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Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

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Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#261

+1 for being mindful of cognitive biases. For that very reason, I'm almost hesitant to post my experience. The only reason I do so anyway is because HN's comment crowd is more mindful than average about their own biases and those of others. I graduated from Dev Bootcamp's Chicago location in August 2013, and after almost 4 months of (quite stressful) job searching, I got 2 offers on the same day- a job offer at a tec…

The diversity of experiences that you get from consulting has bigger longer-term value, IMO. You might be more likely to be a senior dev today if you had been working in one tech stack for those years, but I think you'll go farther in your career 5 years or 10 years from now due to the consulting experiences, than if you spent all those years focused on a single tech stack.

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expect that many people who enroll in bootcamps are coming from domains other than sw development. As such, they may have years of experience and skill-sets which complement the new skills they picked up at bootcamp. Its not the bootcamp alone which is responsible for any person's success or advance, its a combination of factors, just like it would be if you replace "bootcamp" with "university degree".

Couldn't agree more. A bootcamp dev with 3 years coding experience might have 7 years of professional experience they are building on. I know several bootcamp devs with very relevant backgrounds too. For example, 5-10 years as a Certified Public Accountant before working at a fintech company. Or working as a nurse then going to a healthtech company.

>For example, 5-10 years as a Certified Public Accountant before working at a fintech company. Or working as a nurse then going to a healthtech company"

Can you explain how being a CPA would help give you seniority in a software engineer role at a Fin Tech company or how nursing experience would help give you seniority as a software engineer at a health based tech company?

Isn't being "senior" in this context of software engineering specific to your role and not the industry as a whole? I guess I'm failing to see the transitive relationship. If I previously worked as taxi driver would that help me as an SWE at Uber? Or if I worked in retail would that best me as as an SWE at Amazon?

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#263
post #246

Is anyone surprised by the amount bootcamp folks in this thread who are now in "Senior" roles after only a few years? I'm not trying to diminish their accomplishment; Their accomplishment is astounding. But are bootcamps really that effective? I remember interviewing a ton of bootcamp grads from a couple of schools in Austin, TX and being largely unimpressed. You know that feeling after you interview someone where yo…

I think senior titles in general are given out too easily in the software industry. Compared to many other professions and industries, the idea of anyone -- bootcamp graduate or not -- being senior within 3 years is kind of laughable. That's not to say it doesn't happen in other professions, but it's often reserved for the truly exceptional -- being considered senior within a few years of starting your career is for…

I think part of this is because of company/domain knowledge. It may not be that the person is necessarily "senior" level generic technological talent, but they have built up deep knowledge of the companies systems to become a key part of the team's brain trust. I feel like I see this leading to title advancement just as much as technical aptitude. The flipside is that it is somewhat specific to the exact employer, but it should signal ability and willingness to become an expert of the company's product domain. A lot of times I think that is more valuable than raw technical ability anyway, but it's harder to interview for.

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#264
post #35

Note some selection bias may exist in the answers. If you did a tech bootcamp three years ago and it went fantastically, you're probably reading HN today and will see and reply to this. The more success you had, the more likely you're a developer today! If it went terribly, you might still be working at Starbucks and don't read HN very often.

This was my immediate thought when looking at this.

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#265
post #246

Is anyone surprised by the amount bootcamp folks in this thread who are now in "Senior" roles after only a few years? I'm not trying to diminish their accomplishment; Their accomplishment is astounding. But are bootcamps really that effective? I remember interviewing a ton of bootcamp grads from a couple of schools in Austin, TX and being largely unimpressed. You know that feeling after you interview someone where yo…

I think senior titles in general are given out too easily in the software industry. Compared to many other professions and industries, the idea of anyone -- bootcamp graduate or not -- being senior within 3 years is kind of laughable. That's not to say it doesn't happen in other professions, but it's often reserved for the truly exceptional -- being considered senior within a few years of starting your career is for…

generally startups hand out titles like cheap candy on a reception desk.

Regard notions of "senior" in the tech world as you would "vice president" in banking.

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#266
Did Front-End nanodegree at Udacity 1.5 years ago. It's an online self-paced program. Dropped out of college and worked part-time while staying at home. Took me 5 months to finish(with only have written my first line of code 2 months prior) and got a job the week I graduated. So from scratch only 7 months of study to land a job. Low paying (San Diego) but so much better than fast food

I feel the program prepared me well for the day to day things I do and projects I've been able to work on.

Currently working on my algorithms and data structures. Feels like it's time to move on. Been taking courses online to finish my undergrad degree but don't see the value in it at this point.

Considering moving to the Bay Area or remote work.

I'd definitely recommend an online program if you're disciplined. Worked out great for me personally. An in person bootcamp would help getting past sticking points a lot faster, but all of this can be learned online for free like others have pointed out.

