A couch potato’s road to becoming a six figure developer thanks to boot camp. 😅

Let me start by saying we are living in unprecedented tim —

No. No no no no no! I don’t have the capacity to listen to that phrase ever again. I’m serious! I’m sure I’m not the only one. But for real though, what do you do when the world gets turned upside down and strips you of the industries you work in?

You could happily accept unemployment until’ the “cash” dries out…and I wouldn’t blame you for that. In fact, hanging out at home learning how to bake banana bread, playing video games, and watching the latest reality TV-esque drama on the news sounds like a grand old time …minus the reality TV news.

But then what?

There comes a day when you remember what it was like to have to meet expectations(or an expectation). Maybe you remember what it was like to shake a cocktail or plate your favorite duck dish. Perhaps you recall the times you played your guitar for a crowd of 30 people — shoot maybe you played for 3,000 people. What about the folks who are reminded of the smell of hairspray wafting around a dressing room, and the sounds of walkie talkies chirping backstage during a dress rehearsal?

The day comes when you start to miss the little things. Now all of a sudden, that stay-cation on the couch you used to love is starting to feel like a prison. So you get on your computer and start exploring new avenues of work, preferably one where you can work from home and pays boat loads of money…because, well you deserve it/why not/growth.

I see myself living in a 2 bedroom apartment on a tree lined block in Brooklyn Heights with a little backyard and a DISHWASHERRRRR! I simply refuse to live in another apartment without a dishwasher and an in-house laundry machine(manifesting that into the universe). Ok — so now you see why I’m going to need a job that makes a lot of money…I’ve got an expensive life in the future.

As you search and search — just trying to find jobs where you can apply your skills set in the vast sea that is the internet… at some point you come across an ad that in big bold letters says “We can turn you into a 6 figure developer in 3 months!” And guess what? YOU DON’T NEED AN OUNCE OF PRIOR EXPERIENCE TO YOUR NAME. Ha! Perfect!

You sign up for classes and code along with pre-recorded lessons for a week or two. One day you’re learning about FOR loops, the next day you’re iterating over arrays and the day after that you’re learning how to build more complex functions. At the end of every video the instructor tells you you’re on track to building your first Spotify clone — which is super cool, all of these things are awesome, but after two weeks you have nothing to show because you don’t actually know what to do with any of these tools. How could you know what to do? You were just coding a long, you don’t understand syntax or return values or any of that. So maybe you need to change course. Perhaps you need something more rigorous…something structured… somewhere you can engage and listen to a lecture or two from a live human??

At this point in your journey you realize the coding program you’re currently in ain’t it and you start to open up to the idea of bootcamps; they have a lot of pros: loan deferment, career services, in-person instructors where you get to take classes and build projects and interact with other humans that are in a similar position as you. Beyond that, all that you know about them is that they’re intense and they turn you into a Software Engineer. What you don’t know is the adversity you are about to face in “said” bootcamp stems from the same struggles you faced during the last program. You haven’t applied yourself beyond the material given to you by your instructors.

No one is here to gift you the knowledge to become a self-sufficient developer. That’s not what you’re paying for! It’s about arriving at the point of discovery on your own even if it’s a result of someone else’s teachings. Be curious, be playful, and don’t be afraid to fail. Be tireless in your pursuit to find the solution even if it means learning a method on your own that might be beyond the scope of the current lab.

AND DO NOT take the time prior to your bootcamp for granted. Not that I would know but I would imagine soldiers work on their conditioning before being shipped off to boot camp. It’s not called a coding bootcamp because it’s a cute play on words. You’re about to go through the wringer, so train like you’re preparing to storm the shores of Normandy.

There are so many resources on the internet for you to explore. One thing they preach in a boot camp is that asking your instructors for help should be your last resort. After you have done your own homework and have made mindful attempts to solve the task at hand, only then should you reach out for guidance. I suppose this blog is me passing on those same practices to you.

I can acknowledge that this all sounds pretty dramatic so perhaps none of this resonates with you — BUT if you were to leave this article with any piece of advice let it be this: Get your mind right, get your work ethic right, and get your diet/sleep patterns on track. Be kind to yourself and allow the space to simply be fascinated by the discoveries you will potentially uncover during this process. If you do those things and come in with an open mind (and humility because you about to get humbled) I think you’ll be alright. Good luck!