How To Maximize Your Coding Bootcamp Experience

I am a coding bootcamp graduate and I must say it was the most rewarding experience for a multitude of reasons: I learned a lot, found my passion, made amazing friends, among many other things. But I must say, there are some things I would have maybe done a little differently if I could do it all over again. So I am here today writing this blog, to hopefully help a future coding bootcamper.

So I want to start off by saying, you only get as much as you put in, not only with bootcamps, but with coding in general. If you do not practice, you will not excel. If you do continue to learn new things, you will stay stagnant. The world of coding is ever evolving and you have to be able to continuously learn and teach yourself new things.

That being said, when you are going through a bootcamp, there is little time to learn things outside of your curriculum. It is intense, especially if you go full time immersive. So how do you maximize? Well, for one, I would highly recommend setting at least an hour a day to learn an algorithm, maybe through LeetCode or HackerRank; there are many online resources to practice with. This is going to ease so much stress when you begin your job hunt. You will be prepared for the algorithmic questions on technical interviews and overall have more confidence in your abilities. Unfortunately coding bootcamps do not typically dive into data structures and algorithms so this is usually something we are left to teach ourselves at the end.

Another thing I would recommend doing while going through a bootcamp is networking. Get your LinkedIn network up so that you have more people in your corner to reach out to when you begin your job hunt. How can you do this? For one, if you can make the time, try to attend meetups and make a connection with at least one person. You can also do some research on LinkedIn on companies you would like to work for and connect with recruiters at the company or employees who hold the position you hope to one day have. Finding a job after graduation will be a process, but by having a network that you can reach out to for intel, you will have an upper hand.

Last bit of advice I have would be to be strategic with your projects. Pick projects based on the direction you want your career to go. Also, always implement at least one new concept you did already learn through the curriculum. Why? These projects are a learning opportunity. This is the time you want to stretch and test your abilities and learn new things. Even if your project does not turn out picture perfect, you can always go back and clean things up after the fact. This is also a good conversation starter when interviewing, showing your ability to teach yourself new things, even under pressure.

I hope these three tips help you maximize your coding bootcamp experience. I just want to re-iterate that my coding bootcamp was great and I would definitely recommend to others, but please do your research on the program. Make sure the curriculum fits your future goals and the school has good reviews. If you have any questions about my particular experience, please do not hesitate to reach out to me on LinkedIn! Happy Coding :)