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Ask HN: What’s the best city/state for self-taught web devs without a degree?

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Re: Ask HN: What’s the best city/state for self-taught web devs without a degree?

#51

Post by drawnwren »

komali2 wrote: post #21
drawnwren wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In SF, with a good portfolio and the ability to demonstrate your coding skills well in an interview, you can expect to get a job w/in about 3 months. This will cost you between $5 and $8k (cost of living) and you will be able to take home anywhere from $53 - $80k/yr (after taxes and before cost of living.) I don't know how this compares to other options, but just thought I'd give you some numbers.

53$ is shockingly low for Bay Area, after taxes. 80K is also low... Hack Reactor bootcamp grads are generally pulling 100-125 straight out, so, what, 85 after taxes?

I have friends who went to HR, and my personal perception is that bootcamps are a bubble bound to fall on their faces. They have been aggressively expanding for as long as they have been around, and I don't think the market is keeping pace. 100-125 is the number they advertise, but we won't know when that number has fallen until the 12 month average has fallen significantly.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best city/state for self-taught web devs without a degree?

#52

Post by settsu »

RUG3Y wrote: post #38
settsu wrote: post #27

There's probably a general cultural or sociological alignment to such openness you could identify in an area but the best chances are likely where the demand simply outstrips the supply enough that companies will be more flexible in their hiring. Personally, I have zero degrees and no formal education in ANYTHING, not to mention a general distaste for traditional classroom training in general, yet starting with a gra…

TRS-80 was my first computer. Dad eventually threw it away and I was sad. I wish I still had it.

You had to earn your fun with patience waiting for programs and games to load from the cassette tapes...

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best city/state for self-taught web devs without a degree?

#53

Post by newbear »

turc1656 wrote: post #17

I don't know enough to say whether or not it's the best but...NYC is great for developers of a certain personality type. Specifically in the finance industry. There are a lot of corporate HQ's here that maintain large systems and have public and internal websites and services that require maintenance. Being friendly with Dev/IT staff at my current and previous employer, I can attest to the fact that they all say find…

Any advice you can give me on how to find these companies?

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best city/state for self-taught web devs without a degree?

#55

Post by gigatexal »

komali2 wrote: post #25
gigatexal wrote: post #3

Portland, Oregon -- if you got skills and can prove it you will get hired.

Why? I think this question is implying a desire for explanation of pros/cons for a city.

I have met many people at meet ups and other places -- even my own workplace -- that didn't have CS degrees but had proof of skills and got hired

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best city/state for self-taught web devs without a degree?

#57

Post by turc1656 »

newbear wrote: post #53
turc1656 wrote: post #17

I don't know enough to say whether or not it's the best but...NYC is great for developers of a certain personality type. Specifically in the finance industry. There are a lot of corporate HQ's here that maintain large systems and have public and internal websites and services that require maintenance. Being friendly with Dev/IT staff at my current and previous employer, I can attest to the fact that they all say find…

Any advice you can give me on how to find these companies?

If you don't already know anyone who works in Dev/IT at any finance-related company in NYC, I would say your best bet is to go to networking events. There are always events all over the city every week. I get emails every week about them. You can also sign up to specific groups at sites like meetup.com and go to the events when they schedule to meet up in person. A quick search on that site yielded a bunch of relevant groups in NYC: https://www.meetup.com/mysqlnyc/ https://www.meetup.com/NY-FinTech/ https://www.meetup.com/ny-tech/ https://www.meetup.com/nyandroiddevelopers/ https://www.meetup.com/UX-Data/ https://www.meetup.com/NYC-Data-Engineering/ and for the ladies: https://www.meetup.com/WomenWhoCodeNYC/

Granted, these are learning-oriented rather than strictly networking, so the topics of conversation aren't going to be focused on job openings. But networking is obviously a part of it and you can reach out to the contacts you make at these events.

Basically, anything where you can talk to someone face to face so they can get a feel for you and you can make an impression on them. That's the goal. If they like your personality and they think you are competent, they are far more willing to open the door for you and overlook the degree requirement. But you definitely must be very, very competent if you don't have the degree.

Best of luck.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best city/state for self-taught web devs without a degree?

#58

Post by komali2 »

drawnwren wrote: post #51
komali2 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

53$ is shockingly low for Bay Area, after taxes. 80K is also low... Hack Reactor bootcamp grads are generally pulling 100-125 straight out, so, what, 85 after taxes?

I have friends who went to HR, and my personal perception is that bootcamps are a bubble bound to fall on their faces. They have been aggressively expanding for as long as they have been around, and I don't think the market is keeping pace. 100-125 is the number they advertise, but we won't know when that number has fallen until the 12 month average has fallen significantly.

Well, for reference, I graduated in September and my cohort are all pulling above 100. Hack Reactor's expansion is old news - they acquired Makersquare nearly 2 years ago, they settled on 2 floors of students earlier than that, quite early in their history really.

As long as we see 1000 unique jobs posted on LinkedIn daily, which is the case right now, Bootcamps will continue to profit off the massive lack of general web dev talent. I'd expect a crash to be more of a general economic crash than any fault of the bootcamps.

I can't speak for how other bootcamps are operating. So far the only model that I've seen make sense is HR and Makersquare, which are now the same.

Re: Ask HN: What’s the best city/state for self-taught web devs without a degree?

#59

Post by mfrye0 »

I think San Francisco is definitely among the top cities.

You don't need a degree. It's all about what you can do. What have you done? What skills do you have?

When I was looking, I researched a lot of the job openings and looked at the skills they were hiring for. Then I taught myself the skills and technologies I didn't know.

It also helps to know what the most in demand jobs are. I'm not sure if it's the same, but last year the top jobs were front-end engineers and dev ops.

When I was ready I went out to apply for jobs and pretty much had the exact resume jobs were looking for. Then the bidding war starts as everyone wants you to work for their company!

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