How I Successfully Changed Careers to Software Engineering with a Coding Bootcamp
By: Regina Scott
Tags: Coding, Job Hunting, Bootcamp Experience, Software Development, Codingbootcamp

Frequently Asked Questions

“What advice can you give me as a job seeker in tech?”

Well first I would say “google it”. I can’t tell you how to live your life exactly, but if you’re already doing basic things like writing quality cover letters and have worked on your resume (and have gotten it critiqued by friends, family, professionals), then maybe these 4 tips might help you go further:

If you couldn’t tell from my experience, GO TO HACKATHONS! It was amazing experience (not to mention all the free swag) and if you can’t go to one then I encourage you to make your own hackathon by setting aside a couple days of solid work and a lot of snacks and see what you can accomplish.

Have a portfolio to showcase your work to employers that describes each project you’ve work on, as well as a tailored LinkedIn profile.

Go on meetup and join a coding group like your local chapter of Code for America or sign up for an networking or informational event. (At the time of writing this, the COVID pandemic has decreased the number of these events, but many of them are still happening virtually!)

Start working on your next project. Either have it be a personal project or find a group to collaborate with, but you should always be working on something to keep your skills sharp and so you have something current to talk about during an interview.

“Would you recommend General Assembly?”

HECK YES (the Boston location at least).

As I said before, I know nothing about other GA locations. They each have different curriculum, teachers, and staff. If you’re looking at a GA location besides Boston, I would recommend visiting them and checking out the space and curriculum for yourself, as well as asking about how GA experience is viewed in that location’s job market. That being said, I have no reason to believe that other locations are not excellent, I just do not claim to know that they are for sure.

Without the teachers and staff at GA Boston, I do not think I ever could have made such a successful career transition. (Okay, maybe not ever, but I sure as hell couldn’t have done it in under a year.)

“I’m considering a bootcamp… is it right for me?”

There are a lot of options to take into consideration when deciding whether or not to enroll in a bootcamp. One big consideration is finances: is it worth it for you spend the money on the bootcamp, and how much do you think your salary is going to change in order to offset that cost? For me, the increase in salary over the course of one year would be enough to cover the cost, so in my case the cost of the bootcamp seemed justified. Also consider if a bootcamp cost is something your company will cover if you’re already in a similar industry, or if your company will hire you back in a different position if you complete the course.

Another major factor is your overall happiness. Look into why you’ve considered tech in the first place… is it something you actually like or are you just doing it for the salary and perks? If you can’t stand getting frustrated by bugs or don’t enjoy learning new things all the time, then maybe you need to reconsider. Really make sure that this is something you like to do, or at the very least can tolerate it so that you’re not miserable. If you’re already in a technical role, such as mechanical engineering, then maybe software engineering won’t be that much of a leap for you. If you have no technical background (like me, hello), then I suggest you really make sure you try out a good amount of online learning for a while before you quit your job and drop a ton of money on a career change.

“Can I get a job in software without going to a bootcamp?”

Of course! Lots of people do. But you have to have a lot of self-discipline, time, and patience. One of the things I love most about coding is that you can learn almost everything online somewhere for free if you search for it. It’s insanely more accessible than most fields, and can be a great hobby too if you’re just looking to try it out and gain some additional skills.

“Am I smart enough to be a software engineer?”

I don’t know you, but you probably are. The majority of people in my ~30 person cohort figured everything out and finished hard projects; you can too. I do not consider myself a traditionally “smart” person, meaning I don’t usually see something and just get it or remember it, but I do work hard and I’m passionate about learning.

Women in particular ask themselves this question a lot, and I admit that I did too at first (jk, I still do some days). Girls at a young age are often conditioned by society to think that they should be automatically good at everything, so when they try something new and aren’t great at it, they typically just give up and move on (or even worse, they just don’t try at all). It’s because of that early conditioning that we see so many less women in technical roles. One of my greatest realizations with changing careers to software engineering is that it’s okay to be wrong. That’s what error codes are for. You go back, try different things, and see what works.

“How do I split up my time during the job search?”

