Three Stages OF A Coding Bootcamp

Hi, and welcome to my blog!

In the next few paragraphs, I will be sharing a little bit of advice derived from my experience going through coding bootcamps. As you may have noticed, I typed “bootcamps”, yeah unfortunately that was not a mistake, well at least typing it wasn’t, because my first bootcamp may have been a mistake depending on where you look at it from. Because my journey has been very challenging, I am here to hopefully paint a better road map for you than the one I followed.

If you read through that intro and you’re still reading, I imagine it is because you might be considering signing up to a coding bootcamp, or perhaps know of someone who is, and you want to share someone else’s experience with them to better prepare them for it.

I’m going to break it down for you in three stages: the preparation, the camp itself and the aftermath.

1- The Preparation

Coding bootcamps have really heavy schedules, understandably because they are trying to squeeze information inside your brain in a very limited amount of time. Not only the information is in abundance, but it is also abstract and therefore complex, which is why there is a prep stage to this blog.

Everyone has had different levels of exposure to programming and computing, so coding camps will feel easier to some more than others, but despite that, preparation is important to everyone, specially for those who currently have zero exposure to programming.

What do I mean by preparation you might ask. While this would depend on what level of exposure you’re facing this question from, I would say that you should make sure you have programming fundamentals down. HTML, CSS, and any other language like JavaScript, Python, C#, are a great way to start, really spend some time learning and practicing the fundamentals. Get your hands dirty with some Object Oriented Programming through JavaScript, Java, Ruby, C#, or any other language that is considered OOP oriented.

The other route you could take and probably the best one in my opinion is to go for a degree in Computer Science, you might feel like it will take you longer, and it could to be honest, but you’ll be better prepared and the job hunt might be shorter for you than for someone who just graduated a coding bootcamp.

Whichever path you take, just make sure you have some technical experience in your hands before you join a bootcamp. Trust me, it will save you time and money. Bootcamps are already difficult as they are, let alone when you have no experience. I know, I went through a couple and the first time was overwhelming.

On a non technical side of things, just make sure you know why you want to do coding as a career. If you have both a strong reason and some previous coding experience(through courses online), then you’ll be ok when you join one.

The bootcamp

So you feel ready to join a bootcamp. You have some experience and also a strong reason to do it. Great!. Well, let me share some thoughts with you on what you should expect.

Like I mentioned before, coding camps have a heavy schedule, I am talking 10 to 16 hours a day for a full time structure. There are self paced alternatives but I can not comment on those since the schedule will be decided by the individual itself.

I am not sure if this is the structure of every single coding camp out there, but the two that I went through started with some fundamentals. They had us work through HTML and CSS, explained algorithms and had us code some basic JavaScript for the first few weeks. After that, we moved to a specific language, Python, for my first experience, and JavaScript the second time. Here is where things can get a little messy for some, and it certainly did for me. This will be the heaviest part of the camp, content and complexity wise .

If you’re wiling to take advice from a complete stranger, I’d tell you to schedule yourself to code a few hours in the morning, attend to the group sessions scheduled, code more after that and find 20 to 25 minute breaks in between coding sessions if you care for your sanity. Be aware that you are most likely not going to be the best programmer in the room and come to good terms with that. Everyone in your cohort will have different levels of exposure to coding and some of them will appear like geniuses to you, some will actually enjoy that status and will try to sound and look smart. Ignore that or you will be in for a bumpy ride. Tame your ego and hone your patience and tolerance. These will give you a far more enrichening experience than if you were to engage in a battle of egos with others. Talk to your classmates and ask for help when needed. Having a group of people to work through the challenges you’ll be facing could determine whether you succeed or fail.

Expect to feel lonely at times, stressed, physically and mentally exhausted, which is why you should prepare to eat food that will make your body healthier, try to find a few minutes during the day to exercise and stretch, your back will thank you, and make sure everyone around you understands how tough your new process is going to be so that they can support you and accommodate and distribute shared commitments accordingly.

The aftermath

I will give you the update when I get through it. What I can tell you, is what I am doing now.

I just finished my second attempt at a coding camp in what I like to think was a very successful way to do so. Now, I am building my online presence through sites like the one you are reading this post on, I am recording coding sessions and posting them on YouTube and Vimeo, building a personal portfolio displaying the applications I have worked on, fixing my resume to show the recently learned skills, and connecting with people that are in one way or another linked to the industry. I am applying for jobs every week and enrolling in new courses to continue adding to my skillset.

I don’t know if this should be your recipe or not, but I am following advice from people who do this for a living so it might give you an idea of where to start at the very least.

Good luck on your journey!