#programming bootcamps

It's official, I'm going to attend Fullstack Academy in January! 

It's hard to know of course if this is the right decision. After all this is a ton of money to throw down to learn something that is technically available for free, but at the moment it feels like the right thing to do. Some things I'm super excited for:

Awesome Teaching! My interview with Fullstack was much more like a lesson than an interview. Sure I tried to show off what I knew, but really I got a glimpse of what it might be like to attend. We went over a few concepts I've written about here on the blog before in a way that felt comfortable but still pushed me to understand it better than I did before--which is exactly what I'm looking for. Sure I can read about recursion or whatever on my own, but with great teaching I can read about something, and then talk with a teacher to understand it even better. Maybe I can write some crappy code on my own but how do you learn the best ways to write something without some real teaching?

ACTUALLY BUILDING THINGS. I love that Fullstack has real world projects that their students create, they seem pretty portfolio focused which is exactly what you want from a bootcamp. I'm a little tired of silly meaningless tutorials, and itching to make something of value.

FASTER PACE! So I think I've made good progress on my own. But if it's just me here alone in a room...it feels pretty slow. But it seems like this program is going to basically be 24/7 programming which is both scary and super exciting. And unlike a lot of the other bootcamps I saw out there it's more geared towards amateurs rather than beginner-beginners, which I think is more where I'm at right now. 

Javascript!? At first I wasn't sure on this one. I assumed ruby/rails were the way to go here, but Fullstack makes a good case for why it's both the thing to know at the moment but also the thing for amateurs to master first. I also suspect that I'm not that far from understanding rails on my own, and I've got my pal Histocrat here to help me fill in the gaps. When I look at the curriculum at Fullstack, it's jam packed with awesomeness, which both sets me apart from other "junior developers" but also lends itself to other technologies (the best I can tell anyway). When I look at a lot of the other bootcamps out there in this city that I had my eye on, it seems like a lot of repetition of what I've already been trying to learn over the past few months. 

Community and Networking! Even if I could get my butt down to focus (which honestly I know I can do), I'm can be pretty darn shy. I'm not good at tooting my own horn. I'm not always great at networking. Without a pal to go with me, I'm not one to go to free community events. When put under pressure and put in the right context, however, I can actually be a pretty good people person. This seems like that kind of context, I love that their students go to Hackathons (and actually win a few?). I love the way they have a targeted hiring day that seems not just focused on getting as many companies into the room as possible, but about making the right matches between students and organizations. They also teach you a little Agile and stuff which seems good for helping with culture fit.

Foundations! I just glimpsed at some of their prep work and I'm so pumped! It seems like they actually support you through it, rather than just send you a bunch of links. 

I'll admit it, rather than actually preparing for a life of programming, I often just read about it. It's my procrastination but I feel like it's not all bad. Recently I did some more research of potential programming bootcamps (or whatever you'd like to call them) and found this lovely chart and article. 

It is so difficult to find clear data in all of the marketing and I really appreciated the statistics on job placement. I also wish there was more data on job retainment and satisfaction of alumni a few months/years out. I want to get a job, and I want to keep it. I know this is sort of looked down upon, that folks should love programming for programming's sake. But this is hard when you are so new and know so little. I'm enchanted by programming's possibilities, I'm charmed by the abstractions, but I don't know if I can really call myself a programmer yet and as such how can I really know if I love it? 

Some things I feel fairly confident about:

Programming is the future and the future is now. A friend of mine recently asked me, "So what you're saying is that programming is going to be the new home-ec?" to which I said "yes?!" I think it's in everyone's best interest to learn programming if they can/have some desire to. I feel like we have this super powerful technology and have yet to grasp what it can do and what its full use value even is. The more people that have some level of understanding the more likely we will be to obtain full use value. We don't all need to work as programmers per se. But if you kinda know what it is and what it is capable of, I think your chances of making something cool or having others make something cool for you increase. And the world can use more cool things/solutions. 

Having a job as a programmer is pretty sweet. It's hard, but as a (former?) social worker I know what it's like to have hard job. At least as a programmer, you get paid great. You get to learn all the time. You have opportunities for creativity. Your ideas are valued. You're in demand (at least for now) so your employer tries to bribe you with cool things like unlimited vacations and expensive coffee machines. I know that seems petty to some more privileged folks but in a capitalist society I think programming might be a type of work where wage earners are treated pretty well and aren't always super alienated from their labor? Even without all of my disgusting marxist rhetoric though, I think we can agree it is nice to be wanted and valued as an employee and while it's not guaranteed as a programmer I'm inclined to say the odds are slightly more in your favor.

