Life before Bootcamp
For a long time, I wasn’t sure what I would like to do in my professional life but I knew one thing… I love computers! I often wondered how to talk to those electronic machines and make them do what I want instead of only using them for gaming or wasting time.
I hadn’t really done anything to find out about a career in IT until my wife said to me that it would be nice if she could have an application that helped her aqua fitness clients book a place for sessions.
Challenge accepted!
Being a Bootcamper
freeCodeCamp, Udemy, YouTube, all the blogs, groups you name it – the amount of free resources is impressive.
And you guessed it, it’s too overwhelming when you’re just getting started. You don’t know what you don’t know.
After several weeks I was convinced I could not learn JavaScript in 20 minutes as you can see while you traverse YouTube. I was in need of a more structured learning path and surrounding myself with other learners.
I became a Bootcamper, and I personally don’t regret it. I went a bit of a different path as I couldn’t give up my work at the time and the only way was to dedicate all my weekends during the pandemic 2020 to study (sadly, Covid also put an end to the aqua fitness app).
I got what I wanted, a structured pathway, access to a learning platform with up-to-date study materials, and mentorship with code review.
Here are my pros and cons of Bootcamp:
Pros
- Personal networking
- Support from tutors
- Co-operating with others (e.g pair programming, agile methodologies)
- You are more motivated to complete it once you’ve paid for it
Cons
- Costs
- The quality of Bootcamps vary
Am I a developer yet?
Now here comes the truth of job placement after Bootcamp graduation.
Did I get my job after graduation? No.
Did I get my job 6 months after graduation? No.
Did I get rejected during interviews? Yes.
So, how did I land in Studio 24?
I didn’t give up and kept working on a day-to-day basis. I want to emphasise how important it is to become a lifetime learner and stay positive!
Six months after graduation I joined a free apprenticeship programme. Our goal was to build a custom CMS + REST API for an e-commerce site. Definitely, the knowledge gained from Bootcamp helped me complete MVP as that was our team goal.
It also gave me real-life experience of how to cooperate with other developers. I was exposed to different techniques for using git (version control). I have seen agile methodologies in practice and have been assured that more experienced colleagues are there to help.
When I saw Studio 24’s job posting I was convinced that they are a group of experts in the field, and I could learn so much from them. One thing that brought my special attention was their approach to accessibility and how important it is for every web user these days. Not to mention loads of exciting projects in their portfolio for example W3C!
Luckily for me, I joined Studio 24, and life 2.0 has just begun!
Changing careers
Attending Bootcamp won’t make you a developer, but you can become one if you want to, coding is for everyone! I would always recommend to anyone interested in changing career paths to try free resources first and build something small or useful for yourself, your community, or your relatives.
Bootcamp is just one of many ways to get into IT land. It worked for me it might work for you!