Is a Coding Bootcamp Right for You?
Back starting in 8th grade, and all the way through senior year of High School, we were required to take a foreign language class. I chose Spanish. The course was pretty typical throughout: A few classes per week totaling a few hours, some homework totaling a few hours, then some tests and exams to prove we had met the guidelines of the curriculum. I did everything required of me, and ended up doing pretty well. I got straight A’s 5 years in a row, passed with flying colors, and went on to graduation. After graduation I hopped into the workforce, into real life. My very first day, I heard a couple of my co-workers talking to each other in Spanish. That is when reality set in: I only understood a FRACTION of what they were saying, and could hardly speak the language back to them enough to properly communicate at all. How could this be? I spent 5 years learning Spanish and passed class with flying colors!
I felt robbed of my education at first, but quickly asked myself: “Did I really expect to learn a whole new language, or anything for that matter, by only practicing a few hours per week?” Yes, my story may seem a little bit out in left field, but it serves a very notable purpose.
Coding bootcamps are as simple as this: You get what you put in.
Let me tell you about my experience: I am a recent graduate of Flatiron School’s full-time Software Engineer coding bootcamp. Here we learned languages and technologies including Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, React/Redux, HTML and CSS over a 5 month period. It was an intense, immersive, and in depth course. Every month, we would spend 3 weeks learning a new language then one week creating a project displaying what we had learned. Each month was something different, always adding on to what we had learned prior. The minimum requirements was to “expect 40–50 hours per week, for most students”. This includes lecture time, course work, and projects. My only complaint, is that upon graduation, we receive a certificate that says “525 clocked hours”. For me personally, this is so far from the truth.
During bootcamp, I literally had to eat, sleep, and breathe code. I did not want a repeat of the last time I learned a language like I did in High School. If you are asking yourself if a coding bootcamp is right for you, I think it is very important not to take the word “bootcamp” lightly. You WILL get what you put in. Sure, you can do the bare minimum, and chances are you will “pass”. Heck, with most bootcamps, chances are you will even land a decent job after. But why would you want that? Why wouldn’t you want those 6 digits and an opportunity for even more growth? At the very least, do you want to be “bare minimum” on the hiring candidates tree, or would you rather be on the top and get hired right away? Certainly, you wouldn’t want to work for a company and not fluently be able to speak the languages you just learned, as I was after High School Graduation. Bootcamps will teach you the fundamentals and basic concepts of coding, but it’s up to YOU to chose what you do with that information. You don’t have to take my word as Gospel, but I am confident that my approach is directly related to my success, and my success going forward.
I can 100% say that they don’t call them ‘bootcamps’ for no reason. You should treat it like a bootcamp to get the most bang for your buck. If I wasn’t in lecture, doing the coursework, or working on projects, I was in workshops, hosting workshops, study groups, reading blogs, watching informational videos, talking code with my peers, helping other students problem solve and debug their projects, or solving code challenges (just to name a few). Yes, you should plan on 40–50 hours per week, but that is just to get through the course. You should really be indulging yourself in the culture in all your spare time. This came with much sacrifice, not just for me, but for my friends and family too. When I say I had to eat, sleep, and breathe code, I mean it. I had no time to hang out with anyone, or play video games, or watch tv, or play cards, or anything that I enjoy doing in my spare time. Else I felt like I was cheating myself and others. Five months is not a lot of time, most bootcamps are even less than that. It will all be worth it in the end if you sacrifice during the course. After all, for many of us, this is a major life change and career move. Might as well treat it as such and put in as much time and effort while you can.