Do you actually want to jump the chasm or is it something you're considering purely because the sales job market isn't looking great?
Ask HN: Would doing a coding bootcamp be a horrible idea?
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Re: Ask HN: Would doing a coding bootcamp be a horrible idea?
#12join launchschool.com and lets study together. I am in the same boat
Re: Ask HN: Would doing a coding bootcamp be a horrible idea?
#13Do you actually want to jump the chasm or is it something you're considering purely because the sales job market isn't looking great?
Does that matter?
Re: Ask HN: Would doing a coding bootcamp be a horrible idea?
#14Former Bootcamp runner/teacher:
I think a bootcamp can be good (depends on the camp) to help you kick start the learning process. A few months in a place doing things daily can be helpful.
This is great if you really want to spend a long time doing this. It takes years to get decent at programming.
The promise that you will find a job right after I don't think is realistic. I am not saying it can't happen but it is very difficult. Companies have a lot of options now and typically won't even look at boot camp grads.
If this is a near life long investment, it could be useful to kick start that. Just with the caveat it will probably take time.
Re: Ask HN: Would doing a coding bootcamp be a horrible idea?
#15I think you'll do equally well if you try to build some product on your own using free tutorials on the internet.
Bootcamps may partner with some companies looking to hire juniors so you may have a higher chance to land a job after that, but experience wise, as an unaffiliated company, I'd look at you the same as someone doing comparable projects on his own on github.
Get a backend in node.js running with postgres and redis, get some react frontend. You can build pretty much anything.
Bonus point, you could use sales skills to actually sell the product you are building and make some spare cash.
If it fails, hey at least you didn't spend 10k$ on a bootcamp and still learnt how to build stuff.
Re: Ask HN: Would doing a coding bootcamp be a horrible idea?
#16Have a look at bigger more established institutions. There are still some out there who have programs to re-skill people (especially from STEM degrees) into engineering. Mostly financial institutions.
What they usually do is hire you at a grad level, and put you in a bootcamp for couple of months.
Re: Ask HN: Would doing a coding bootcamp be a horrible idea?
#17Do it if you like programming. Right now it's hard to get a job and you'll be at the bottom of the heap, so don't do it for that. If you want to discover if you like programming, try and build something cool you think should exist. It's free and you can pair with an LLM all day.
Re: Ask HN: Would doing a coding bootcamp be a horrible idea?
#18Yes. If you truly have a desire to learn programming, you'd be far better off rationing your cash to extend your runway and doing self-guided instruction. Perhaps consider building a product that leverages your existing sales knowledge and use that as the project to teach you how to code.
Re: Ask HN: Would doing a coding bootcamp be a horrible idea?
#19Unless you have work lined up, no. Assuming you kind of like sales and are good in Salesforce, you should try to leverage that skill set and get a new job pronto. Bootcamps were a difficult proposition before covid, harder during covid and I would say near impossible to land a job now. Anything is possible but I am not sure I would give up on your current trajectory. Have you looked outside of the tech sales world? I don't think the struggle in tech is going away anytime soon.
Re: Ask HN: Would doing a coding bootcamp be a horrible idea?
#20This is also something I've considered -- for folks who think the best path is self-directed learning, any recommended resources/platforms to begin on?