You'd be an excellent candidate to get a lot out of a coding bootcamp. If you have like $10k in savings or money you can borrow, you'd be in an excellent position to try something like that.
PM me if you'd like to talk about my experience with one.
I did a coding bootcamp. It helped in a combination of all the ways you mentioned. Most importantly, I think I needed a way to commit myself to spending 8+ hours every day on learning coding for awhile. I don't have the personality/willpower to do that on my own, although once I made the commitment I never felt like skipping a day of class. It was one of the best decisions of my life.
It was App Academy by the way, a bootcamp that was appealing to me because of its tuition-conditional-on-employment payment scheme. Which meant that I was only risking my own time and effort in learning, not an additional 10k like the poor students of the guy in the article.
That's a great question. Developer bootcamps are a huge time (3 months) and financial ($10k) commitment. Lots of risk if you're uncertain about your interest/proficiency in coding.
I did go to a bootcamp for Python/Django in SF, 2014. I was previously doing basic small biz wordpress sites and graphic design, now lead backend engineer at a 5-year old startup, making 115K when hired.
If you want to learn to code, definitely a bootcamp is a great resource. Sure, you can do it all yourself, find materials online for free, but putting in the time with other learners for 10-15+ weeks in an actual learning environment is for me worth the $10K.
A lot of people (who almost always have never done one) like to say that you shouldn't do them, you won't get hired, you can find it online. I'd ask them if they have a college degree, and they why waste your money at college when all the info is available online?
In the end you're going to get out of it what you put into it; before, during, and after. Obviously do your homework not only on the camp and instructors, but as well all the time you can into online resources.
I'll never regret my choice to go to a programming bootcamp. It literally changed my life in amazing ways.
As someone who went to a coding bootcamp (Dev Bootcamp), I have to agree.
Most of what I got out of doing the bootcamp was being surrounded by other coders, collaborating on stuff in person, and being exposed to the bay area tech scene.
I don't regret going and I had some really great times there, but if today someone asked me if they should go to a bootcamp, I would suggest recreating that experience themselves at a fraction of the price.
Here's what I would suggest:
- Take online courses and use Stack Overflow. Everything that's available for cheap or free is better than anything I was taught at bootcamp.
- If you can, move to somewhere that has some semblance of a tech scene, and find the smallest, cheapest cubby hole to live in so you don't have to worry so much about paying rent. At most, have a part time job that won't interfere with your studies, but even better if you don't need to work.
- Go to tech meetups, mixers, etc. Start networking ASAP. Meet other coders. Do presentations, no matter how novice the topic.
- Start blogging about what you're learning.
- Have some project to show for your effort to your potential first employers. Doesn't matter how dumb and impractical it is. I attribute part of my initial success to hammering out a live chat with playlist and rewind control on top of YouTube years before YouTube implemented that themselves.
- Practice working your butt off. If you really want to achieve your goal, you'll stay up late to solve problems when it's necessary.
- Make sure you're having fun at every step of the way and don't let people distract you.
There, I may have just saved you thousands of dollars. Potentially that can all be done for free depending on where you're situated geographically or how much money you're sitting on.
If you know what a shell script is, you probably don't need a bootcamp. That said, if you are completely clueless to tech, maybe a bootcamp would be a good thing. Depending on the bootcamp, of course.
I'm not going to say bootcamps work for everyone, but my anecdotal experience proves otherwise. I know several people who were interested in coding but didn't have a formal education. After a $15k bootcamp, they got a better job and doubled their salary. It paid for itself in less than 6 months.
Here's my two cents as someone who's taught coding and also taught literacy for adults.
My gut feeling is that it will be hard to make work. Learning to code takes a long time (a bootcamp is 11 - 17 weeks at 60hrs a week, so 660 - 1020hrs). However keep in mind that's entry level proficiency.
I think the best outcome would be that this person learns enough to get into a bootcamp. You'd be shocked how many people apply who just aren't ready to even start. They could learn enough with you that they find out if they like it or not, and if so from there they can take out a private loan to attend one. Keep in mind, I'm not sure how predatory (or not) the companies giving private loans to bootcamp grads are, but it is an option, and at ~$17k in cost, it's steep but not life derailing if doesn't work out (my guess is it's about the cost of a broken bone if you're not insured, just a guess there).
If you make the expectation they learn to code to get a job, it probably won't happen, if you level set that they learn enough to get into a program and OWN IT, then perhaps you'll have some success.
I agree that coding bootcamps are a great source. Most of them are incredibly supportive and have instructors, mentors and TAs that are generous with their time. I've seen a few also have free meetup groups that are open to all, not just students, to learn a quick project in a couple of hours.
Also, to echo @hitsurume the coding bootcamps do have easy ways to pay, most have flexible payment plans. @saluki has a great point as well to start with HTML and CSS. I agree.
Other than that, what works for me is practice, practice, practice. I practice in the programming language and actually writing out code with pencil and paper.
I did an online boot camp about 3 years ago. It was a good deal, because the price was right and I viewed it at structure for my self learning. That program no longer exists, but the have something called LaunchSchool now. Something like Free Code Camp or Pluralsight would be a similar level of rigor.
If you aren't already technical, I would view a bootcamp as the start of developing a career in tech. Maybe equivalent to getting 25% of the way thru college. If a college student can drop out after freshman year to get that 80K+ USD/year job, that student were pretty close to being career ready before ever attending college.
Something else to consider - how sure are you that you enjoy coding and it's something you can be good at? I highly recommend taking the time to evaluate this before you commit to a bootcamp as well. Feel free to email me (address in my profile) if you'd like me to elaborate.
Hey Henry - I work at Bloc - we offer a web development apprenticeship and most of our students sound pretty similar to you - read HackerNews, immersed in tech, tried learning on their own and realized they needed a more robust program like a bootcamp - but didn't want to quit their job / don't have $13K to spend on a bootcamp.
After reading very mixed reviews about bootcamps, I've decided to go back to college and get a CS degree. I'm taking one class at a time for now so I can keep my full-time job/pay my mortgage, and boy is that slow-going (especially since my single class right now is circuit design, which is required for the degree but has little to do with software programming).
Anyway, a mentor to help me learn real-world coding skills alongside the degree work would be amazing.
PM me if you'd like to talk about my experience with one.
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