Intro: Having the Mentality to Succeed
If you are trying to make a career switch and break into the tech industry, you may have many questions on how best to do it. You may also have heard of coding bootcamps, and be asking yourself is a bootcamp needed? This is the path that I chose, and if others decide to do the same, I want to share what I did to prepare. And based on my experience, what I think will set someone for success. The aim is to share details on what I believe to be the best way to prepare, and the best mentality going in, to get the most out of a bootcamp so that you don't waste your time (and money). But most importantly, enjoy it! In addition, how to differentiate one's self and stand out so there is the greatest chance possible of landing a desired job when the bootcamp is complete.
Finally, I believe mindset is a very important factor, and consider the mindset I had to be a major contributing factor for success for me. So, I want to share what my mindset was going into, during, and after bootcamp, as well as setting realistic expectations as to finding a job after bootcamp. It is a lot of work, and a lot of non glamorous work, but it is work that creates a stable foundation that will pay dividends as you embark on a new and exciting journey.
Mentality: The Decision To Attend and Prep Work
It all starts with decision to attend. I am assuming proper research has been done to pick a credible bootcamp. Be diligent in selecting one to attend. There are many good ones, however there are also many that are not ideal, for example some only offer teaching half of the stack (Front-End/ Back-End), some go too slow and do not cover enough material, and some can be essentially scams. It is important to select a bootcamp that is credible and respectable. But, once you have selected one, applied, (preferably interviewed - one way to know it is a good school/ bootcamp), been admitted, and the dates are set, the prep work begins.
It is possible to go in completely blind and with no skills whatsoever to most bootcamps. They do somewhat support a student coming in with no skills whatsoever and taking them from zero to being able to at least build basic applications. However, that is not the goal. Do not be that person. Presumably you are giving up a lot of resources - time, money, maybe even a job (if you're attending a full-time bootcamp) - To attend this bootcamp. This is your future, a valuable future, that you are investing in. So in my mind it makes sense to make the most out of it and milk it for everything that you can by maximizing this opportunity.
Most bootcamps will either have most of the material already online or give you prep work to do before the actual classes start. Take this seriously and do it with 100% effort. Complete all of it, maybe even do it twice. Make sure you fully understand it. These schools / bootcamps will often have "working sessions" before classes officially start to help students prepare and assist on the prep work. If your bootcamp offers these, go to all of them. Even if you are breezing through the prep work, go anyway. It is not only an opportunity to meet your potential classmates and instructors, but often times they will give extra exercises to do in these working sessions. Which can provide valuable additional practice as you develop your skills. And if you aren't breezing through the prep work, this is where you can ask questions or get help if you are stuck.
Whether you think you need help or not in the prep work - these working sessions are immensely valuable in that as other students ask questions, you will learn from their questions. And many times the instructor can and will go further in depth into a subject or topic, again providing valuable insights as you continue to learn.
Take this time seriously, along with the prep work and working sessions. The mentality is to have the expectation that without fully understand the prep work before classes start you will be behind. Because you will be. Even if it doesn't seem that way, or other students are starting class from nothing not knowing anything, and even if the bootcamp claims prep work isn't "mandatory". You will be behind in the goal of maximizing this opportunity. Don't worry about other people, keep your mind on what you want out of this bootcamp.
Have the mentality and expectation that this bootcamp is going to be difficult, and classes will move swiftly through the material. With this mindset and expectation, you will prepare yourself for the months ahead. Being unprepared can result in being asked to to leave, being withheld from graduating and asked to retake the classes, or personally being overwhelmed and dropping out. All of which I experienced at the bootcamp I attended. I consider any of those outcomes a catastrophic failure and waste in time and money. So it is paramount to be mentally ready to prosper and absorb as much information as you can, so you can thrive and succeed where others may be stressed out, overwhelmed, struggling, falling behind, and fail.
Mentality: During the BootCamp
For myself, I sought to carry the same mentality as pre BootCamp into the BootCamp itself, but also build upon it. The mentality should shift from preparation to execution. This is what you have prepared for. For me, it was important that I get the most I possibly could out of the time spent at the bootcamp. If you want to thrive, succeed, and stand out, I would advise to have the same approach.
Firstly, my mentality during the bootcamp was to take school and classes seriously, as if it were my full time job. Because in some sense, it was. Depending on if you choose a full-time or part-time program, the experience may differ slightly. (I took the full-time, 5 days a week bootcamp option). However, the mentality of treating this as a comprehensive role should remain the same. Classes, class work, and learning should take priority above all else. You are here with a purpose and mission, and that is to learn and absorb as much as you possibly can in the time you are attending the bootcamp, so that you set yourself up with the best chance possible of getting a good job when the bootcamp is compete. Because again, this is your future career, and you are spending resources to attend this bootcamp, so it is imperative that each day you keep that mission in mind and attack each day with purpose.
