Reflecting on Code Bootcamp, Three Years Later

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:

1. I had been scratching at the door and doing the work for a long time, I already knew it was something I enjoyed.
2. 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).
3. 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.