Reflecting on Code Bootcamp, Three Years Later

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Cover image for this post: A person with long hair is seated at a desk in an office with multiple monitors in front of them with code on the screens. They are viewed from the back.

May 22, 2019

There have been only two times in my life that I've kept a consistent blog. The first was my study abroad experience in China. The second was my time at Makersquare. (Makersquare was acquired by Hack Reactor, which is now a project of Galvanize. Lol, startups.)

At some point I decided to make all my bootcamp posts privately published (on my old WordPress blog). Yesterday, I decided to port them over and re-publish them. It's now been three years, but if anyone is currently going through a bootcamp, or considering it, I hope that perhaps they find it helpful.

Weekly bootcamp posts

The Road So Far (2016-01-10)
Week 1: Lots (2016-01-10)
Week 2: Blur (2016-01-17)
Week 3: Enter APIs (2016-01-24)
Week 4: Mental Fog (2016-02-01)
Week 5: Onto Projects (2016-02-07)
Week 6: Halfway Through (2016-02-14)
Week 7: Projectland (2016-02-29)
Week 8: Back to Back-End (2016-03-07)
Week 9: Thesis, cont'd (2016-03-16)
Week 10: Is This Real Life? (2016-03-21)
Week 11: Thesis, Concluded (2016-03-28)
Week 12: The Transition (2016-04-02)

Was it worth it?

Short answer, yes.

I had been trying to break into full-time web development for years, and at the time, I still didn't feel I'd done it.

I needed a complete change of pace, and a completely focused time period to focus on the pivot. I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to do so. ~~I f'n love what Lambda School is doing to make this pivot more accessible to a wider range of people. (Enjoyed this Founder's talk episode feat. founder Austin Allred recently).~~

Edit to add on 8.25.2020: In the time since I wrote this, a lot more discussion has happened and a lot more has come to light on Lambda School. I still believe strongly we need to open the doors of this industry more broadly, but it doesn't look like Lambda is it.

I took a chance on a bootcamp because:

I had been scratching at the door and doing the work for a long time, I already knew it was something I enjoyed.
Despite the fact that bootcamps were pretty much a new thing, and unregulated, I felt it conferred some greater level of validation, and gave me a better shot. (They're not so new anymore, I feel like I was at the tail-end of that).
I needed to invest in a hard pivot. Working my way gradually wasn't working.

I'm so grateful to be where I am now, and it's absolutely mind-blowing that the bootcamp was three years ago. Also, none of this would be possible without these folks.

Cover image: By ThisisEngineering on Unsplash