She's a recent grad with an international relations major. Now wants to go to a local web dev boot camp, which looks to me just more-or-less legit. Any alternative ideas?
Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?
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Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?
#2Read a coding book first, see if she has a nack?
Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?
#3I would say: go for it! Why not? I don't actually get what's the doubt.
Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?
#4Why do you need alternative ideas? You could just let her go to what she wants to. We technology people seem to have this built in need to get people to try other things than what they want to do. It's a form of controlling behaviour.
Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?
#5> Any alternative ideas?
From the comments so far, I think there's some confusion about what you mean by this.
Are you trying to dissuade her? Motivate her? You're neutral, but asking for suggestions of things she might do to satiate coding desires other than a 'boot camp'?
Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?
#6Try pyschools.com or codeschool.com and see how much she gets it on her own. I truly believe being a programmer is a third logical intuition another third resourcefulness, and lastly discipline. She has to be able to demonstrate them all and the websites I pointed to (especially the former) will certainly test her.
Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?
#7Which one?
Key things are:
- you get out what you put in. attending a boot camp is not a guarantee you'll land well-paying job. you have to demonstrate to a new employer you've mastered the skills to help their company
- depending on the bootcamp, it will take 8-10 hours a day. your social life aside from the days off will be shot. and the days off are spent doing laundry and playing catch-up on life
- don't neglect your fitness. since you're inside 8-10 hours a day, go to a gym and sweat for balance. otherwise you might suffer from burnout
- save up for at least 3 months of joblessness after the bootcamp while you look for work
- ask the bootcamp if they do interview prep. while it's cheating the system in some ways, it's extremely helpful for people who haven't been through the interview process. if you don't think well on your feet, or suffer test anxiety, this may be an issue
- lastly, if she hasn't done any programming at all, it'd be prudent to sign up for a local junior college course, or udemy to see if she actually likes doing it. i have a friend who talks all day about joining a coding school, took a python course, and realized it's not for him. it's better than accumulating more educational debt
Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?
#8Why do you need alternative ideas? You could just let her go to what she wants to. We technology people seem to have this built in need to get people to try other things than what they want to do. It's a form of controlling behaviour.
Having alternatives is always a good thing. Plus being a 'young' cousin, they have graduated so they are 18 or 22 and can judge alternatives for themselves.
Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?
#9Spend £10 on a Udemy (or wherever) course and see how she likes that. If she picks things up and enjoys it then maybe the boot camp will be a good idea or maybe she finds she can do it herself or maybe she finds she hates it all.
For £10 you can't really complain whatever the outcome IMHO.
Re: Ask HN: What should I tell my cousin who wants to go to a “coding boot camp”?
#10Why do you feel the need to stop her from going? She's not going to become a master at computers, but maybe it will spark an interest in the field.
It seems like this is always the case with people either forcing coding onto people or trying to persuade people to not even touch a computer. Just let people do what they want.