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Ask HN: I will quit my job as a PM to join a coding bootcamp. Am I crazy?

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Re: Ask HN: I will quit my job as a PM to join a coding bootcamp. Am I crazy?

#131

Post by future1979 »

iamben wrote: post #130

I avoided replying to this earlier, but I've thought about it a bunch, so here's my 2cents. You're crazy to do this. I've been (largely) a developer for years, and I struggle to get excited about client work now. It's amazing to be able to MVP something myself, or throw up a project over the weekend, but that's kind of it. Kids are younger and hungrier than me. Having experience is fantastic and certainly helps with…

Agreed. It is crazy. I have a strong dev background and got a PhD. I love to learn .. any free time I get, I further my knowledge. Since I don't do it to improve skills, I have freedom to learn whatever I want. For a few months, I was obsessed with semiconductors and MEMS. These days, I love hacking FPGAs. Before that, I was playing with deep learning with torch. Point is .. you do not need to quit your job for learning. Agreed with parent poster .. save cash, attend meet ups/events to find like minded people ... the coding/hacking culture is awesome but it is a treadmill. There will always be new stuff coming out. You need to focus on concepts more than specific software or middleware. Have you heard of "papers we love"?

Re: Ask HN: I will quit my job as a PM to join a coding bootcamp. Am I crazy?

#133

Post by zoom6628 »

You have a MBA and you are a PM shows you have the skills to reserch, and put in some deep thinking. On that basis it would be folly to think you havent given seriously analytical thought to this i.e. you know what you are doing. But is this question a confidence crisis or you want some support?

My 2c is that if you dont have any dev skills right now then work night and day in your own time to get it. Choose a language, any one will do because you need to learn the fundamentals soundly. Do not be swayed by the tech-du-jour or you will never finish anything nor learn anything in depth. tschwimmer advice is sound. However know your learning style first - i got more out of 3 months messing with C on Arduino then i ever got from a textbook because i like learning stuff with sleeves rolled up and the coffee strong.

And lastly, follow your heart. npostolovski did it. It is far more important to enjoy what you do than much anything else (practical considerations of food and housing aside). Happy and comfortable is a whole lot better than miserable and wealthy.

Disclaimer: Im a PM, have an MBA, and dabble in C# at work, Python/C on home projects. Experience: Im a much better software PM because i can also code/hack some of my own ideas. Have been co-founder of a corporate restructuring company and my ability to code meant i could get the data and calculations needs to make turnaround decisions while others just drowned in their spreadsheets. Im now 53 and learning new things - currently IPC and mesh networks(home) and cost accounting(work).

Re: Ask HN: I will quit my job as a PM to join a coding bootcamp. Am I crazy?

#134

Post by lazyant »

In most best scenarios, if you are good enough as developer after a few months of training you'll be able to land a job in a random software company at 1/3 or 1/2 your current salary doing probably 'boring' stuff, you know, the things that 99.99% developers do.

The chances that you happen to turn out very good at programming and that you land a job doing exciting stuff that you love in a cutting-edge company are virtually zero.

You may have an idealized picture of what developers do. You can try and learn some programming in your own time (yourself, with tutor etc) and see how it goes before taking the plunge.

Re: Ask HN: I will quit my job as a PM to join a coding bootcamp. Am I crazy?

#135

Post by Hydraulix989 »

I fundamentally believe that programming isn't something you can learn at a "bootcamp" -- instead, it requires years of concentrated practice, much like learning to play a musical instrument or to speak a foreign language.

You're not crazy to make that career switch, but you are crazy to attempt to do so in that manner.

Start reading books on programming and teaching yourself instead, and start working through the actual exercises. I think Python is a good language to start with.

Re: Ask HN: I will quit my job as a PM to join a coding bootcamp. Am I crazy?

#137

Post by soneca »

CarpetBench wrote: post #71
soneca wrote: post #63

I am on a similar path, if with a much lower opportunity cost. I am 37 years old, one failed startup as a founder, a few marketing roles on other modest startups and some years as social project manager on the resume. I decided to quit my last job and study full time to become a developer. Not through a bootcamp, but through cheap or free resources online. I chose freecodecamp.com to go for now. I did an Ask HN too a…

> I did not receive much support either from the HN crowd I think there's a reason for that, and you touched on some of them. There's undoubtedly an ageism to the tech industry, and being an older junior developer is likely to be a huge uphill climb. There's also skepticism around the coding bootcamp industry for the same reason that there's skepticism around University of Phoenix: The certification isn't really usef…

Well, I happen to completely disagree with your vision that software development will be so commoditized in 10 years. Software impact on every career path have just started the way I see it. I'm smart enough to know that I will have to keep learning and not be stuck in 2026 with the JS I learned in 2016.

Yes, the pool of available software developers will grow, but I believe the applications of software development will grow even more. Even if it takes to invent my own application of it and sell it.

I still have the sincere impression that software developers in this early ages feel they are rather special and regret that more "common" people are trying to become one. Like a hipster syndrome of a kind.

Re: Ask HN: I will quit my job as a PM to join a coding bootcamp. Am I crazy?

#138

Post by ihm »

onetwotree wrote: post #108
noname123 wrote: post #29

Yes very crazy. I have a anecdotal survey of all coders I know: most of whom all graduated from only median Tier-2 US & News Report Ranked Nat'l Universities (>15) and whom have on average, earn only median Fortune Magazine's Best Jobs annual ranked salaries as Application Developer, and only very few employed by Forbes' Most Admired Companies list or who are on the Mattermark's Top 100 Startup Index. Most don't feel…

If you're interested in working with cool tech like blockchain and AI, but are tired of startup culture, a good option might be one of the "Digital Innovation Lab" organizations that more traditional companies are putting together. I just started working for one, and it's pretty great - I have stability, sane hours, solid compensation, and a healthy culture, but I also get to work with a bunch of really smart people…

Where do you work?

Re: Ask HN: I will quit my job as a PM to join a coding bootcamp. Am I crazy?

#139

Post by exclusiv »

codeonfire wrote: post #59
boatymcdickwad wrote: post #11

what is a PM? you're the prime minister?

A PM is what companies used to call a business analyst. These days companies inflate titles so everybody has manager in their title.

Except that project manager makes way more sense than business analyst when you're managing projects.

Business analyst is a different role.

Re: Ask HN: I will quit my job as a PM to join a coding bootcamp. Am I crazy?

#140

Post by paulftw »

I'm going to get downvoted for my "elitist" opinion but have to say this, to warn those few who'll listen.

Recently I was hiring on a tight budget. I've interviewed a dozen people from various coding boot camps, self taught web developers, etc. None of them could solve a Fizzbuzz level problem on a whiteboard.

(One thing I've learned after 15 years in industry, 8 jobs, 2 continents - a person who can't do fizzbuzz-type problem is not worth having onboard even for free).

It seems to me that even with best training in the world and a ton of prior IT experience it always takes people at least 2-3 years to start thinking in code in a way where you don't waste everyone's time. Learning to code is not about a bunch of syntax rules. It's about retraining your brain to use different mental models, developing intuition about where a bug might be, finding your way around a large and hostile codebase, anticipating how your today's decision will interact with all the features you'll implement over next 6 months, and so on.

Basic rules of programming are simple, but so are the rules of golf or snooker, or making bespoke suits, or wine tasting.

If you are prepared to spend next 3 years aimlessly poking around the debugger struggling to figure out the simplest thing only to realize at 11pm you were looking in a wrong place - go for it. It's frustrating but also rewarding.

If you think in 6 months you'll be able to build the next facebook with AI - only thing you'll learn in that time is how much there's still to learn.

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