I joined a Coding Bootcamp, should you?
An honest review of 90 days of coding in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Background
I graduated from a Silicon Valley based 13 weeks coding bootcamp in September 2015. Throughout the article I refrained from naming the bootcamp, since this is not meant to be either advertisement or criticism for one of the many bootcamps. These are my uncensored thoughts on the experience and hope they will come handy to others about to make the decision.
Expectations
My only coding experience prior to enrolling was a high school HTML and CSS class and modifying random templates with Dreamweaver (read: no coding experience). I am a tech savvy person however, so I did not feel discouraged at all. My hypothesis: coding will complement my entrepreneurial ambitions and give me a better chance of having a successful start-up. My goal: be able to understand and build a complex web application (think Airbnb).
Reality
I am writing this article on a rainy day back from my home in the Netherlands. Looking back, it is amazing how much I was able to learn over a summer. The people I met are now my friends, amazing people I would have otherwise never met. The coding bootcamp also sparked a wish of starting my own coding programme, except that it will be free and focusing on students just like me. The projects I worked on over the summer, such as helping Liberty in North Korea better coordinate their worldwide chapters or helping random strangers on the internet to built their own website are things I am proud of. Ultimately, the bootcamp opened my eyes as to what direction I want my career to head to. Thus, was it worth attending? Strong yes. Is it worth it for everyone? Read below.
Who should you give your money to?
A major aspect of choosing a bootcamp is the financial aspect. I had both classmates who had to take loans to join and those who did not struggle too much to pay the tuition. A good first indication about a program is how selective admission is. If the interview process is just a formality and the whole experience gives you the impression that everybody gets in, that is not the ideal place to join when you are seeking a career change.
I noticed two kinds of bootcamps: the ones with wide-spectrum curriculums, teaching 2 or more technology stacks — like the one I attended, and technology focused bootcamps, which address one stack or language and stick with it for the whole 8–12 weeks period. There is no “best” kind. For entrepreneurial minded people, who do not necessarily seek a job immediately, being exposed to a large number of technologies is beneficial. If a job as a developer is the final objective (and an urgent one) then I would advise against learning more than one stack. The reality is employers look for a Ruby, JavaScript or PHP developer, not all three combined.
Bootcamp Life
The most frequent phrase in coding bootcamp is that “you get out what you put in”: you better work hard would be the message. And I like to think I did: out of the 95 days I spent in the United States, 90 were spent at least 10 hours a day in our open office space full of monitors and hopes. The bootcamp location was open 24/7 so sleeping over was a common event — I probably slept on a couch by my computer more than I have at my rented Airbnb room in San Jose(the most expensive accommodation I ever paid for, thanks tech frenzy).
Like in school, some people will learn quicker while others will struggle, the core is that it is an intensive process, sometimes painful and sometimes rewarding. “Strength through struggle” is a good philosophy to embrace. I don’t think anybody can become a developer, but I think everybody can learn to code and should code.
How do you know if this is for you before you bet the ~$12k on yourself? That’s where the selection process I mentioned before comes in handy. Getting admitted in a selective bootcamp is a good indication, it shows you have the ability to pick up concepts on your own, the determination to do so for a sustained period of time and the motivation associated with that.
Life after bootcamp
Being able to sleep 7 hours a night constantly is good. Having my bed back also helps. If you are looking to hear the success story of how I got a great job, no luck here. That was never my objective, so I did not even look for one. Instead, I am planning the launch of my first start-up and try to share what I learned over the summer with as many people as possible.
If I asked somebody before I joined to advise me on what comes next I wish they told me: “Son, you will be stuck in a room for the whole summer. Most of the time you will feel like most people know more, learn faster and are just generally more talented than you are. Sleep is sort of absent. Your escapes will be the McDonalds drive through near-by and the casual movie evening on some Saturday evenings. If you still feel like this is for you, go ahead and do it.” And I would.
Published in Techspiration + Ideas + Making It Happen.
