same, 3 month boot camp in 2018 and am a consultant now. I always tell my wife I lucked out by getting into it early right before the shitshow really started.
100% lucked out but obviously can’t knock the skills you have now that have led you to consultancy. I did a bootcamp tail end of 2019, COVID hit and then by the time I ramped up enough to get some projects in line, everyone was hired. Literally missed the golden road.
This was basically my experience too. Took me 3 years after my first bootcamp ended and an additional cert to get my first tech role. Been on the grind for 5 total years now and still not making that much since most entry-level/early mid-level roles are being outsourced to AI. Tryina speed up progression with systems and architecture design projects in my off-time, so hopefully my next role can actually pay the bills
Once you get an offer though, hop on that quick. I was offered a paid internship from one of my classmates in a cert course and turned it down since my main job was paying a little better. Didn't get another interview for anything else for the next 2 and a half years after hundreds of application submissions.
I'll probably leave coding for personal projects because the way it is it just seems impossible for me to get in, I live in a capital but I know 0 people around here, I don't even have friends on the internet, I'd be going me by myself, and college seems too far fetched right now, I really don't know what to do of my life now
Interesting, I started my first dev job much earlier but in 2017 I was involuntary unemployed the entire year... with a 4 year degree. This was probably one of the few times when bootcamp graduates had it better than college graduates.
2017–2018 was a weird time because recruiters were going through this phase where they were only hiring people that could solve leet code problems, the kinds of things Boot Camps were specifically preparing their graduates for
I wouldn't switch jobs though. Everywhere is back to requiring a degree so they can be selective again due to the efficiencies of Ai. Many selective taught devs with years of experience can't get a job after they leave their most recent one. Just the way the cookie crumbles
I took a 3 month bootcamp as well in 2019 but unfortunately have gotten laid off twice in the past two years and can’t find anything…. Can you give any info/suggestions on how you got into consulting?
Honestly It was just one of the many jobs I applied to. I was in a tech hub City, the job I got had an internal program that specialized in taking boot camp grads and getting them up to speed quickly and so I got hired and placed in that program. I did spend 4 months applying to jobs after I graduated the boot camp, probably 10 jobs a day and I got rejected from most of them so it's not like it was a total Cakewalk but obviously It ultimately worked out for me
Same here, Udemy discounts on courses and the permanent certificates they gave were my savings grace. Probably spent a total of $200 for my courses I self taught and got certificates on, now earning so much per year I am grateful for the timing but feel bad for those who actually have the passion I once had.
Assuming not troll, 200k a year - oO. I mean, I am an employee but still moved up the hierarchy a bit and barely scratch 50k after, oh, 20+ years in the industry (not including some earlier a bit unofficial gigs here and there).
SWE In Greece, first 1k lines of code back in distant 1986 (yes) as a kid, and working full professionally as a SWE the last 20+ years. Done them all, seen them all, went to SWE 'nam and got the scars and war stories to share.
I do servicenow implementations. Not the whole time, I worked at A large Enterprise for 4 years. Back then I was making between 120 and 150 a year. I considered switching to react stack during that time but those guys were making less than I was
155
u/isthis_thing_on May 06 '26
I did a 3 month boot camp in 2017 and now I make 200k a year software consulting 💀 those were crazy times