Attending a Coding Bootcamp
For reference, I have 3 weeks remaining to graduation from the D.C., in-person, Flatiron coding Bootcamp. I began August 24th, 2020 and my graduation date is set for December 4th, 2020.
I remember that as I was trying to decide on whether to attend a coding bootcamp and what bootcamp to attend I had many questions swirling around in my head and I was reading through all the resources I could to help me decide. I wanted this post to be an addition to those resources.
If anyone finds themselves in the position I described in the previous paragraph and want more nitty gritty details please reach out to me. I am more than happy to share my experiences.
My Background
I graduated from a small liberal arts university in 2016 with a degree in Political Science. I enjoyed my studies very much but didn’t have an eye for the future when choosing my major. Right out of University I was fortunate to find a position working in international trade. The work was draining to say the least as I wanted to bring some value-added to the world. I wanted to build something lasting that could help others and I didn’t see that in the future at that position.
Cue my quarter life crisis and realizing that my love for solving problems and building something lasting converged on programming for me. So late 2017 I began poking around on the internet for coding resources and spent time after work or during lunch working through freecodecamp lessons and youtube tutorials. It was a blast, and sporadic.
In 2018 I decided to go back to University for a degree in Computer Science(CS). I learned a lot about computers and a little more about programming. I’ve heard and agree that a CS degree is like being given scuba to go swimming in a pool.
In 2020 I had 35 credits left going into my last two semesters of my CS degree. The program at that university was set up so that those last two semesters were to be more practical than all previous semesters. When Covid-19 hit the U.S. hard I was laid off from the flexible job I had been holding while in school and the world locked down. I began to rethink my final semester.
Coding boot camps had been on and off in my peripherals since I began my coding journey in late 2017. Honestly I had dismissed them as a get-rich-quick scheme. However, armed with more general knowledge on programming, what was needed in the industry, and what I wanted for my future, the idea of attending a bootcamp became more and more feasible.
Choosing a Bootcamp
I decided to take a semester off from university hoping that work might pick back up or that the craziness of quarantine might dissipate over the following three months. During that time I cautiously read countless online articles, called representatives, and attended(virtually) meetups hosted by each bootcamp. After a month or two I decided that a boot camp graduation was the ideal path for me to move into the industry.
From here I narrowed my list to three top-tier bootcamps. My requirements for this short list depended on being able to attend in a classroom like environment(again virtual), the career support afterwords, the alumni community, and the barriers to entry.
Classroom Environment
I had done self-learning, and I had attended university classes. Both methods worked for me in their respective ways but I wanted an immersive experience. I wanted to breathe code for the next several months. I gelt that I had a lot of catching up to do in the realm of practical application of the knowledge I had gained.
Career Support
This goes without saying that if you are considering attending a bootcamp then you are checking the numbers on post-grads. Are they landing jobs? Are those jobs high-paying? Am I a product on an assembly line given a procedural once over and sent along my way?
Alumni Community
I must admit that I am not an actively social being. I enjoy live music and the company of friends, but as any of those friends can tell you I tend toward being a workaholic and have a tough time keeping relationships beating if I have to go out of my way to nurture said relationship. More importantly I believed that a school with a good alumni community would would make the day-to-day better while in the program.
Barriers to Entry
There is a phrase that I attach myself to, “You are the average of your three closest relationships”; by ‘relationships’ I mean the individuals you associate with the most. I knew that I would be spending the next several months, day-in day-out, working with my cohort-mates and it was important to me that I would be lifted up by these associations and just maintain a status-quo.
Flatiron Wins Out
By my estimates I wouldn’t have gone ‘wrong’ per-say by attending either of the other two boot camps that made my list of three. Although I can’t say that for certain. What I can say for certain is that Flatiron was an excellent choice for me. I found that the four requirements were had in spades at Flatiron, as I had anticipated.
I’m not sure if this course has been the most difficult endeavor to date like I read many times while preparing to enter the course, but I can say that it has been close. Not to sound like a broken record but, as with all things in life, you will get out what you put in. You need to wake have a drive, no institute or human can give you that, it has to come from within because your resolve will be tested at times.
While I can’t speak totally for career support yet I can say that throughout the entire course career support has been willing to meet with me and answer questions I had. The more I talked with the career support team the more I came to trust the process and this week my individual career coach has reached out to me to kick things off with our relationship moving forward.
I’ve been fortunate to have some prospects before graduation and in lieu of this my career coach has advanced our original ‘first meeting’.
Verdict
It was, is, and will be worth it. Bootcamp and specifically flatiron was the right choice for me. You have to decide for yourself if it’s the right path for you and if you have more questions that I can answer to help you make that decision feel free to email me hyrum.butler3@gmail.com.
