From English Major to Coding Bootcamp to Software Developer

The backstory.

There I was with an English degree, starting a masters program in a healthcare related field. The goal was to one day be able to work from home while making decent pay. But I quickly realized I hated my classes, and the more I shadowed professionals, the more I was dreading my career path. Nothing against it, it just didn’t feel right for me.

Then a close friend introduced me to a coding bootcamp, something I hadn’t heard about before. He explained how it’s possible to become a web developer without a Computer Science degree, through an intense full stack web development program that would take 3-5 months. I wondered if one could realistically learn a whole profession in such a short time. Not to mention there wasn’t a true guarantee that you’d be connected to your first job.

I’ve always liked tech, but the only code I had ever seen was that one time I was trying to get that glorious Pirates of the Caribbean theme installed on my MySpace profile. But I had just started my masters program, I could still drop out with a partial refund, and if it all goes to shit it’s not like the university was going anywhere, I could easily take my miserable self back.

Why that coding bootcamp?

There were key aspects I was looking for in a bootcamp, and I was grateful that the one my friend introduced me to checked all those boxes. I was looking for a coding bootcamp where:

• My instructor would be a software engineer for close to a decade.
• They taught full stack development, so I could learn front-end development (the pretty user-interface you see) and back-end development (such as working with a database).
  • I wanted to learn full stack because I had understood it could mean higher pay since you’re handling two individual roles.
  • In retrospect I do think it’s helpful to know both, not only for personal understanding but for personal experience in both environments - in case one really is your favorite and maybe it’s not one you would’ve guessed.
• It was practice-based over lecture-based. It wasn’t designed to replicate traditional school lectures, but instead focused on trying to help you gain development experience with Agile practices (a common software management workflow practice) and continuous code projects.
  • This was key for me as I know I can be a slow learner, who best learns by seeing and doing. Abstract computer science concepts are important, but for myself they were easier to understand after working with code for a little bit.
• I would be able to graduate within a few months, and they were confident I would be able to find a web development job.

What was the bootcamp like?

It was an intense full-time schedule, requiring 70 hours weekly. Some of that time was with the instructor but most was development time.

The instructor.

The instructor can play a huge part to this whole experience, and luckily my instructor was freakin fantastic. He was not only knowledgable but more importantly he could explain concepts really well. But after a short time, it was full Agile time, meaning his role changed more to a “tech lead” and our lectures were done.

The life.

My bootcamp was in LA but I lived in an outskirt suburban town. Though I could’ve slept like a normal human, there are few things I hate more than traffic. I did try it once, sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for nearly 3 hours, and I was cranky and pissed off the entire day. It truly brings out the worst in me lol. So instead I would wake up at 4 am to get to the Starbucks that was down the street from my bootcamp, and start working on my current code assignment starting at 6 am until it was time for us to meet at 8 am. In the evenings, because obviously we still have to avoid traffic, I would stay till at least 7 or 8 pm so the commute was at least under 2 hours.

It was tough, there were a lot of whinny tears, but I’m very appreciative for this extra time because all of it. Literally all of my extra time went to working on code. As I mentioned, I can be a little slow so I utilized that extra time as much as I could towards my goal.

The tears.

And though I was putting in as many hours as I could to learning code, it was quickly apparent I was much slower than the majority of my fellow cohort-mates. There were more than a few days were I’d go on a walk to find a secret place to be alone, and call my now-hubby crying how I just got us into even more debt for no reason. How I was too slow for this, and I’m just not getting it.

Though we may express this all differently, I can’t help but feel that many people feel this slump when learning to code. There’s just so much to understand, so much more to learn and discover, and it can just become overwhelming.

But as my man did for me then, I have to remind anyone else that may be going through this that with consistent time and perseverance, you will get it.

imagine some amazing quote about it being hard but you’ll be able to get through it going here ✨

Was it worth it?

I started my coding bootcamp in late summer of 2017, graduating that December. After graduation I’m blessed to say the job market wasn’t too bad, and with constant carpet bombing (more on finding a web developer job later 😉) I was able to find my first web developer job after 4 months of searching. I'm fortunate for this as I’ve known developers who are way more talented than me, that took twice as long to find a job. I’m very grateful and blessed it took the time it did for me, but can’t say it’ll always go that way. No matter what, just don’t give up!

Learning to code will take some time, but once it clicks, it’s a whole new world.

At this point, I’ve been a full stack developer for 6 years now, blessed to have worked in a variety of team settings that have helped challenge and further my developer growth and knowledge.

If you’re thinking of taking the leap to learning web development, do it! Though I’m biased to say it but I truly love what I do. Coding feels like building with legos to me now, I enjoy coding while I’m working and I enjoy coding on the weekends on my personal projects.

But I guess I should also talk about the cons, huh?… Let’s save that for a later post.