Where are We Now? Three Months Post Bootcamp
Are you thinking of enrolling in a coding bootcamp? I completed a 16 week, full-stack bootcamp in a major metropolitan area (though not in one of the tech hubs of the US) in October and wanted to share where my classmates ended up three months post-graduation.
The Numbers
We began with 18 students and finished with 15 in the cohort. Seven of us were females and the remaining eleven, male. I was incredibly impressed with the diversity of my cohort and our program’s interest in promoting said diversity. Six of the women who completed the program identified as some sort of minority as did three of the men. We had one veteran and a student who moved to the US only a few years before.
The Non-Finishers
In the middle of the third week, our first classmate dropped out of the program midday. He went from being very involved and asking questions in the morning lecture, to grabbing his stuff and ghosting the class during the lunch hour. His reasoning was that he could learn everything being taught on his own and save his money. He found a job as a developer right around when the cohort finished.
The next student who dropped ended up joining the part-time cohort that started up a month later as it was a better fit with his busy schedule. The final student who did not complete the cohort realized that she did not need to finish the program to do what she wanted in the tech space. She ended up founding her own start up. The nice thing about this program is that if you do need to drop out for whatever reason, you will be refunded a percentage of your tuition that is based on the amount of time left in the cohort.
The Rest of Us
And then there were 15.
Three of us have part-time developer jobs with a start up that we partnered with on our final project. They are currently working on securing funding to bring us on as developers full-time. Another student student who worked on her final project with a different company took a full-time role with them a few weeks after the bootcamp finished.
One of my classmates took a five month sabbatical from her job to complete the program and see how she could incorporate what she learned into a new role in her company. So she went back to work right before Thanksgiving. Oh and they paid for her tuition as well. Not bad!
The strongest student who interviewed regularly throughout the cohort was offered a mid-level developer job on the last day of class. In all honesty, he would have been fine without the bootcamp. Two of the next strongest students also received jobs within a month of finishing at small tech companies as front-end developers.
We had a student who was dedicated to attending any and all local meetups on weekends and weeknights. No matter if he knew the technology or not, he was there. At one of the meetups, he ended up connecting with someone who offered him a part-time position which turned into a full-time role as soon as we were done.
Two students became teaching assistants for the part-time class. Of them, one accepted a full-time position right before Christmas as a developer with a local company and the other TA recently started a three month internship with a small tech firm.
This one guy applied to hundreds of jobs on LinkedIn, Indeed, etc. and told me that he has had only about 10 interviews. But as of this week, he secured a three month, front-end developer internship.
Nearing the end of the students, just three left unaccounted for. One student is still grinding and searching for a developer role. Of the final two, no one has heard from either of them as to their employment status. Their LinkedIn pages haven’t been updated and they have not been active on the group chat since class.
Final Thoughts
Obviously this is just anecdotal, but I hope you found this encouraging that the jobs are out there for junior developers even if it may take a while to land something.
To recap: Three months post-graduation, 80% of my cohort (who completed) have some kind of developer role.
-7 full-time
-5 part-time/internship
-3 no job/unknown
You just have to keep making those connections and putting yourself out there.
