The truth about coding bootcamps

I have just completed a 3 month coding bootcamp and gone for a few interviews. People have been asking me about my experience, and if it was worth it? Here are my thoughts.

Before the bootcamp, I knew I had to learn how to code. I had ideas but could never realise them. I started with Codeacademy and online tutorials, but following along got me no where.

I decided to start building, first with Content Management Systems like Wordpress and Shopify, then building web apps from scratch by hacking. "Copy and paste" and "as long as it works" soon became my modus operandi.

Then I realised that wasn't getting me anywhere at all. There came a time when I really didn't know what I was doing. Finally, I decided to throw myself in the deep end...

In those 3 months...

I built more than 6 working projects in 3 months (see them here). Projects I could only dream of were appearing on the screen with lines of code. Projects such as a LinkedIn for Developers, a Market Place, and an AI app that analyses tweets.

I also participated in a Facebook Hackathon and won it with the most amazing team, having fun all at the same time. I got to make new friends and know people from the global tech community, who were surprisingly selfless in sharing their experiences and knowledge. Of course, there was also a lot of hair-pulling(of my own), sweat, tears, and late nights.

It was worth it...

Knowledge

Without the bootcamp, I would not have learnt about the latest technologies, their strengths and weaknesses, their limitations and possibilities, the cost and time they take. Now, I could have a decent conversation with developers or freelancers, and know when someone is trying to pull wool over my eyes. I would know the appropriate technology to use for different purposes (such as which front-end framework to use).

Born to code? 

This will also be where you'll find out if coding is for you; you want a career change, you've heard that tech is the place to be ($$$), but would you really enjoy coding everyday? This is the time to find out, get to know yourself, and your own personality. Some people want to know how the car works, while others are just happy to know how to drive. Some people could spend the rest of their lives coding, while there are those who would never want to see a line of code again.

Best practices 

I got to learn some best practices:

1. Resources -  official documentation, the Mozilla Developer Network, Stack Overflow were my best friends. 
2. Debugging - printing out results line by line, making error messages your friend.
3. Agile Development - keep building and shipping, don't be afraid to iterate. 
4. Test Driven Development - Use test cases to test your code. Think of all possible cases and scenarios, just as in life. 
5. Git - Git is a savior for individual or group development. It's like a time machine; I can't imagine programming without Git now. 

These gave me the confidence to build and break code on my own, and not worry about getting stuck.

The reality...

Google? Facebook? Microsoft?

If you do not have a CS degree or a substantial coding background, a coding bootcamp will unlikely get you into the magic circle of Tech (read: Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon) as a developer. You will need at least a couple of years to understand data structures and algorithms, time and space complexities, system design, and architecture.

Not yet CTO

However, it could probably get you to at least Series A of your start-up without a technical co-founder, or help you in finding the right developers. You could almost definitely build a Minimum Viable Product to sell your idea, just not enough to scale the business, a happy problem most people can't even get to.

To sum it up...

It's just the beginning

Ultimately, it depends on the individual. How hard you want to work to keep up. With the same instructor and syllabus, somehow everyone ended up at different places.

I am proud that I threw myself in the deep end and learnt to swim. The waters were deep, cold and unfamiliar, but I just kept swimming. It also just marks the beginning; where we end up is a function of what we do from here.

Keep shipping

For me, I could not have spent a more fulfilling and enriching period in my life. Going forward, I have committed myself to continue coding everyday and learning (my latest undertaking is to build a bot and learn more about AI). I may not be a Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, but I will continue honing the skill. I may have had a late start, but slowly and surely, I will catch up with the hare, as did the tortoise. 

Of Unicorns and Bubbles

In addition to profiling the story of the Oculus acquisition by Facebook, Vanity Fair recently featured articles about Unicorns (billion-dollar valuation start-ups), and the technology bubble. Current valuations are (again!) brought about by 7 years of easy money, where you have too much money chasing after assets. This can be good and bad: the abundance of capital has encouraged more people to come out to build companies; however, those that truly add value to our economy, or are profitable, are few and far between.

For an idea of how bubbly the sector is, take Jet.com. The brash four month old e-commerce startup out to take on Amazon.com raised $225m at a $600m valuation, and is going for another round at a $3b valuation! (See WSJ article)

If this is not a bubble, what is? The names are not without reason: Unicorns are mythical and bubbles have to pop sometime. What investors could do would be to understand the companies' business models and financials, if they are truly sustainable and defensible. Are the companies going after something faddish, that can be done without, or something essential, a technology that has the potential to change the world? The man on the street should also ensure that his income is not fully dependent on errand running start-ups, taxi disrupters, or freelance internet work. 

Around half of dot-com era companies such as Amazon and ebay survived the last crash to emerge as the tech behemoths they are today. Perhaps the best test for the companies would be the bursting of this bubble with more rounds of financing, as it would purge the wannabes or "unicorpses", and leave the strongest standing. Another way would be for them to be to go to market, where they will have to reveal their performance numbers and investors can then ascribe a true value to them. The rest of us will just have to be wary as we watch this bubble grow.