Have seen others who took the program be successful in their careers

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#267
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(For anyone looking at this in the future, this user just signed up to make this post) Care to tell who you are and what the company is? How did you find the article? How did you go to a senior role in 3 years?

Many, many HR grads followed a similar path and many read HN. I personally knew just about everyone in the first 7 cohorts. During that time I saw success after success from the other students with some getting promoted and leading teams with just a year or two. Several have now founded startups. I'll also add that my account is 3275 days older than yours and isn't a throwaway.

Just missed you! I was in 9.

To the above poster that was flagged, it sort of sounds like you're accusing me of lying, but I'll give you the benefit of best intent and answer your questions.

Yes, I created this account just to make this comment. I was introduced to HN by someone in my bootcamp cohort. Never felt the need to comment on something until a post that was directed right at me. Never made an account either because no reason to. So, hope that clears it up.

I think you are assuming my tech progression started at Hack Reactor 3ish years ago. It in fact has been most of my life. I was building computers from spare hardware in grade school, learned some code in middle, took 2 yrs of college classes while in high school to prepare for the CCNA exam (cisco certified network associate). I entered college as a computer engineer.

Then I switched to a totally different career path from which I learned how to be an effective leader and teacher. When I hit the end of that path, I came back around and did Hack Reactor to work my way into an engineering role.

I became a senior in a relatively short amount of time because of my background but also because I learned a lot at my first startup gig after my mentor quit, leaving me as the only engineer responsible for the codebase. Thrown into the deep end for sure, as the business had to keep moving forward.

I have taken on volunteer work at my current job outside my normal responsibilities, give meaningful review to my peers, and work on large, impactful projects. I make it a point to get to know other engineers and get my name known in the org. I placed myself in the senior role and was rewarded with the title after.

Another point, many of the people in my class already had a technical background as well. More then half. I think among all bootcamps this is probably more rare today.

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't agree more. A bootcamp dev with 3 years coding experience might have 7 years of professional experience they are building on. I know several bootcamp devs with very relevant backgrounds too. For example, 5-10 years as a Certified Public Accountant before working at a fintech company. Or working as a nurse then going to a healthtech company.

>For example, 5-10 years as a Certified Public Accountant before working at a fintech company. Or working as a nurse then going to a healthtech company" Can you explain how being a CPA would help give you seniority in a software engineer role at a Fin Tech company or how nursing experience would help give you seniority as a software engineer at a health based tech company? Isn't being "senior" in this context of soft…

Keep in mind that "senior" or other title doo-dads don't really have a fixed meaning.

Also, depending on the workplace you may be undervaluing domain experience. Yeah, of course, a taxi driver isn't going to ascend at Uber because of Taxi driver skills. But a high-skilled experienced CPA with a knack for software development could do really well against 20-something SWE's at a fintech company.

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't agree more. A bootcamp dev with 3 years coding experience might have 7 years of professional experience they are building on. I know several bootcamp devs with very relevant backgrounds too. For example, 5-10 years as a Certified Public Accountant before working at a fintech company. Or working as a nurse then going to a healthtech company.

>For example, 5-10 years as a Certified Public Accountant before working at a fintech company. Or working as a nurse then going to a healthtech company" Can you explain how being a CPA would help give you seniority in a software engineer role at a Fin Tech company or how nursing experience would help give you seniority as a software engineer at a health based tech company? Isn't being "senior" in this context of soft…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: People who completed a bootcamp 3+ years ago: what are you doing now?

#270

I'm in my second job as a .NET dev after boot camp. My salary has nearly tripled since when I attended the boot camp. The technical skills I learned at boot camp were a great start, but I'd say the biggest change is just how slow work gets done at an enterprise. Most of the work I've done since has not used the newer tech (Angular, ORMs) I learned at the bootcamp, but I've been a rather successful advocate for them.…

Working as a .NET developer is relatively unusual for a bootcamp grad. That's not a bad thing - and you might find it to be a significant advantage in the long run.

It's one of those things that isn't likely to help you get a job at a hot startup, but is probably more bubble resistant than a skillset based mainly around something like React. And I say that as someone who uses and loves React. I get pinged by recruiters all the time due to having React experience, but if I had to put money on it, I'd say that my .NET and Java experience are more likely to be earning me money in 10-15 years than is my experience with React. The React/Angular/Node job environment seems a bit frothy right now - it feels a bit like the U.S. real estate market in 2007.

.NET is one of those things that flies under the radar of many HN readers but in many medium to large sized companies, it is everywhere. I can only speak from experience about Ottawa and Toronto, but I've seen a ton of opportunities for good .NET developers here. I've had friends who worked for the government of Canada, and they told me that some government departments would be completely unable to function without their .NET applications.

I've also met a few .NET developers who are doing phenomenally well with Sharepoint consulting. Sharepoint is, I think, one of those 'iceberg' technologies. Not very visible externally, but lurking beneath the surface in lots of large organizations.

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