First thing I did that I would recommend is that I consistently arrived to class early, and stayed late. Doing this provided valuable extra time practicing any coding exercises we were doing at the time. Also, as was the case with my bootcamp, many times the instructors will give "extra" exercises to students who have completed the regular course work and are looking for more work to do. These "extra" exercises or small projects are often much more difficult than the regular course work, thus giving you that much more practice in pushing your learning and coding skills further. Arriving early and staying late provides the opening for these opportunities to arise, and work one on one with an instructor on more difficult material. In my experience and personal opinion, just doing the minimum to get by, and just doing exactly the coursework given to you, at the pace it is given to you, is not enough.
Arriving early and staying late also allows you to observe who the more serious and ambitious students are. I would advise to meet and becomes friends with everyone, however pay special attention to this group of more determined individuals. (As well as the more skilled individuals.) Become closer to them, and work with them as much as you can. Surrounding yourself with people who are driven, better than you, and you can learn from is a great overall life principal, but is definitely the case here. You will learn more, faster if you successfully do this.
I like to think of your skills and learning through the bootcamp as something that is compounding. The more extra time you put in, (arriving early, staying late, extra coding exercises and projects, working with the more aspiring students), the faster and more you learn. The faster and more you learn, the more you will start to see patterns and be able to pick up on things even faster. Which leads to learning even more quickly. As you can see, this starts to have a snowball effect in a positive direction which equates to pulling further and further ahead of everyone else. Not that this is a competition, because on the surface it is not. You should work well and get to know everyone in your cohort as these will be your coworkers, acquaintances, and connections in the tech industry. However, you should also been keen to that fact that technically, it is a competition. Not the bootcamp itself, but rather securing a job once the bootcamp is complete. You will be competing against your classmates, as well as graduates of a multitude of other bootcamps, and even Computer Science graduates from Universities across the nation. All competing for a limited amount of Junior Dev roles. And depending on the job market, this could be even more limited than usual.
The key point for during the bootcamp and the mentality to have is to seek to learn and absorb as much information as you can during your time there. Be a sponge and try to not only absorb, but be exposed to as much as you can. At no time should you feel comfortable during the bootcamp. If you do, you need harder challenges and to be pushing yourself more. This time is not about being comfortable, and casually breezing through exercises in class. In addition, it is important to keep in mind not to worry about where other people are with their coding skills in class. Everyone is going to start bootcamp at a different place. Some will come in totally blind with zero background or experience. Others will come in with seemingly quite proficient programming skills. People will learn and understand different concepts faster and/or slower. That is okay, and it is important to not worry about others, but focus on yourself and your mission. For example, from my Cohort some of the students who seemed to be "ahead" or "fast" during coursework had trouble securing jobs after the bootcamp concluded. The lesson there is that it is not only about coding skills to secure a job, but the whole package.
Mentality: Final Stages of BootCamp and Post BootCamp
It is important to stay on target for your goal, and start looking for jobs or potential opportunities while still in bootcamp. This might seem strange, or you might feel ill-equipped to talk to hiring managers at this time, but starting the process before you graduate will get the ball rolling in your favor and help maximize your chances of successfully landing your first Software Engineering job post bootcamp. Important to remember - we cannot control the external, meaning we cannot control other people, their decisions, luck, the environment around us, or if we are selected for a job, however what we can control is ourselves and maximize the probability that what we want to happen, will happen. That is the goal. There is a great book I've read and recommend called "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport, that in part drives this point home.
Another thing to focus on is networking, along with your interview skills. Networking is a major part of any industry. And can open doors you would normally have never been able to open on your own. Start trying to meet people and get involved in the community, whether that is through your bootcamp, or meetups, or conferences.
Interviewing and possessing good interview skills is a challenge in its own right. Tech interviews can be challenging, but going in knowing that, and being prepared, will set you apart. In interviewing for your first job out of BootCamp, it is important to understand that employers are not hiring based on your skill, but on your potential. You still have a lot to learn, and not matter how great you feel about your skills coming out of bootcamp, it is still a learning curve to transition to a real enterprise level production code base. Much less start to be productive in one. But, that is okay. Most employers know this, and know for any level of Engineer, there is an initial learning curve period to get familiar with the systems. Just that the higher you go, the less this "grace" period is. So, as a junior, take on the growth mindset and have an attitude of eagerness, willingness to learn, and excitement, while being confident in your current skills, but also being humble enough to know you have a lot to learn. This will show and more than likely impress hiring managers. Because again, for the junior and maybe mid levels, they are hiring for your potential more than current skill.
