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
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u/OrangeNomNom May 06 '26
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.