Booting Up: Why I Chose A Coding Bootcamp
Tags: beginners, codenewbie, bootcamp, career
Published: 2019-11-06 05:08:05

#Hello!

My name is **Shawn Huang Fernandes** and I am an ex-power systems engineer who is trying to become a developer! I am currently taking Flatiron's Software Engineering Immersive program at the Seattle Campus.

#So, Why The Blog?

This blog is to help give others an insight into what I did during my coding bootcamp to ensure that I got into the tech industry. Hopefully this might help someone else navigate the same water I did!

Quitting my job and becoming a student again was really scary, and one of the hardest questions I had to ask myself was:

#How Do I Re-Invent Myself Into A Developer?

I had heard of three routes:

- Teach yourself, be awesome, someone will hire you
- Formal Education, get a degree, someone will hire you
- Bootcamp, learn coding, someone will hire you

##Route 1: Teach Yourself

At the time I was considering my career transition, it occurred to me that I could possibly study coding on my own time. This option was appealing as it required $0. However, it would mean I would need to:
- Structure my own learning
- Research what the industry was looking for on my own
- Coordinate networking opportunities outside of my work hours
- Possibly quit my job
- Figure out a reasonable timeline for when I could start interviewing for jobs and try to land a job

###Why I turned this option down:

As much as my ego wanted to make me believe I could learn to program, network, and figure out the industry on my own, I turned this option down because there were too many unknowns (and I had recently gotten married and purchased a home, so I wanted to take a smart risk).

##Route 2: Formal Education

I had come from a 4 year institution, gotten an internship, and landed a career, so the fleeting thought of doing that all over again did cross my mind. Getting another degree would mean I would need to:
- Possibly be out of industry for 4 years
- Pay upwards of $40,000
- Quit my job

###Why I turned this option down:

The 4 year time commitment, along with the financial burden of a degree made me turn this option down. And from what I understood about the software engineering industry, relationships and skills are everything. Having an institutional degree would not be a guarantee of success in the software engineering realm.

##Route 3:The Bootcamp Approach

Because I had dabbled in coding, I started getting notifications about coding bootcamps (what a coincidence). I had always assumed bootcamps were places that taught you how to code, and then let you loose on the world. On my way home on the bus I saw a sign for Flatiron and decided to do some further research by attending an orientation and surfing their website. What I learned was that going to Flatiron's bootcamp would mean I would need to:
- Definitely quit my job (the program is 9-6 Monday through Friday)
- Be responsible for my own networking (provided opportunities from Flatiron)
- Be responsible for my own learning (provided a curriculum and coaches from Flatiron)
- Pay $15,000 dollars
- Commit myself for 15 weeks

###Why I chose the bootcamp option

There's a couple reasons I chose to do a bootcamp over the alternatives, and they were all based on my situation:
- I wanted to be software engineering ready within a couple months
- I wanted a program that would keep pace with my learning speed (or slow down to accommodate me)
- I needed guidance from professionals to position myself to get an awesome tech job (building an online presence like LinkedIn, portfolios, and blogs!)
- I needed networking opportunities to make connections with startups and larger companies
- I didn't want to be broke after attending the program

#Preparing For The Bootcamp

I remember putting in my two weeks at my job, knowing that I didn't want to spend time sitting around; I wanted to start the bootcamp as soon as possible. Flatiron's earliest start date was two weeks away, and they had a platform full of coding labs and lessons that needed to be completed before you could schedule your technical interview. There were a lot of obstacles I had to overcome.

- There were a LOT of pre-work assignments.
- The coding language was in Ruby. A language I had never heard of.
- I was still working for the next two weeks (right until my interview)

I had two options:

1) Push my start date out.
2) Buckle up and do the work.

I decided I would spend the next two weeks completely immersing myself in the material Flatiron provided and spending every waking hour either:

- At Work
- Cooking
- Coding

Because I condensed a lot of the concepts of programming and web design into a two week period, the knowledge was fresh during my technical interview, and I passed!

# If you are considering joining a bootcamp

1) Do your research. Will they help you find a job or will they teach you how to code?
2) How much time do you need to prepare? Pick a start date that fits your pace
3) Commit to Learning. Joining a bootcamp means making sacrifices, if you are not prepared to commit to learning you're throwing your money away!

Thanks For Reading! I'll be posting some more updates as I progress through the bootcamp!