After freelancing part-time as a Wordpress implementer (cos I never got into the PHP code), I decided to learn to code and switch careers from Public Health to Software Engineering. I enrolled in 6-month-long, 35hours/week online bootcamp when my daughter was just 4 months old. Six months after bootcamp, I landed my first full-time role.
I'm here to advise, support and cheer on anyone with a non-traditional background, or non-typical profile, who dreams of being a professional programmer. Ask away!
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Same is the story with me. Path was challenging and interesting. Major support required is from your life partner and your boss. And thankfully I got both. So ultimately, life is rewarding me with sweet fruits.
Hello Sai! Congrats on the internship!
If I were you, I would focus on showing my enthusiasm for the company's products and goals. So dont merely complete your tasks. Show interest in how your tasks and the team's work fits into the global company vision. Show concern for the impact of your code on the company's bottom line or vision. Ask lots of questions. Ask to pair with senior programmers. Ask for feedback say every 3 weeks: "Is there anything I can improve in my work?" for example.
I wish you all the favor in the world :D
What was the hardest part?
What was the best part?
Thanks for your questions Erik :)
Hardest Part: The Job Search. I actually enjoyed bootcamp (even though it was a struggle at times, with sleep deprivation and constant interruptions from my baby).
But the job search was a real test of my belief that I was able and ready to work as a programmer. Each rejection - be it after a coding test, phone screen, or onsite interview - was a blow to my sense of competency.
What kept me going was (1) the unrelenting encouragement of my mentor from bootcamp - he had absolute faith that I was good enough (2) the fact that I had come so far and invested so much energy in my learning; I wasnt about to let it go to waste lol.
Best Part: Being mentored during bootcamp. My mentor was INCREDIBLE! He's the person I credit most for my success so far. He absolutely believed in my abilities and programming aptitude, even when I felt so dumb. He made time for me beyond what the bootcamp required, just to pair with me more, and explain things more. My experience with him is what spurs me on to mentor and encourage other future programmers.
Your story resonates with me. I too in my late 30s choose to throw caution to the wind and do a similar program. My daughter was born on the Friday of the first week of class. I missed but 1 day of class, needless to say, my wife is a Saint. I can't even imagine what it would be like doing that as a mom with a three month old. Good on you! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Robert! and yes, tell your wife I said she is #BadAss 💪
You rock!
Why, thank you! :)
What did you do in your previous job?
Did you have any higher education prior to your bootcamp?
What do you do now?
Hi K!
I worked in Public Health as a Research Associate and Program Analyst.
I earned two degrees (Bachelors Biology and Masters Nonprofit Mgmt) prior to bootcamp.
Now I work as a Software Engineer at a major dotcom in Virginia. Our tech stack is primarily Rails, React and OracleDB.
Cool.
Thanks for the AMA.
How do Rails and Oracle get along? It's not a very traditional pairing?
I'm in my 50s and have worked in broadcast for over 25 years, and I NEEEEEED to get out of television. I've been teaching myself and have managed to build a web app in PHP from concept to deployment. (patch.team if you want to have a look - it's nothing special, just a learning experience)
I have to say, i don't have any faith I'll be able to land a job as a dev. the task just seems too enormous. Anything you could advise?
Hello there! Congrats on making the leap into code! I checked your app out - it's pretty cool!
I think your best bet is to build finished and finessed apps, and use them to prove your worth to any dev team. In fact, do that AND find an opensource project with a tech stack you're comfortable with and start contributing! A third thing to do would be to use your television skills to create mini-vids of you coding or debugging, and publish them here on Dev.To
In terms of life experience, you got that in spades! So put that to work for you. Build a portfolio of 2-3 complete apps, rack up some green in GitHub through opensource involvement, and define a brand that puts you out there are a developer. These 3 things done consistently will get you noticed, fetch you some interviews and land you a job. GOOD LUCK!!
Great points. I'd not thought of contributing to an open source project, I'll get straight on that. Thanks very much for the advice, it is greatly appreciated.
What an inspiring article, thank you for sharing. I'm also in my late 30's switching to programming. I was wondering what some of your first tasks were in the workplace. Do you remember your first ticket or the first coding problem that you had to solve? I'd like to know what kinds of actual problems that entry level programmers are expected to solve. Thanks!
Hi Joseph!
Great question; my first-ever ticket was to set my development environment up, which was quite involved. My first contribution at work was to update the env-setup documentation :)
After that, I took tickets that involved small code updates, like HTML changes, or including a table column that allows an object to receive a new attribute. Most of what we code on my team ends up in front-end production, so I see the "fruit" of my work in a very visual way. Seeing my little changes reflected on our production sites gave my confidence such a boost.
I would say that, so far, my biggest trip-ups at work have been GitHub-flow related. Which is why I shout from the rooftops: "Get involved in opensource!!!" In my opinion, it's the closest you can approximate a professional coding environment, and it's great practice in code review, reading, understanding and modifying code, avoiding adding code debt, etc. If you're into Rails and/or JS, the Dev.To opensource project is just stellar!
Good luck!
what things have been helpful for you to 'level-up' your skills other than the online bootcamp?
also, what is your opinion of wordpress now that you are an engineer? do you want to develop themes / plugins? or stay away from the CMS development side?
and congrats on your journey
Hey Katherine!
Thank you so much! Well, post-bootcamp and pre-job, I would improve my skills by:
Now on the job, skills improvement is built-in :D
I still love Wordpress! I haven't had a chance to do any CMS development, but I love the platform - especially for it's ease of use for non-techies. CMS development is not currently on my career roadmap though.
What bootcamp? Or what bootcamp recommendations?
Hello David!
The bootcamp was called The Firehose Project - but they have been acquired by Trilogy Education, so they're no longer taking students unfortunately. They offer their program through universities now; I believe UC Berkley is one of them.
The websites CourseReport and SwitchUp are excellent resources for researching coding bootcamps - check 'em out!
Thank you!
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