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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?

#61

Post by cylinder »

_e wrote: post #49
handbanana wrote: post #14

Finished bootcamp mid 2014, currently a Software Developer (full stack) making 105k base (110k total package) with some great benefits (and no state income tax). I had zero background before the bootcamp, and the bootcamp itself was pretty shocking. The biggest part of the bootcamp was having it on my resume - giving my limited knowledge "legitimacy". EDIT: My starting salary was mid 40s after I finished bootcamp. An…

Hiring three people at $40k/yr each at the beginning is safer than hiring one experienced person at $120k/yr. Maybe one or two of the three don't pan out but, at least, you didn't invest all your time into one person who might ultimately be the wrong fit.

Wish more companies understood and practiced that.

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

#62

Post by adrice727 »

I attended Hack Reactor in 2014. I'm currently an engineer at small PaaS company.

I don't think I was job-ready upon graduation, or at least I didn't feel that way at the time. I spent a few months helping out s bootstrapped startup while looking for a job and learned a lot from working closely with the CTO. I stayed on with the startup while working a contract gig and eventually left both for my first full-time gig.

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

#63

Post by Neutrion »

mathattack wrote: post #3

I know a few physicists who did a data science bootcamp ~3 years ago. I was very unimpressed with the boot camp itself, but they've become solid data scientists.

looks like what matters is the decision to take on new things in life.

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

#64

Post by ishtanbul »

mabbo wrote: 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.

I'm not a developer and I read HN multiple times per day. I think there a lot of finance people here, trying to stay on the cutting edge.

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

#65

Post by abeyer »

mabbo wrote: 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.

You can't work at Starbucks and read HN?

Seriously, though, after some early career burnout I did a stint at a restaurant job to pay the bills while I decided what I wanted to do with my life...and that was by far my most productive period of time as far as keeping up on general tech news, personal projects, academic research/reading/conferences, etc...

A non-code day job can be a great way to have the mental energy to spend on non-job code. :)

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

#66

Post by jsonne »

mabbo wrote: 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.

I'm a marketer and I read HN daily. I don't think this is as insular a community as it once was.

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

#68

Post by nemonemo »

mabbo wrote: 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.

I think this comment is actually a good warning to typical readers, although the last line is distracting from the main point.

My guess is there would be more failure cases than success cases, but I don't see many negative stories here and suspect much selection bias here.

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

#69

Post by smallnamespace »

abeyer wrote: post #65
mabbo wrote: 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.

You can't work at Starbucks and read HN? Seriously, though, after some early career burnout I did a stint at a restaurant job to pay the bills while I decided what I wanted to do with my life...and that was by far my most productive period of time as far as keeping up on general tech news, personal projects, academic research/reading/conferences, etc... A non-code day job can be a great way to have the mental energy…

You can, but presumably your situation is rare? GP is specifically making an argument about selection bias, where frequency matters.

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

#70

Post by llamataboot »

I completed a bootcamp about 3.5 years ago. I've been programming full-time with stellar reviews since then. I would say probably about 30% of my cohort are full-time programmers, but that's just a wild guess. I know some of them went into other things.

I've seen quite a few people graduating from bootcamps now that have struggled more to land that first job. It seems like the jr dev market is starting to get a bit saturated.

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