Coding boot camp - good idea or not?

Parent Cafe
1

Hello,

This is about my son who graduated from college cum laude 5 months ago and has been working as a Web Designer for a few years. The job is stable, he is well liked but the problem is he is not learning that much and is not getting paid that well.

He started looking for a more interesting challenging job in the Web Design/Development/UI/UX Design field right after graduation but nothing came of it so far. He’s come so close with one company, had 3 different interviews with different people only to result in his e-mail follow ups being completely ignored (don’t even get me started on how dehumanizing that is but that’s another story, employers choose and they don’t care about the job applicants’ feelings, I get it)…

We’ve prompted him to re-evaluate the situation every few months and to come up with new strategies.

He spends a lot of time job searching, applying etc., also decided to take some additional courses on Lynda and Coursera.

What he is finding out is that most companies are not willing to give new grads a chance, they want someone with experience and the list of required skills is really extensive for even the most entry level openings.

We’ve been asking around (friends, family, co-workers etc.) if anyone has any leads in his field of interest and again, so far, nothing…

Son is getting very frustrated and has been actively researching the coding boot camp options… the problem is they are costly and require a lot of time.

That’s why I am coming to you guys to ask for advice - has anyone (or your kids) used this coding boot camp option and if so, what were the results and which company would you recommend?

And of course, the second part of the question is - if you work in the fields I mentioned and are in the Philadelphia area, do you know of any opportunities for recent grads with some experience?

Really appreciate any advice in advance.

Emily.

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NO. The market is too flooded with boot camp graduates, his experience is more valuable. The search is soul sucking, getting the experience to become that senior developer can be tough. Tons of job openings, but they want experience and the recruiters who wanted new grads are the ones that recruited from the colleges directly. The jobs he’s applying for out of college all seem to want 3-5 years of experience, right?

The boot camps are really expensive and 3 months out of work for that. The only ones I’d even consider are those that have a long, deep connection with local companies.

My son’s experience…graduated with a CS degree, went to a top boot camp. Looked for a job for five months after graduation from that school, as now he wasn’t in the new grad pool any more. He put hundreds of applications out. Finally got a job, but not even using what he learned in boot camp.

I think the best way is to get referrals through your contacts, keep looking, especially college contacts. Or go for a job where you might get paid less, but you’ll be gaining the experience you want. He might have to go through 100 interviews to get a job. Seriously. He is just beginning, sadly, but I hope something comes through quickly. A couple of years of work as a web designer should be useful.

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@busdriver11

My student was fortunate to get offers when applying directly out of college. She spent a lot of time with the book, “Cracking the Coding Interview” that seemed to help.

For the students now out of college, is that still helpful or is that hiring process different? Are there particular skills that the applicants should focus on developing to make themselves more interesting to companies?

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I would just like to add that being in UI/Web Design might be harder in getting work than back-end coding with say Java or C#. They definitely look for experience and a portfolio of work with UI work.

Maybe he can get more involved with projects at work to stand out. Or create a portfolio of his own. If he has been a Web Designer for a few years he might have this already.

I would not recommend a boot camp as he probably already has the foundational knowledge. He can just learn new skills on his own time.

Just keep applying and best of luck to him!

I would recommend applying for jobs in NYC and DC as they are large job centers as well. Good Luck!

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My older son (who does have his dream job in software engineering) also recommended that book very highly.

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Thank you everyone! This also brings up a good point - do you apply to every position - Web Designer, Web Developer, UI/UX Designer or do you specialize in one thing and get really good at it? My immigrant mentality is telling me to apply broadly and that’s what we recommended to him.

Will definitely forward the book idea to him.

The problem with his current job is that it’s a government job so no opportunity for growth really, not in his field and it’s the same thing every day so his skills are pretty stagnant.

What appealed to me with the boot camp idea is that it provides a curriculum/structure, mentorship and the opportunity to work on real projects with supposedly some career placement services includes as well but it sounds like with everything else in life, it’s a hit or miss, no guarantees… It feels to him like the employers are asking for so much that it’s almost impossible to know which classes to take next and which software/language to delve into.

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There are free coding challenges online. He could do some of those.

