If you’re new here, some quick context. I trained to be a pharmacist, graduated, worked as a pharmacist for a few months, hated it, did a coding bootcamp, and am now a tech lead at a startup. I wrote more about it here.
Choosing to go to bootcamp
When I initially quit my awful job at CVS, I didn’t have a backup plan. I figured I could apply to other pharmacist positions. If those didn’t work out, I would do something else. Though it was scary to not have a plan, anything was better than waking up filled with dread everyday.
I didn’t have much money saved up, but I had enough to get by for a few months (not a luxury everybody has, I know). I had to get down to business and figure out what to do with my life. As it turns out, having your back against the wall is a great motivator to take action.
First, I tried the logical path. I was a licensed pharmacist in the state of Texas (my license is now expired — lol) so I started throwing out applications for hospital jobs. I wasn’t delusional about the state of the pharmacist job market. Without residency training, and with only 3-4 months experience practicing, the odds were NOT in my favor.
I figured I better diversify my options, so I also created an account on Upwork. I tried to pass as somebody who could do technical writing. I think I could have faked my way through it, but alas, my account was never even approved (lol).
After a couple weeks of writing cover letters fluffing up my experience and enthusiasm, I needed a reality-check.
Did I actually want to be a pharmacist?
I mean, I spent 6 years of my life and a boat-load of money to be one, so I had to, right?
Maybe not.
For the first time maybe ever, I was thinking critically about how I wanted to live my adult life. Sure, I had spent a long time pursuing something I was less-than-excited about, but did that mean I had to continue on the same path?
I decided to work backwards. What could I do that wouldn’t always feel like work? What would provide a healthier work-life balance? What work environments would better suit my personality?
Thankfully, I didn’t have to look far.
One of my lifelong best-friends had finished college a year before me with an advanced Computer Science degree. The difference in our work-life balance was night and day, as was our job satisfaction. I would spend half my weekends stuck at CVS. Meanwhile, he was solving interesting problems every day, had flexible hours, and was learning new skills.
Most importantly, he never had to WEAR A TIE 😨!
I had been teaching myself some programming online purely out of curiosity. I was bouncing aimlessly from one tutorial to another, having fun, but never really learning how to build anything useful.
I thought, “Hey, if you’re doing programming tutorials after coming home from a job you hate, don’t you think there might be something to this?”
That was the key moment for me.
I realized I actually enjoyed programming. Also, it could pave the way to a lifestyle more in tune with who I am. I knew I would take a significant paycut, at least for a while, but at this point I’d learned the hard way that money isn’t everything.
I got serious about becoming a software engineer.
That’s when I found out about coding bootcamps.
Why a coding bootcamp?
The real question is “Why attend a coding bootcamp when you can teach yourself online for free?”
For me, it came down to a few different things:
- I was stuck in tutorial purgatory. I was flip-flopping from Treehouse to FreeCodeCamp to Youtube. I was learning many different concepts, but wasn’t able to produce anything tangible.
- I was racing against the clock. I had about 4 months of living expenses in my savings. I knew I could take out a loan for a coding bootcamp (I mean, with my loans from pharmacy school, what’s another 13k right?). I had no safety net beyond that, so I had to get job-ready as quickly as possible.
- I was prepared to do the work. I was already planning to be learning to program all-day-every-day anyway, so why not do it amongst peers, with mentors readily accessible to me? This was as a way to maximize my learning-potential-per-second. I wanted the firehose of structured information. I was up for the challenge.
Choosing a bootcamp
I wasn’t super scientific about how I chose a bootcamp. Like most folks, I started by looking at what my city had to offer. At the time I was living in Dallas, TX, but I was also willing to travel to Austin if it made sense.
I didn’t even consider an online bootcamp. At the time I wanted to immerse myself in a physical setting with like-minded folks and grind it out. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t do an online bootcamp if it makes sense for you, it just didn’t for me.
My research began with those points in mind.
I started my search on CourseReport. I looked for bootcamps in Dallas, then in Austin. I remember the list being shorter back then, but here is an example of the bootcamps available in Dallas.
I looked at the reviews (taking them with a grain of salt), the tuition cost, the start dates for their next cohort, and their websites.
Based on those factors, I narrowed it down to three options:
- Coding Dojo in Dallas. I liked this one because it was a short 3-4 month bootcamp that taught three different tech stacks. The price seemed fair. They had programs to help graduates get jobs.
- DevMountain in Dallas. I liked this one because it was 3 months, was one of the least expensive options, and still taught full-stack development.
- HackReactor in Austin. I liked this one because HackReactor is one of the more reputable bootcamps, and the location could work. Unfortunately, this was also the most expensive option.
Now that I had it down to three options, I had to figure out which one was the most likely to get me a job.
Not being a software engineer then, I decided to send the three curriculums to my engineer friend I mentioned above. It’s hard to know what you don’t know, so I figured I would get an expert’s opinion on the matter.
My friend narrowed it down to DevMountain and HackReactor. He said I would get more value out of diving deeper on one popular language than trying to learn three different stacks. Both DevMountain and HackReactor teach full-stack JavaScript, which he said was in demand (and which I confirmed by looking at job postings).
Now that I had two options, it was a no-brainer to go with DevMountain. Though it doesn’t have the reputation that HackReactor does, I wouldn’t have to sleep on a couch AND it was significantly cheaper.
I’d make it work.
I applied for their next cohort.
I began working full-time on their pre-course work.
The rest, as they say, is history 🚀.
So how should YOU choose a bootcamp?
Though it’s going to be different for everyone, here are factors you should consider:
Location - Is the bootcamp somewhere you can physically attend, or are you okay with a remote experience? Keep in mind that not being in a physical setting might make it harder to hold yourself accountable.
Student feedback - Find alumni on LinkedIn and reach out for their honest feedback. Most bootcamp attendees will be happy to share their experience, good or bad. You can supplement this by checking CourseReport and looking for critiques online, but look out for reviews written by people from the bootcamps themselves.
Curriculum - Is the bootcamp going to equip you with skills that are in demand in your area? Will you be able to build projects on your own to show employers? Are the technologies they’re teaching relevant today? Look for jobs asking for the tech they teach on GlassDoor.
Duration - There’s part-time, full-time, night-time, and everything in between. What makes sense for you will depend on what other responsibilities you have (kids, work, etc) and how long you have to get job-ready.
Price - Can you afford to pay out of pocket? Are you willing to pick up a loan to attend? Are you okay with doing an ISA?
Determination - Committing to a bootcamp is no small decision. You should be ready to give it your all in order to reap the benefits. Do a gut-check. Are you really committed to making this career change?
Though I can’t make the decision for you, I’m always happy to answer any questions on Twitter.
YOU GOT THIS
GO HERE NEXT -> How to Excel at a Coding Bootcamp