Social media and a personal website with your portfolio is a fundamental component to distinguish yourself from others. Ensure you have a filled out and up to date LinkedIn profile, as LinkedIn is many times the primary way hiring managers will find out information about a candidate. A personal website describing yourself and showcasing your portfolio is also a necessity. A personal website can go into more detail about you, your unique skills, your past employment and career, and tie the entire package (that is you) up nicely. Speaking of tieing things together, you want to make it as easy as possible for anyone to navigate to your different pages and profiles. For example, on your LinkedIn, have links to your website, contact information, and other socials. On your website, have links to your socials as well as your resume (or a link to download it if not hosted on a public site like Standard Resume), and links to your contact information. With this ease of navigation, it is simple for a hiring manager (and more likely) to navigate between all the profiles you have to find out more about you, and be impressed by the well-integrated, coherently arranged entire package you are presenting.
Besides LinkedIn and a personal website, other social media such as X (Twitter), Facebook, and others are less important, but can still add various benefits to the overall package you are presenting. (Which again the package is you.) The major benefit of these other socials is meeting people, networking, and joining groups/ communities. Where these other Social Media platforms tend to be become more important is in specific circumstances, such as when seeking a Dev Rel position. As often times a position such as Developer Relations requires a threshold of followers in order to be considered. However, for your first job out of bootcamp, this is not a concern. Just ensure your socials are clean with nothing too "edgy" or provocative.
Your expectations for post bootcamp, and for securing your first job should be realistic. Many students make the mistake of thinking the bootcamp was the hard part. This is a mistake. It is very difficult and takes a lot of work to secure the first job after bootcamp. In fact, this will probably be the most difficult and frustrating part of the entire process, as well as your first six months at the first job.
Knowing it will be difficult, you can be prepared mentally and not get discouraged or overwhelmed. Just know it is part of the process and many others have gone through the same. If things get too overwhelming and you feel extremely discouraged, reach out to a mentor or someone with experience in the industry. For the most part, this industry has good people who are more than willing to help share tips or provide encouragement.
Stay busy after bootcamp and during the job search process as well. It may take months to secure a job, and you do not want your coding skills to diminish. In fact you should keep learning new things during this time, and building new projects. This will not only help you continue to grow, but also be a valuable selling point to any future employer. Hiring managers like to see you have kept busy staying up to date on your skills and kept pushing code. The worst thing you can do is have a giant gap of nothing on your GitHub from the time you graduated bootcamp to the time of interviewing. You will most likely have to answer to that, and most likely be out matched by someone else who did stay busy. Do not let that happen. As I said previously in this article, the only thing we can control is ourselves and the probability of what we want happening. We can't control other people but we can control how hard we work in order to reach our goals. The mentality to embody is you will not let someone else out work you.
Lastly, for your first job do not worry about money. It will come. I do recognize that money is important and we all have bills to pay. But, think of this as an investment into your future. Sacrifice a little now, to be set for the rest of your life. Gaining experience is paramount at this stage, not the money. As mentioned previously, the first job is by far the hardest. However, once you start to get more experience it becomes easier and easier. So, don't worry about money right now. your focus should be having a good attitude, learning as much as you can, the career trajectory you want to go, and being a good, productive teammate. As you progress and gain experience, you will become more valuable and naturally be paid more, and/or have more negotiation power for higher pay.
I am not a fan of the term "imposter syndrome", as I feel like sometimes it is thought of as a tech industry specific feeling or phenomena. The truth is, it is not a tech specific thing or feeling. It happens in every industry and countless scenarios in life. It is also a natural and normal human emotion, feeling, and experience. It just boils down to your mentality of how you handle it if you feel yourself experiencing it.
Full disclosure, during the bootcamp and during your first job, you will probably feel the feelings of impostor syndrome. That is okay and it is normal. It is uncomfortable, but challenge yourself to get used to it and thrive in it. Take on a growth mindset. Feeling uncomfortable is a good thing, it means you are pushing yourself outside your normal boundaries, and growing to be a better, smarter, stronger version of yourself.
Final Thoughts
I am not going to sugarcoat it, if you want to stand out and make the most out of attending a bootcamp, it is a lot of work. Non-glamorous work at that, and work that can be time-consuming. But, if you commit to having the discipline and work ethic, you will be rewarded. Attending a bootcamp and making a career transition is an exciting time, so with everything said in this blog post remember to enjoy it. I am happy and excited for anyone taking this path, wish continued success on your journey through bootcamp and into the tech industry, and want nothing more than for you to maximize your potential and become the best you, you can possibly be.Written: September 15, 2024