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Agree with @Cardinal Fang – there are hackathons available for free/low-cost which will provide mentorship, networking, and work on real projects.

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@Emily0722 My son graduated with honors with a liberal arts degree and couldn’t find a job. He did an online bootcamp and has had 3 jobs within 18 months, one with a startup and two with regular companies each one with an increase in pay.

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My son did one of the google contests while he was in college - he got to the semi-finals if I recall correctly - they actually flew him to NYC from Pittsburgh. I suspect it helped him get an internship there.

The more skills he has the better. I know for example at my brother’s company you have to pass a test on SQL and various other programs you will be using there. I remember being told about one new hire who had taken a couple of years off work doing WOW or something similar. She asked for the weekend to get up to speed, came back and aced the test. I asked him years later how she’d done and apparently she’s one of their best employees!

There’s a lot on line - that’s how my son learned to work in Linux, and that was a long time ago. There’s probably more available now.

11

I understand wanting to do a structured program, that appears like it’s a guarantee of a good job, and that’s what we thought. Sadly though, it’s not. It is not a substitute for actual experience, and the problem is, it costs a boatload and that is also time not working. I don’t even want to think of what we spent for living expense for 3 months in NYC, plus the boot camp, plus living expenses for 5 months, looking for a job :open_mouth: Okay, it was about 50K…

Now if he’d gotten a great job immediately, we’d have thought what an awesome program it was. He liked it a lot, it was extremely intense, and he felt like he gained many useful skills. But the employers were still looking for 3-5 years of experience. And there are plenty of web developers out there now, from a flood of schools.

Your son, if he wants something more structured, can take evening/weekend classes at some boot camps without having to quit his job and job search. Of course the online stuff, you can learn just as well, however not everyone is as good at that approach. Going to tech meetups was one of the best ways my kids got leads for jobs.

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I think it depends on where you are. My son did his online, so he didn’t miss work and it only cost about 4K. He makes a decent salary.

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Yes, if one could go the online route, I agree it could work out really well. Could get much more for your money and time, though I don’t know how long those classes are. My son was at school 6 days a week…5 of them were 11-12 hour days, so I doubt you could get the same amount of learning in online while working a job, unless the course was much longer. It would be good to be able to work at your own pace, on your own schedule.

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Thanks again everyone for great ideas. Definitely a difficult decision on his part.

15

When it comes to web design, a lot of it is going to offshore because it is cheaper. If your son wants to stay in CS he needs to find an area that’s hard to be done offshore. Many companies are going through digital transformation to give customers better experience. They incorporate artificial intelligence, nature language processing on their websites. They often keep architecture design, BA(business analyst), highly technical development (AI) on shore and more low level UI work offshore.

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Nothing wrong with getting that experience you need at a stable government job. Always be on the lookout and don’t hesitate to apply for something better. Try to attend user group meetings or vendor presentations and meetup groups as long as don’t have to pay and don’t spend any of your own money on training. There are plenty of free self training activities available.

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He should try volunteering his skills. Lots of nonprofits can use help building or supporting their websites. Or he can come up with his own idea and create a website, doesn’t need to have millions of visitors, just look cool and impressive. Write some good code at his own pace and put it on github. With experience in design and both front-end and back-end development, he can be invaluable for startups. “Full-stack developer” is the key term here.

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“I think it depends on where you are. My son did his online, so he didn’t miss work and it only cost about 4K. He makes a decent salary.” ~ partyof5

My local community college offers a certification course, completely online and self-paced. The same price as you mentioned, about 4k. They have connections with corporate recruiters to help students get placed in jobs ASAP. I’m sure many CC’s around the country offer similar courses.

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partof5, would you happen to know the name of the camp your son used? So far, my son is only finding options within 8-10K for an online option.

He did take some continuing education web design courses at the local CC but will suggest he looks into the certificate program, didn’t realize they might have connections in the real world.

Great suggestions about volunteering and creating his own website… he did do it for friend’ band as his graduation project but could definitely do more…

Yucca 10, I think you are absolutely right, I think he is realizing that just doing front-end is not enough.

Thanks again everyone.
Emily…

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@Emily2007 I will ask him