Hi dev community - I have not yet posted a #discuss type question here, so apologies in advance if this is too common of a question/too long. I know the market is saturated with coding bootcamp grads, and the 'blog market' is saturated with posts about bootcamp grads. I know it's very hard to get one of the most coveted, competitive, and high-paying jobs after taking only a 3 month course. And of course I know this is an unprecedented and horrible global pandemic economy.
All of that being said - I'm really struggling, and these problems have been around for bootcamps grads for years now. I've read a lot of blogs. I've done a ton of networking. Gotten good advice. And I generally feel like I just have to do something else major now - like get some kind of further online degree/certificate? I'm not sure, but it seems like employers see '3 month bootcamp' grad and throw the resume in the trash before it even gets to their inbox. I'm not trying to be lazy and say I'm owed anything after an objectively short time - I just don't know what else to do to show that I'm serious and that I love coding and I want to learn as much as possible. And it seems like everything I could do now to try and get more experience/demonstrate my skills - personal projects, hackathons, contributing to open source, freelancing, unpaid internships - might just be further exhausting myself with nothing tangible to show for it.
Again I am really not trying to hustle or cheat my way into something I am not qualified for. I am willing to put in the work. I also am interested in doing something like an online master's degree in computer science, truly genuinely for my own personal interest, but it seems like a risky further move into debt that may or may not even help me get a real job.
A lot of the advice for struggling junior dev job seekers right now is 'just keep pushing along!' i.e. applying, networking, etc. I am not knocking that advice - and I will certainly keep applying, working on my personal projects, doing whatever self-taught learning that I can. But I am starting to wonder if I can/should do something that is more of a major change. Thank you!
Latest comments (33)
Hi Sylvia. I am reading this in July of 2020, is this something you are still struggling with?
These are some great suggestions from all. One important suggestion is that whether it is consulting work on contract or short term gig do not hesitate to take it. The fundamental rule is not to have more gap after completion of bootcamp. As Ben mentioned you can always leave a current role and proceed to next one when you find a new one. If there are a group of friends you can form your own LLC and start with small freelance assignments as well.
As a fellow coding bootcamp grad searching for my first developer job for over 3 years now with no luck, I feel your pain.
If I had words of encouragement or advice to give, I would give it. I've pretty much lost all hope at this point.
Good luck, though. I sure as hell hope your search lasts nowhere near as long as mine has.
Unfortunately many companies today require a Bachelor's Degree. But the expense and 4 year commitment seem so far away sometimes. However there are ways to get a degree.
Here's what I did...
So even though I received the degree it took me 8 years to get it. I look back now and feel it was the best thing I ever did in my life (earning wise).
Good luck to you Silvia!
When I first started out I didn't have any bootcamp experience or a 4-year college degree, I self-taught myself Java and PHP and I only had a hand full of freelance work under my belt. But by the grace of God lol I was able to land a state job as a Junior Java Developer, it didn't pay much but I knew this was my foot in the door. Lucky for me it worked out, there was only one other Java Developer on the team, so I was able to learn a lot and get some good experience. After over a year of working at the State, I was able to land another job as a Full Stack Developer just based off my experience. The pay was better but still not where I really wanted it to be. After this, I was able to land a few more gigs but at companies that sucked.
From my experience when going after a good job that's is also offering great benefits and great pay they are going to want to see a degree no question. I have been turned down so many times and every time it was because of my education. I knew I had to change this, so I eventually went back to school to finish my 4-year degree. After 10 years, I feel great where I am now. I have my own team and a ton of responsibilities.
My advice is to start small, dont expect companies to roll out the red carpet for you. But keep applying someone will eventually bite. Never say Never, apply to jobs that you would not usually think about applying to. Get some experience in learning about application servers and server-side languages like C# or Java, these arent the COOL languages but these are languages that are mostly still in demand.
I am sorry this was kinda long but keep your spirits up I wish you good luck.
I'm also a Flatiron bootcamp grad, and before then, a self-taught coder, so I get how you feel. A few times a week, I consider quitting tech entirely because it feels so, so bleak, and the pandemic doesn't help either. If you can, take a breather, it's a lot and it seems like you are doing all the right things and may be experiencing burnout.
Have you given any thought to not advertising that you are a bootcamp grad? I haven't dug into it too much, but it's possible that the bootcamp label is off-putting for some companies. Some advice I've seen is that you are a software engineer, not a beginner software engineer or junior software engineer. You are a software engineer. Period. Again, not to say this is a magic bullet, but it may help both with how you sell and perceive yourself, approach the job search, and (hopefully in a good way) how companies perceive you.
