don't go to a coding bootcamp in 2024..

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So much has changed in the industry in the past two years. With all these changes I think a lot of us are second-guessing whether or not to attend a coding BootCamp in the first place. In this video I talk about why it might not be the best idea for everyone and what to do if you decide to go to one yourself.

[simone]

for me tho: I had 0 self discipline and I couldn't study by myself with the resources you find online. I would just procrastinate. Right now I'm at halfway of a coding bootcamp, I'm one of the 2 best students in the class. Having someone that follows you has helped me so much. I couldn't have done it by myself

[Charlie_rown]

I completely feel where you are coming from. I just finished bootcamp and my school has over 600 students that have graduated and that have been applying to jobs non stop. Mind you not everyone finished at the same time. Some of the students finished roughly 8 months ago and are still on the hunt. And every month that goes by that is an additional 100 people from just this bootcamp.

[thecasualpkm]

Great video. I'm also a blue coller worker. Have been my whole live. I joined a bootcamp of sorts to teach myself frontend web development. Right now the market is tough because of the lay off. But you have to remember most of those are higher end coders. The position I'm trying to get into is low level. Pay isn't great but it gets me in the door. Neworking is everything in the industry

[thomaswhyte]

I can't wait to finish my bootcamp and learn by myself, i just feel like the pressure of submitting work and assignments each week, finding the time to study on top of a 40hr a week job and trying to be a parent has been brutal!! Been so many weeks i wanted to quit but i kept at it. 20 days to go to hopefully get my certificate. its all been hybrid so learning through zoom calls was hard for me, any problem you have, you need to book a 30min slot with your TA and that was only 2 days a week they were available. Don't get me wrong its paved a way for me to learn lots of different things. The thing with my bootcamp is each week your onto something new so barely enough time to practice, which is why i cant wait for it to be over.

[ddmozz]

Yeah, I totally agree. I think most people approach this in the wrong way. Programming/coding shouldn't be your career. Business should be your "career, " and coding is just a tool to create products, automate things, etc.

[harambetidepod]

The future is bright for anyone willing to put in the work. Right now machine learning and AI are the latest gold rushes.

[TMeyer-gepj]

I agree. I thought I wanted to but I think sales is actually a better bet to make money. And I like talking to people so sitting on a computer all day would be depressing

[QuirkyAvik]

0:35 yep that's true. Back in the day I was getting accepted to places without a degree or experience and now they don't even look at you if they see just three things. Now you need real live projects that have done well and many other things.
I regret leaving my tech job back in the day, I thought I would get another when the time comes and I need more money.

[linknewborn]

I graduated from the General Assembly 3 month immersive program this past April and I couldn’t agree more with what you are saying. The job search is more difficult it has ever been so it is even more important to be passionate about coding since you have to do a lot more to stand out in the market.

[ronbackal]

Thanks for all the perspective! I am not sure right now- I know I'd love data science, but 17, 000 dollar now, that's heavy. U.S. education prices are ridiculous across the board

[karl]

Here in Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark) you need both degree and personal side projects to get hired, especially right now. Without degree the biggest firms with the best pay (100k +/yr) simply wont hire you no matter what experience you have and the rest of the mid-size and start up companies only hire people without degree if they are extremely talented doing open source contribution (to even do this requires skill from many years experience), have created their own live webapp app and scaled it with thousands of users, or if they are lucky and know someone from within the company who takes them in. It's basically harder than just getting the degree itself. Now IF you have the degree, you only need a couple side projects to show some surface lvl knowledge of the relevant technology(React for front-end etc.) and it's much simpler than trying to become some wizard at it without the degree

[nolcodes]

I'm self-taught. Did an online course on web dev, then one on advanced react. My first job was through Microsoft, they have a program called LEAP. And I now have been in the industry for over a year. I recently got laid off tho XD so I'm in the hunt as well.