For students choosing a code school, selectivity matters, here’s why:

1.  Selectivity is an indicator of classmate caliber.

One of the most important factors in the educational experience at a career accelerator is the students.  A student’s classmates are one of the most important aspect of the career accelerator experience.  The classmate's intelligence, experience, attitude, and work ethic all impact the student's learning experience.  A strong class creates a competitive atmosphere that pushes students to improve.  Classmates are also the first line of instruction.  Students explain concepts to each other and bringing various perspectives to the same problem.  An environment of talent and motivation is a career accelerator's best educational asset.

It seems reasonable that low acceptance rates indicate a higher quality of accepted students.  A school’s selectivity can be an excellent sign of the education a student will receive at a career accelerator.

2.  Selectivity is an indicator to employers.

Employers don’t have the time to vet job candidates on their own.  They are busy, and thus look to digestible indicators to assist them on judging job candidates.  The reputation of a school is exactly one of those indicators.  Most code schools have not yet developed strong industry reputations with many employers.  Employers have to look to other indicators to evaluate a school and its graduates.  A low acceptance rate can go a long way in indicating the caliber of students at a school.  

For example, when a student from a school with a 5% acceptance rate applies for a job, that is an excellent indicator.  The school has vetted and selected that student above 19 other potential junior developers.  The employer can rely on a school's selection process and selectivity rate.  That low acceptance rate is a great indicator that an employer should give that student another look.

In the absence of broad school brand recognition, a low acceptance rate serves as a good proxy for school prestige.

This article is not intended to say that selectivity should be the number one metric a potential student considers.  It may not even be one of the most important factors.  But, selectivity can serve as an excellent indicator of the caliber of classmates a student can expect.  And can also indicate the type of graduates an employer can expect.  As such, it is an meaningful statistic for students making their decision about where to attend code school.

Somewhere along the way, I found out about programming bootcamps. 

These are the programs that promise to prepare you for an entry-level position as a Web Developer in about 9 to 12 weeks of full-time effort.  

I fell in love (again).

Some of the programs that I came across were:

Hacker School

When I first looked at Hacker School, I didn't think it was for me because they don't offer a structured curriculum, and as a beginner I felt I needed more guidance.

I have since changed that viewpoint, in light of what I have already accomplished on my own in the few short months since I decided to learn how to program.  I would attend if I got accepted and were offered a living stipend.

App Academy

Well, well, well, it's all starting to come back to me.  Maybe these guys are the reason why I started to learn Ruby on my own.

I had Googled about applying to App Academy, and came across a number of blog and forum posts that suggested that it was very difficult to pass the coding challenges to get accepted to this program.

So in my effort to make sure that I passed, I started preparing like crazy. 

I began to follow their prepwork, which included a number of online resources that could help me to begin learning Ruby.  

I started my application with them, but have not completed the coding challenges as of yet. 

MakerSquare

I am strongly interested in this program, as they are located right here in Texas.  I'm in Houston, and they are in Austin, about three hours away.

I got accepted into their part-time Front End Web Development program.  I would go full-time, but I just don't have the cash flow.

The company that I work for has an office in Austin, so I was going to put in for a job transfer.  If I had the funds available to pay the tuition, I would be there right now.

CoderCamps

This program is even closer...it's the only one (that I know of) that is located right here in Houston.  This one is unique as it is the only one that is focused on teaching ASP.NET (that I know of).  

I actually interviewed with the founder of CoderCamps in person.  I went right down to the office in Pearland and got a chance to observe a live class.

David (the founder) explained that one of the benefits of learning ASP.NET over Ruby is that there are more jobs in ASP.NET.  

So far, what he said appears to be true, because I have keyword-tagged job searches set up in Career Builder.  They are emailed to me every day, and the majority of the positions seem to be for ASP.NET and for basic Front End Web Developers (HTML, CSS, and Javascript).  There doesn't seem to be nearly as many job openings for Ruby developers.

However, I'm still sticking to learning Ruby and honing my front-end skills, because from what I have seen, the demand for Ruby developers will continue to grow.  Besides that, I already started :-).  May as well master it, and then other programming languages will (hopefully) be easier to learn.