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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?

#161

Post by adamgoodapp »

Graduated from General Assembly in London 4 years ago. Now working for a Robotics company as a software developer.

Bootcamps are great in teaching you the foundation of software engineering (mainly in a web development role). The biggest learning experience I received was learning how to learn.

During my time I have needed to venture into lower level programming and having more CS knowledge really is a big plus.

I feel like bootcamps could spend some more time teaching general Computer science topics, however you can pick the experience up during your career.

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

#162

Post by planxty »

gothrowaway wrote: post #93

You signed up just to give a review? How did you find this article?

I just read hn. My outcome was great, and that is my response to the poster's question. If you have any meaningful contribution about your experience at a bootcamp, please feel free to share.

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

#163

Post by planxty »

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 had a great experience, which I shared in another comment here. I agree, however, that there are plenty of folks I studied with who either washed out because they weren't prepared, or haven't accomplished that much because they frankly aren't that smart or hard-working. Those people probably aren't posting here.

Boot camps are no silver bullet. Like any kind of education, more is better, and the quality of the student is a factor. I will admit that while I got a great job, but there are fundamental CS concepts I'm still playing catchup with. Not sure if I would really be all the more effective as a developer if I did have a traditional degree, and maybe I would, but I can provide for my family and have no regrets.

All said, I think you might be right about some selection bias.

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

#164

Post by jacquesm »

smallnamespace wrote: post #69
abeyer wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> You can, but presumably your situation is rare?

That's exactly how my career started.

Which still doesn't mean it is not rare but maybe a bit less rare than you thought it was.

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

#166

Post by ishtanbul »

lawrenceyan wrote: post #134
ishtanbul wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If I might ask, what is it exactly that you do in finance that requires you to stay informed on emerging tech/software? Is it more so just out of interest?

Renewable energy development and investment banking. I would say I'm a tech enthusiast. I rarely read the meaty programming articles, but there are a lot of other interesting things posted here. I actually considered doing a boot camp to change careers and reading this article was a follow up as to whether that might have been worth it.

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

#167

Post by ai_ia »

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…

I second that a non-code day job can be a great way to have the mental energy to spend on non-job code. I am a SAP consultant at IBM and my morning starts with checking out HN.

I search for next books to read by searching first on HN and also the constructive discussion that takes place here always leaves me being a bit smarter.

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

#168

Post by xiaoma »

yomly wrote: post #157
gothrowaway wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like: A couple of years at startups where the hiring bar is lower. A couple of github projects. A couple of presentations at local meetup groups. And having a really really good interview when you get to the whiteboard.

What level are people entering Goog/Amzn on this path? Presumably not the same as a college graduate...?

From what I saw of people in my cohort and the few after it, the entry point is usually a bit higher, like where someone with a college degree + 1-2 years enters.

Disclaimer: my school was a very intense 6-day/week, 10-14 hours per day for a total of 900 or so hours. This is a lot more coding than people tend to think when they hear 3 months and there are instructors and classmates helping with the actual coding process.

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

#169

Post by Tommyixi »

I graduated 3 years ago from a San Francisco bootcamp and got what I wanted out of the program. My trajectory since then has been:

Full Stack Software Developer -> Database Administrator -> Graduate School in Biostatistics + Statistical Programmer.

I really don't know how else I would've landed on this track (considering my bachelor's degree) but I quite enjoy the diversity of my education and just generally am a person who likes to learn things.

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

#170

Post by xiaoma »

gothrowaway wrote: post #99
bacontacos wrote: post #26

Graduated from Hack Reactor in 2014. I'm a Senior Software Engineer at a large company now. I was prepared enough to not totally screw things up at my first job. I was an expert in Javascript and reasonably knowledgeable at data structures and how to implement basic web stuff. I'm now more focused on back end things...AWS, infrastructure, services, etc. As far as I know, most of my cohort is still working at good job…

(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.

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