How I attacked becoming a Software Developer during a 3-month Bootcamp

Back in January 2014, I started my journey to becoming a Web Developer. I had recently gotten into the Web Development Immersive at General Assembly, and the day had finally arrived. This immersive program was only the third one they had done in LA, so the concept was very new at the time. I had wanted to get into an exciting career for a long time, as I had been struggling during the recession, unable to use my Marketing degree and working in construction. Suddenly, I was going to be in beautiful Santa Monica, CA, right by the beach every day while learning how to code. It couldn't get any better than that.

I was excited when I walked into the school for the first morning of class. I was putting everything on the line for this opportunity. I had quit my job, had no savings, survived off credit cards, and had no coding experience. I was confident I could figure it out, but I had no idea what I was doing. It was very nerve-wracking but, at the same time, a thrill. I knew I didn't want to return to construction, so the fear of working in construction again was more substantial than my fear of learning how to code. Fear benefited me in this situation.

Right before Christmas, we had an initial one-week orientation to learn the coding basics, so I was familiar with some of my classmates. I chatted with my new friends I had met during the orientation, and we talked about how stoked we were to get started. I was aware some people had a lot of coding talent and were much farther ahead than me, but I tried to ignore all that noise and mentally prepare myself for the process and my path. I knew this shouldn't be a competition. If we followed the process correctly, everyone who wanted a job would get a job. It was a group challenge.

As we started, our cohort organizers explained the program's timeline. There would be four three-week phases where we could complete a different project. At the end of the program, we would have a portfolio consisting of four projects which would greatly help us land our first gig. These projects utilized whatever topic we were learning for that round. We would be doing HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Angular for round 1, Ruby on Rails for rounds 2 and 3, and a new topic of our choice for round 4.

Diving into the first round, I quickly realized how ridiculously overwhelming code could be for a noob with no coding experience. The school started at 9 am every morning, and we'd be grinding all day, learning new information until 5 pm. After that, it was staying until about 9 pm working on a project. The organizers told us not to start any other new life goals while we were in the Bootcamp, and for a good reason. We were completely dead at the end of every day, and our brains felt like they would explode from the excessive amount of new information and concepts.

Our teachers were entertaining, I believe there were four in total, and they were all highly experienced professionals in the tech industry. We would have time with all of them during the day, learning specific topics from each one. They were also around after class to answer questions or help with some particular coding issues. They didn't want to spoon-feed us because they were teaching us the recipe to be self-sufficient, but they helped point us in the right direction and stopped us from wasting our time with specific things irrelevant to getting hired. The significant advantage of having these teachers was filtering out all the non-important stuff you can get lost in when self-teaching yourself to code and focusing on the essential things. Once they taught us this recipe, we could use it to self-teach ourselves.

As my classmates and I went through this madness together every day, we started to form a bond. We had all quit our jobs to gamble on making this move, so we were all in the same boat. There was a lot at stake for all of us, so we all wanted to succeed very badly. When going through something intense with other people, some powerful friendships start to form. As we went through this process daily, that's what happened. It felt like we were all picking each other up, which was fantastic, as we were all moving towards the same goal. Whenever our brains were too destroyed to code, we could go out for drinks and have a good time.

It was great to have access to people already working in tech and startups right there at school. On top of being around inspiring classmates who were on the same path, there were other interesting people at the school, hanging out or working in the incubator upstairs. Once a week, we would have a TED talk-type guest that worked in tech who would come in to give an exciting speech. Being in that environment was intoxicating and made it difficult to fail because everyone around me was making shit happen and being successful.

By the end of the program, I had become wiped out. I had been getting more tired each week as the grind was starting to catch up. I had broken up with my girlfriend during the program and slept on my classmate's couches every night. My brain was exhausted. But I had to finish what I had started. Many of us had completed or almost completed a portfolio of four projects to show off to employers. We were welcome to come to the school whenever we wanted and continue working if we hadn't, which many of us did. After another month, I finished my portfolio and was ready to go.

During this Bootcamp, a few people from General Assembly in a team called Outcomes explicitly tried to figure out our goals after finishing the Bootcamp. Essentially, their job was to help us get hired. We had to do our part, building the projects and working hard. But assuming we did that, they would be on our side, trying to get us connected with different employers and getting hired. They also prepped us with interview questions and other things of that nature. Probably the most critical thing was having a big showcase set up about a month after the program, where we could meet several prospective startups, CTOs, employers, etc.

At the showcase, we set up a large circle of tables where we set up our laptops and monitors to prepare our presentations. With this setup, we could easily show off our applications in a rotation so every visitor would meet with every person. At that showcase, I ended up hitting it off with a CTO from one startup that would later become my boss. Several classmates of mine also had a similar experience, meeting their first boss at this showcase.

After a few months of being done, almost everyone from the class who wanted a job had a job. The only people who didn't get a job were the entrepreneurs who wanted to make their product and a couple of slackers who barely worked on their portfolios. Everyone who followed the process was hired and started their development careers. We had come from all different backgrounds, but now we were all developers.

For me, the Bootcamp experience was the best thing that ever happened to me. I could quickly start a web development career and make much more money, which I wanted. I learned much faster than I would have ever done alone. And I landed my first professional job making $60k/year (in 2014) about a month after I finished the Bootcamp. On top of that, I met many interesting people, made some lifelong friends, and have a lot of great memories that I'll never forget. I would make the same decision every time.