Response to your take: Completely agree. If you are doing it just for the money, if you think it's easy to break into tech you're crazy. Especially if you are paying for it (bootcamp or college). When I was looking into my options: College, Bootcamp, self-taught, one required 4 years, the other one around $16k, the other one discipline and so I picked the self-taught route and made myself study every day for hours and hours. Was I happy? sometimes, did I have to force myself? Absolutely. I always try to show people that is not just bootcamps and or college, self-taught is another route but a very special one I would say, not for everyone.

[traezeeofor]

Thanks for this, I just subscribed. Loved your realness. I'm learning just like you though completely self taught. Slighlty ahead or at par with you in learning, and I love your takes. I also resonate with not wanting to do "blue collar jobs at 50". Want to build valuable skills and live out rest of my life easier. I'm 40 now. Like you said wish I had started couple year sback, but i'm dead determined to make it work now anyway. Regards man.

[MapleJokerRofl]

Convinced me to attend one in 2023!! thank you <3

[sixstanger]

TBH, these libraries and frameworks are starting to get a bit out of hand. They're becoming as numbersome as streaming services, and there's simply no need for that. Most custom projects are going to require CSS & JS to be tailored specifically to that's project's needs. It's starting to feel like every week someone is coming out with a new library or framework. Expecting developers to know them all is preposterous.

That's is asinine; the Angular library might work in certain situations, but not MOST. Neither are Bootstrap or Vue. The thing is, implementing these libraries might save _some_ time, but the time saved will be lost trying to interface them with the project's demands. Plus, any time saved during the coding phase by using these libraries is lost ten fold when the dev has to track down a bug originating from one of those libraries. They've now got to spend endless hours poring over code they didn't write.

Personally, I'm a strong believer in Vanilla JS. All of my projects I do in Vanilla, because no two projects are the same. In fact, they are often so fundamentally different in what their functions are that it would be a complete waste of time to try and modify Vue or React to work within my desired specs. Writing the code from scratch ensures the JS is tailor-made for this specific application. I don't have to worry about trying to make a general-purpose tool fit into a hole designed for a specialty tool.

Last September, I started working on an interactive t-shirt design lab application for my business website. It took me 2 days yelling at my computer with Bootstrap to realize that the library was simply not compatible with this project. Not enough control over how elements are styled. So I ditched 2-3 days worth of work and started over with a clean slate, this time writing my own custom CSS & JS for the project. Within a couple of weeks, I had the HTML & CSS framework set up and was ready to start implementing JS functionality. I've worked on it off and on over the past 8 months, and it's about 90% complete. What's left now primarily is monotonous busy work -- filling out the product database and assembling the clipart libraries.

Bootstrap, Vue, Angular, etc are fine if you just want to pump out flashy websites for businesses that just need a web presence, but they're useless the minute the project requires any kind of customization beyond basic styling or functionality. No one is building an original interactive design lab from scratch using Bootstrap.

[Tech_Publica]

Golden advice... if you go into programming just for the money or "to get a job" you will only accumulate frustration.
Programming is not only a complex activity but a very "intellectually niche" one.
It requires and effort and a way of thinking that is not what you are used to in everyday life.
You have to have a strong interest in it, by itself.
Then WHY you have an interest can vary wildly.. from wanting to build things, to wanting to solve problems, to wanting to develop videogames, to a pleasure in seeing your computer do what you want... but there has to be a reason there has to be a genuine passion.
Most bootcamps executives DO NOT understand this, or pretend not to understand this when they promise that "everybody can become a programmer"
Absolutely false, only a minority of people can master coding at the level required to work as a professional software developer.

[ron]

Excellent advice. I can't add anything of value to what you have already said!

[Rosonicole]

I think it’s so important to have an idea of what you want to build before you enter a bootcamp. Not having a plan means you’ll not be able to ask the right questions.

[brittanycallen]

I really resonate with this! Thanks for the video.

[richardly]

Im self taught html css JS react and python. Im starting the BrainStation bootcamp in a couple weeks to hopefully leverage their network. I have been applying to hundreds of jobs the past month and havent gotten any responses. Im hoping the bootcamp could be the thing that helps me stand out and get my foot in the door for interviews