It’s going to depend a lot on your own schedule, responsibilities, and needs, but I can tell you what worked for me.

40% continued learning: working on projects, online courses and coding challenges for interviews on sites like leetcode or codewars.

30% applying for jobs: searching for openings, completing applications, writing quality (I’ll say it again for all you copy-and-pasters, QUALITY) cover letters. Make sure you keep a spreadsheet of everywhere you’re applying and try to shoot for about 10 quality applications a week, not just that 1-click apply button.

20% networking: going to events either virtually or in person (when that finally becomes a thing again) and reaching out to people in your network to have a coffee or a quick chat about their career or company.

10% self care: the job search is long and tedious, and you can easily wear yourself down in only a couple weeks. I make sure I do at least one thing for self care every day that ranges from 10 minutes to 1 hour, such as reading outside, grabbing a coffee, going for a walk, exercising, putting on a face mask, or trying out a new recipe to cook. In addition to this, something that the career coaches stressed to us was “respect the weekend”, which I did do most of the time (honestly it can be hard to know it’s even the weekend when all your days are the same).

Treat the job search like a full-time job. That means 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week.

“I’m not having any luck finding a job, what should I be doing differently? Should I give up?”

I get it. Maybe it’s been a month into the job search and you haven’t heard back from anyone and you’re ready to throw in the towel. But hang in there and just know that the job search takes time. Our career coaches at GA told us that it’s very rare to get a job right out of the bootcamp, and it usually takes on average around 4 months for most people to get jobs. Be prepared for longer just in case, especially since we are in uncharted waters with the coronavirus pandemic. The job search is not a sprint, it’s a marathon, and you need to pace yourself accordingly to get through it. If you’re not finding any success with what you’re doing, do some research online and try to modify what you’re doing to see if something else works.

If you find yourself in a tricky situation because of finances in a job search that is seemingly endless, I suggest trying to get a part-time job to help pay some bills and keep you busy. Many people find that having the extra responsibility of a part-time job provides more structure and they’re less likely to waste time because they can’t afford to anymore. However, be aware that not treating the job search as a full-time job may lead to an extended job search in the long run.

“What is the interview process like?”

It really depends on the company! For my Red Hat internship, the decision was based on a video call and I only had to answer soft technical questions about some of my projects, no actual coding was involved. For most of my other interviews at different companies I had to do coding challenges either in the form of a take-home challenge or whiteboarding if it was in person. Most of the coding questions, especially whiteboard problems, were problems that would be considered to be at the “easy” level on leetcode.

The general format for the job interview processes I went through were a phone screening first, followed by a take-home challenge, and then an on-site interview, but there are a lot of variations.

“How do I prepare for interviews?”

Do coding challenges EVERY. DAY. Leetcode and Codewars were my favorites to use. Make sure you know how to check if a string is a palindrome.

I also watched a lot of YouTube interview practice videos, but I found that this didn’t help me as much as actually trying out these problems on my own did. What I did do sometimes was I would start a YouTube video, wait to see what the interview problem was, try to answer it myself, and then if I got stuck I would go through and only watch it until I was able to get to the next step of the problem. When I was finished solving the problem I would then watch the rest of the video to see how they went about solving it and see how mine differed.

In addition to “hard” technical interview questions, you could also be asked “soft” technical questions (“explain what happens when you google something?”).

Lastly, do not neglect the personality interview questions. Have personal stories prepared in your head that recalls a time when you worked on a team, or when you were asked to do something you didn’t agree with.. those kind of questions. Make sure you practice them too so you don’t stumble over words or forgot important pieces because you’re nervous.

“Do I need a portfolio?”

Maybe not if you have a college degree backing you up, but it can’t hurt to have one. However, if you’re a career changer like me without that coveted computer science diploma, then I strongly encourage you to make a portfolio (here’s mine for an example).

Unless you’re great at user experience and design, I would suggest you use a template like I did. I purchased mine for only $13, which is about the cost of a fairly average drink at a bar in Boston and a lot more useful. There are also a lot of free templates you can use that are just as good.