Please don't hesitate to reach out via DM if you want to chat. Happy to offer advice, feedback, etc if I can. 🤗
I feel your pain!
I think the pandemic has made finding a JR Dev entry level position even harder.
All I can say is don't give up. I don't have experience looking for work in a pandemic, and I'm also on the east coast so I don't have experience with the job market on the west coast.
I wish I could be more relatable and encouraging. But I will tell you my experience because misery loves company and I don't want you to think something is wrong with you, or that you chose the wrong line of work.
I got my first job because I knew a graduate from the same bootcamp who worked at the company I interviewed for. Was that the only reason I was hired? no. But it sure helped to have someone working there for the past 3 years who did excellent work, and I came from the same bootcamp.
That company, however, was bought out and my whole dev team was laid off. This was 6 months into my career. I was unemployed for 3 months and worked my butt off to find another job. Which I got, and was thankful for. But wow, my second job was rough. Our team was mismanaged, our dev teams paychecks were all over the place and I was given Senior Dev roles on a JR paycheck, and I got burnt out after 9 months, asked to have my position changed and was fired for doing so. I was on unemployment again, for another 3 months and got a job back in January with a marketing agent then the pandemic hit. Thankfully I have work and no one has gotten laid off yet.
All that to say, you are learning a trade. If you love coding, you are going to get paid for what you love to do. Then on top of that you will have flexibility and you are going to be EXTREMELY valuable to the Dev community. Your struggles and pain will only make you a stronger developer. I can't wait to see you make an impact in our community!
Want to talk to a human about it? calendly.com/perpetual-education/f... We have free career advice and portfolio critique. Ben's notes are all A+ but it's hard to really tell - when it's only text. Flatiron gets you ready for a very specific role. Maybe you just need to lean in a particular direction.
I've been there too. It took me around half a year before I got a development job after doing a Bootcamp. I got rejected once, I was asked absurd coding tests, I spent time working for free in a pretty lousy company. Then eventually I decided to only accept jobs that were worth my time (I was lucky to live with my parents at the time). I wouldn't even go on interviews unless I knew in advance they were serious.
But what I have been doing non-stop in the time between my bootcamp and my first real job, was working on my own project. I was annoyed by the lack of transparency in the job market, so I was determined to build my own job board. Which I did, well sort of.
It never got finished, but most of it was working, I had invested quite a lot of time in it, and put real thought in every part of it. Sure it lacked some, now obvious abstractions, but it worked, was tested and showed my interest in building stuff and solving the problems myself.
It turned out my first job was around the corner, and they invited me for an interview, and it was especially my project that made them interested in me. Not because my project was of any noteworthy quality (I'd be horrified if I'd read the code now). I had an interview, they asked me questions about my project, I could answer them, and eventually I ended up learning a whole lot there.
Now I am helping new trainees coming from a bootcamp at my current job.
Long story short, I think it takes a bit of luck and in my case some effort invested in a side project (imho). But eventually you'll get there.
Employers want to see two things, education and professional experience. If you have less of one they want to see more of the other. You did a bootcamp, which is great to kickstart your learning, but it's not really considered "real" education in the context of job applications. So you need to compensate with professional experience.
I was pretty much in a similar situation when I first started, excluding the bootcamp. I scraped every resource I could find for any level of freelance work to put on my resume. After enough ten hour projects at $10/hr fixing people's broken websites it began to get easier. Now I'm ten years in and managing a team of software engineers.
There's tons of work out there that most people believe is beneath them. Stuff like building/fixing newsletters, customizing wordpress themes, maintaining "legacy" frameworks. Start expanding your knowledge into older frameworks/software/tools. Do you know how many web applications were built using the first version of Angular? Thousands. All those apps needs to be maintained and most people don't want to do it.
Keep applying for jobs but don't sit idle while waiting to hear back. Find someone to pay you to use your skills, no matter how small the job. Then get a reference from them, put it on your resume, rinse and repeat. Do that a few times and you're no longer a "bootcamp grad", you're an experienced developer.
Post on reddit.com/r/forhire, cragislist, kijiji, etc. Dig into posts like news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23379195 and see who's hiring for freelance work. Checkout sites like upwork and freelancer. Find local businesses that need help with their websites. Whatver it takes to get paid experience under your belt.
Lastly, good luck. It's a long and difficult journey but it's cetainly worth the effort if it's what you truly want.