
From non-technical to hired developer in 5 months - mrborgen
https://medium.com/@oslokommuneper/from-non-technical-to-hired-in-5-months-d010f601b1bc#.vmdu61z9p
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onion2k
"Coding had actually been my hobby the last couple of years..."

And that's almost certainly why it's worked out well. Someone who is
interested in coding enough to actually learn it in their spare time, even if
it's only enough to understand the concepts, is immediately ahead of someone
who joins a bootcamp because there are "$$$ Companies looking for developers
now! $$$" adverts around. To be a developer you have to have a desire to write
software; otherwise you're very likely to get bored and give up because,
frankly, quite a lot of software development is dull. That's why developers
like to automate as many things as possible - to get move the boring stuff out
of the way so we can do more of the fun things.

I'd rather hire someone fresh out of a course who writes code in their spare
time before I'd hire someone experienced who was only interested in the pay
check at the end of the month. Being interested in making things counts for
_so much_ in development.

~~~
whiteboarder
That's not what the statistics say.

The top coding bootcamps like Hack Reactor have 99% placement rates for their
graduates within 6 months with average salary of 100k.

And if you don't get a job, hack reactor charges you NOTHING. That is how
confident they are in their students.

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gearoidoc
Hahaha - average salary of 100k? Um, evidence please?

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kimcheekumquat
Actually, 105k but it's not that hard to believe in the bay area.

[http://www.hackreactor.com/](http://www.hackreactor.com/)

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gearoidoc
Even if Hack Reactor is an exception to the rule paying 105k for someone with
3 months experience is genuine insanity.

Looks as though they keep a pretty high bar for their students and that will
lead to an overall more talented grad than your everyday bootcamp but its
still crazy.

For that price you could hire 3 excellent remote workers.

I've looked at the alumni they have on their site - most seem to be hired by
startups (ie. companies that likely have more money than sense). Coupled with
the knowledge that its BA then maybe we're a little closer to an explanation.

Still utter insanity.

~~~
doktrin
I have ~4 years of experience and I make 60k, and feel like I'm worth closer
to 35-40.

Wonder where this industry will be when the bubble pops.

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BetaCygni
Sure, as talent and willingness to learn is enough to hire someone. It will
take about a year until you write "ok" code though.

~~~
enibundo
You are very optimistic or very fast-learner. I remember classmates during my
master's writing shitty code even after 5 years of CS studies (and I'm not the
best ninja-coder there is).

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sb8244
I've noticed better learning in industry vs class. My guess is because of a
smaller set of things to learn (best practices of employer) and 8-10 hours a
day of repetition

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mrborgen
Yeah, I'm learning just as much as a hired front end developer as I did at my
bootcamp. More narrow focus, which gets you deeper into the subjects.

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rwmj
I'm reminded of when I passed my driving test. I didn't really learn to become
a driver for a good few years after that (arguably I'm not a good driver even
now).

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rjf90
Congrats on your accomplishments; ignore the haters on here.

~~~
mrborgen
Thanks!

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gizmodo59
The wonderful world of IT.

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doktrin
Gratulerer, dude.

~~~
mrborgen
Takk!

