 years (or 5 years for the best schools), this seems like a miracle. That’s why I often see people telling me it’s impossible to learn web development in such an amount of time!

Now that I am a teacher in one of these new schools, I am going to answer all the questions people often ask me:

• How much can I learn in 9 weeks?
• Can everyone become a web developer in 9 weeks?
• What can I do after a coding bootcamp?

How much can I learn in 9 weeks?

The goal of the coding bootcamps is to provide strong basis in web development. At the end of the 9 weeks, students know everything to create a website with modern technologies. As an example, you will find below what we teach at Ironhack:

• Weeks 1–2–3: Basis of Web Development and Programming (HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Git)
• Weeks 4–5–6: Backend technologies (Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB and Heroku)
• Weeks 7–8–9: Frontend framework (Angular or Vue.js)

And to give you an overview of what it is possible to create, this is a selection of projects made by some of our students during their journey:

• Water Reversi, a very good adaptation of the Othello game, made in week 3.
• Code Help, a platform to collaborate between students and teachers, made in weeks 8–9.
• StockAwesome, a website to follow your stock assets in real-time, made in weeks 8–9.
• Caju, a place where you can order healthy food meals at your office, made in weeks 8–9 by an entrepreneur that is still working on the project :)

A screenshot of Caju website with the meals of the week (and it was delicious!)

So in just 9 weeks, if you can follow the program, you would be able to create almost any website. Just to give an example, Mark Zuckerberg knew less about web development when he started The Facebook. This is crazy and I am quite jealous of these students when I know it took me many years to reach their level.

Can everyone become a web developer in 9 weeks?

Short answer: no. The pace of coding bootcamps requires such efforts that most people would give up after just one week. But you don’t need to have a master degree to succeed. Indeed, if I had to give the qualities to follow these programs successfully, it would be:

1. Passion: Web developers must love computers, love creating websites and love learning new technologies. Personally, I enjoy the fact that I helped thousands of users by just writing something on my computer.
2. Determination: Web developers spend a huge amount of their time solving bugs. If you become one, you could spend days without coding anything simply because of a mistake you made.
3. Logic skills: Programming is about writing lines that solve technical problems, so being logical helps a lot. But don’t underestimate yourself; I have seen many people bad in mathematics and really good as web developer (as well as the opposite!).

What can I do after a coding bootcamp?

I see three main different paths you can follow after a web development bootcamp: entrepreneur, web developer and product manager.

The first group are entrepreneurs. When they enrolled in this kind of bootcamps, they are much more independent and can directly execute what they think. If they have an idea, they can create a landing page and test it on users in 1 day. If they need a small website where users can log in and order products, they can develop it in only 1 week. If they need to develop faster, they can hire a tech team and work easily with them. I have seen some entrepreneurs spending 20k€ on a deal for a simple website, whereas they could have done it by themselves in the same amount of time and for just the price of a bootcamp. And because today in many startup projects it is important to understand technology, learning development definitely worth it!

The second category are web developers. After nine intensive weeks, you can definitely call yourself a developer. If you have some previous experience, such as marketing or finance, your profile will be unique and some companies will fight to have you. If you don’t have any relevant experience, it is going to be harder. But those who were really committed and worked hard always find a good web developer job, with a first annual salary between 30k€ and 40k€ in Paris, even if they don’t have any diploma.

The last category are product managers. To describe quickly their job, they are responsible for a product, where they define the strategy, its roadmap, and its features. Most of the time they work with developers and having the technical skills help a lot to understand what it is possible to do and how complex it is. There is no specific education for product managers, but coming from the technical side is common.

So to answer the question in the title, it is definitely possible to become a web developer in just 9 weeks. It is not going to be easy, you will need passion and determination to succeed and you will still have a lot to learn after. But at the end, you will have the tools to become a great developer!

I hope this Medium story helped some of you. If you have any doubts or questions about this topic, feel free to leave a message in comments or at maxence@ironhack.com :)