#techbootcamp

All of my hard work to pivot in career has led to this moment. Goodbye to only have $20 in my bank account by the time I get my next paycheck.

A quick search will yield thousands of online resources to launch a career in tech, including bootcamps, courses, degrees, certificates, informative articles, and even YouTube tutorials. Yet the #1 dilemma people continue to struggle with when making the transition is not knowing where or how to get started. With all of the online and in-person options available, why does tech still appear inaccessible? Recognizing this gap, I decided to document my journey hoping to share helpful and relatable experiences to help others shape their own. Below is part two of my journey (between 2020-2021), written through the lens of an adult without a degree. This story outlines the personal struggles I faced with not knowing where to begin, and how I found solutions to them for laying the foundations of my career.

It was nearly a decade later after dropping out of college when I decided to pursue a career in tech. No matter how much searching I did online, getting a job in the industry seemed far beyond my reach. Despite endless pages of resources, there were very few (if any) success stories or relatable experiences from other women also coming from minimum wage jobs and night-life gigs. At the time, I was single, estranged from family, and barely knew anyone in LA, so moving forward with a career in tech meant carving my own path without a support system to guide me.

I spent over a month scouring the internet for helpful articles, investigating bootcamps, browsing local college programs, and reading a lot of Reddit posts. My searches into different fields and how to land a job looked like this: “Can I land a ___ job without a college education?”, “Do I need a degree to become a ___?”, “What programming languages do I need to learn?”, “Should I finish my degree?”, “Should I get a degree in CS/CIS for ___?”, “This bootcamp vs that bootcamp”, “This field in tech vs that field”, “Bootcamps vs college vs certificates vs studying on my own to land a job in ___”. After deciding on software engineering as my career path, I began racking up bookmarks, taking notes, and narrowing down my options by comparing them in a word document organized into two main categories: free vs paid. I (eventually) tried them all:

1. Bootcamps. I read reviews and researched job outcomes, full-time vs part-time curriculums, syllabi, mentor services, career coaching, and payment plans. They were selling me my dream: that their program would land me a job within a few months after graduation and I could kiss poverty goodbye forever. However, all of them were expensive, and their deferred tuition plans meant being locked into a contract that would take a percentage of my income after being hired. Nonetheless, this was originally my first course of action. I was desperate to find a way out of my current circumstances and rushed through the interview and admissions process. I even tested into the program and went as far as to fill out the deferred tuition form. However, when it was time to submit the application, I backed out. Even after all the research I poured into choosing a bootcamp, I was still uncertain, and debt scared me. I kept asking myself, “Did I really explore all of my options?”, and concluded that it was best to start with the free resources first, which led me to option two:

2. Self-study. I put the idea of joining the bootcamp on hold to give studying on my own a chance. I watched YouTube tutorials and dabbled in free + cheap online courses to explore different programming languages. I realized quickly into this decision that I would have put myself in a detrimental place (financially and mentally) had I joined the bootcamp without prior knowledge about any of the programing languages. I also discovered that my learning pace was too slow for a bootcamp at the time due to being out of school for so long. There was now an extra layer on top of trying to learn new material: I needed to re-learn how to learn. This was probably the most upsetting realization of them all, because it meant pushing back my transition into a new career even more. Eventually, learning on my own proved to be unsuccessful and my dream of getting out of a poverty hole felt impossible. By this point, I felt so low I was questioning whether or not software engineering was the right career path for me, which led me to my final option:

3. College (community college). After deciding that a bachelor’s degree was too expensive and would take too long to accomplish, I registered to complete a full-stack certificate. Although lockdown made orientation and the financial aid process a nightmare, my determination resulted in being able to attend with a pell grant. I was surrounded by people of all ages and various backgrounds that shared the same goal as me: to give myself more than what I had. Taking classes in Python, SQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React connected me with a large network of people in CS/CIS Discord servers where I had access to other teachers, tutors, graduates, internships, and job-postings. Beginning my transition into tech with community college allowed me to get acclimated with learning again at the pace I needed, which ultimately solidified the idea that choosing this career path was indeed right for me. I was also not alone anymore, but part of a community where I could turn to the support of others.

In hindsight, the setbacks I faced in the beginning boiled down to three factors: 1) not having any prior exposure to the industry, 2) not knowing how to educate myself after being out of school for so long, and 3) not knowing what questions to ask to get started. At the time, my income, employment, education level, and overall poor quality of life reflected the demographic of my tumultuous background and familial relationships. I was living in a constant state of scarcity mentality, trying to survive unsafe living conditions, and battling toxic generational patterns. It was only because I spent my twenties addressing those issues that I was able to start believing I was capable of more.

JQuery is a gift from up above. Doing what seems like exceedingly hard tasks can be done very easily with some nice JQuery code, which comes with great documentation.

Here is a screenshot of my Trello Clone:

Dragging and dropping individual items within lists, onto other lists, and moving the lists themselves around. Setting up the placeholder image was very simple and the CSS classes are even provided for easy styling. You can't tell from the Screenshot, but I also turn your cursor into a hand that moves the divs around.

The hardest part was persisting the movements into the Database but that turned out to be quite simple in the end.

Originally published on the LendLayer blog. 

Welcome Aboard. 

Please keep your legs and arms inside the vehicle and gather all your personal belongings before you exit. 

We have officially launched!

After attending bootcamps ourselves, receiving feedback from over 70 schools, and brainstorming at The White House, we've finally launched our flexible deferral programs for schools!

We have launched our pilot programs with:

Hackbright Academy  Epicodus  Coder Camps New York Code+Design  Insight Data Science

After a month of working closely with these amazing schools, we are going to start deploying flexible deferral programs to the additional 70 schools we have relationships with.

We are super excited to keep everyone updated as we start launching with more schools.

If you are going to attend a bootcamp that is not one of our pilot schools, contact us at [email protected] for more information on how we can help!

Here are some benefits benefits of the LendLayer Deferred Payment Program (DPP):

Fast Money

The DPP allows schools to offer a deferment program without worrying about their cash flows. Schools receive their tuition on the first day of class.

Simple Terms

LendLayer agrees to accept 100% of domestic students whose payment plan conforms to our DPP standards. No credit check for the students, no hassle for you. We can provide customized programs for specific schools or simply service their existing deferment program.

Easy Execution

LendLayer services the entire program. We provide the tuition contract for students; we run the payments platform; we handle customer support.

Thanks for being with us so far, and contact us at [email protected] with questions or to request further information!