Post-bootcamp Survival Guide
So you decided to do a Web Developer Bootcamp to change your life. Some people say it’s better to teach yourself, but in my experience there are good reasons for bootcamps.
The projected rate of increase for Web Developers for the next two years is +27%. The average across fields is 8%. There are said to be a projected 3M unfilled Web Dev jobs by 2020. Average starting salary is around $66k. That jumps up to around $80k after two years and upwards of $150k beyond that. Not to mention that you could invent the next Uber, Airbnb or Netflix app.
So you did it, now you’ve done it and where do we go from here? Just how will we survive in the cold, harsh world of super smart accomplished web developers?
Well I’ve been out of bootcamp since Thanksgiving, about a month now. A couple of weeks prior I had about a dozen phone and a few in person interviews. I was pretty optimistic, but then things slowed waaay down. I’m hoping the new year will bring opportunity. The bootcamp immersion process was overwhelming for me. So much new information all day every day for 12 weeks, followed by a month of interning at a real start-up.
From that internship I gained a mentor. During one of the tech screens the Senior Dev who interviewed me also became a mentor. I now have those guys, experience, a plan and strong focus: master Javascript, HTML5\CSS Grid, and React. These are the fundamental skills that I’ll use to catapult my career. Bootcamp didn’t get me to mastery, but it gave me the foundation to achieve it.
I’m rebuilding my personal site from Wordpress to a React front end, using the aforementioned stack. It will showcase my skills, my work and some other areas of my professionnal life. This will be my showpiece.
Each day I live by a schedule. While I’m willing to relocate to get that first year of experience, I do want to stay in San Diego. I’ve come up with a plan that should work. I get up, head to Starbucks. As I drink my tall bold in a grande cup with a blueberry yogurt muffin slightly warmed (8 seconds), I share the muffin with my dog Gizzy and review the previous night’s work, check out new articles, try to make some progress on job apps, my personal projects and furth tech study to refine my skills
After coffee, I turn on my Uber and read tech until it dings. With my little dog in the front seat we drive until I meet my Uber goal for the day. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. While driving I listen to Web Developer podcasts like Learn to Code with Me, Starhere.fm, Syntax. In between rides if I have any down time I respond to recruiter emails, make appointments and other stuff that I can drop and get back to if the Uber rings.
After that I eat lunch and/or take a yoga class or two. Maybe a little more driving, then back to the 24 hour coffee shop to resume the computer work until it’s time to pass out. Those are my days. Honestly, even without a job, it’s pretty fun.
If you’re baffled, confused or other wise disoriented after your bootcamp, maybe I can help. Below are some of the tools that I use on a daily basis to bring me closer to the goals that I have set for myself.
These are mine. Fill in to suit your own path.
Post Bootcamp Survival Kit
Have Clear Goals and Mantras
“I will succeed at becoming a web developer.“
“I will achieve my goals: good job, good place to live, nice lady friend in my life. “
We have to have our motivation and our, “Why,” as my brutal yoga teacher, Tabu, puts it.
Ask yourself, “What are my limitations?”
“What can I do to go past those mental blocks?”
“Is what I’m doing right now bringing me closer to or further from my goals?”
We have to ask ourselves these kinds of tough questions. We’re the only ones who have answers. If we don’t ask the questions, who will?
Use Your Resources
Career Development. Learn Academy has a great career person, Bianca Portal. She’s met with me a few times to help me fine tune my resume, my pitch, LinkiedIN networking, job boards and talk about how to do better on interviews and research. Find one for yourself if you don’t have one.
Meetups. Can’t be said enough. Go to them. Talk to people. Repeat.
Slack: San Diego Javascript, Learn Academy, my internship company.
Discord: a server for Gamers and Web Devs
Video Tutorials: Brad Traversy, Wes Bos, Frontend Masters like Kyle Simpson and some others are my video mentors. Udemy, Coursera, Lynda. I used them all before bootcamp, but now I’m not lost. I can hone in and apply what I’m learning right away. Yes, it all takes time. But that’s why web developers make the big bucks.
LinkedIN. Connecting with web developers, founders, recruiters, applying for jobs. It can work if you know how to work it.
Personal Projects. Keep your knowledge going. Build things.
Self-care
Eat right. I avoid fried and fatty foods, sugar when possible and eat a salad every day. Smoothies. Cold pressed juices. Kombucha over soft drinks. Protein bars instead of heavy meals. Daily multi-vitamin and a variety of fitness supplements.
Sleep right. I’m terrible at this but am moving from 3–4 hours of sleep per night to 5–6. Baby steps.
Stay fit. I do yoga every day. Twice a day on weekends. Fitness can be fun. I go to the indoor climbing gym, lift weights and hit the heavy bag. Cardio as much as possible.
Do recreational things. OK, I suck as this too but I DO have a couple of novels open. For me, recreation is having time to study esoteric spriritual topics for personal development and more book titles that I’m working on. But there is also the time skateboarding down the boardwalk, watching a show or just rolling around with my dog.
Do social things. Not much but for me, girl watching. Always fun, but often leads to more work than recreation haha. Hey if you’re a single, cute techy girl who likes yoga, hollar at me.
If you have any other tips or insights than what I’ve mentioned, feel free to leave comments. Or Tweet me @darrendoestech darrenblittlejohn@gmail.com
http://darrenlittlejohn.com http://linkedin.com/in/darrenlittlejohn
See you out there!
-d
