Just out of shear curiosity (and strong consideration of joining one), is it possible to get a web dev or software engineer job before completing a bootcamp?
Is it wise to say in an interview that you’re are currently in one?
I got my first job while I was in a bootcamp. I was four months into a six month full stack bootcamp. I decided to take the job. It was a smaller company and the head of devs did the hiring himself. He knew I was in the bootcamp and I even asked for a second to think about it before making my decision. I feel like completing the bootcamp could have been beneficial, but ultimately I was there to get a job.
So if I understood correctly, you got the job 4 months in during a 6-month bootcamp and left the bootcamp for that job? If you could do it over, would you have finished it?
That’s correct! No, I wouldn’t finish the boot camp. All in all, I think with the resources available today online, you can educate yourself. My first job didn’t use any of the stack I worked on in the bootcamp. I still learned skills that came in handy, but I made back the money that boot camp cost in those two months I missed at the end. It is definitely something you have to decide for yourself, but that bootcamp while good, wasn’t enough to give me the skills to do any of the jobs I’ve held. It was a start, but I don’t think you are ever prepared. The work never stops.
i got rejected from bootcamps.
managed to luck into a hybrid job in marketing tech (front end, though more dom manipulation instead of full building).
if you are given a job- don’t think twice- take it. the people hiring will already know your capabilities and will likely know that you will need to learn on the job and are still willing.
i used to work for a startup in sf that had nothing but bootcamp graduates. they have told me that they wanted to hide their bootcamp education, and instead wanted to seem as if they were self taught with really good projects.
i don’t think it matters now, honestly. let everyone know. it doesn’t matter. the interviewers will not have taken an interest in the education alone.
I’ve interviewed a handful of folks currently enrolled in a bootcamp. Didn’t have the honour of hiring one yet, but that’s entirely a reason of having skill gaps, not the bootcamp.
What’s important to know is that a bootcamp – even after finishing – is not a guarantee for a hireable skillset, nor a guarantee for a job. If you work towards gaining the skills that hiring managers want too see, you can easily get a job before, during or after a bootcamp.
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