Finishing Coding Bootcamp While Working Full Time (Flatiron)
It has been quite the journey since last year when I first started Flatiron Coding Bootcamp. I don’t even know where to begin telling my story. I wanted to reflect on the decisions I made, how the self-paced bootcamp changed my learning style, and how I view coding as my future career path.
Structure
Looking back at the first project that I completed to my current project (CLI vs React Redux App), the growth was unimaginable for me. I did have some various coding experiences from taking AP Computer Science in high school, taking a course in college, and doing a lot of online self-taught programs. However, I always found myself to be unmotivated to finish larger projects. Stress and pressure was my usual motivation factor in college. I would not study or review if the exam wasn’t during that week. So following this form of motivation, my friend recommended I should do the self-paced Flatiron program. It has the flexibility for me to study after my full-time job while still having the structure there for me to construct certain projects. Overall, I would recommend this program for my fellow friends that cannot afford to quit their jobs and make coding bootcamp their full-time job. The only issue with this flexibility is that there is no set due dates for each specific project so I would procrastinate for a while until I would tell myself that it has to get done by month-end. In the end, I still am glad that I got through the bootcamp. My knowledge has grown faster than I expected.
LeetCode and CodeWars
Though the bootcamp was geared more towards web development, it doesn’t cover other basics that are important for finding jobs and landing the offer. Algorithms, data structure, binary trees, linked list, and etc were not fully covered. Therefore websites such as LeetCode and CodeWars were very valuable to me. I would and still am spending hours on end, grinding away and solving various coding questions on these websites. Every software engineer or web development position would host an online technical assessment prior to even granting an interview. This is to weed out candidates, however, like the ACT/SAT, not everyone is great at timed structured exams. That someone is also myself. Since these assessments are the norm now, it is super important for me to also build my technical background so I have the same opportunity to spot a job and not fall behind others.
Starting with a Disadvantage
Most coding bootcamp graduates do not have a computer science college degree. We are doing the bootcamp because it is much faster to complete and does not cost the price of a starter home. However, there are disadvantages when finding a job. A lot of hiring managers will not even look at candidates if they do not hold a college degree. However, since we are able to finish the bootcamp in a quarter of the time it takes to obtain a college degree, we are able to find an entry-level position and take the rest of the three years if we were to go to college to gradually build up our experience. In the end, both paths eventually end up on the same road. One just has the advantage to not drop everything and get a large financial burden from going back to college.
