So I've been programming on and off for most of my life as a hobby, mostly games up until this year, where I've since started learning web development. I really enjoy it and I want to change my career. I am 32 years old, currently a non-tech manager and I have a BS and MBA, also not in tech. I've tried applying to jobs with just a small handful of personal Typescript/React projects on my resume, but I'm not getting any interest. I am strongly considering Codesmith just to get my foot in the door with the industry and start networking (and it wouldn't hurt to get some experience collaborating with other devs and cranking out projects in the program). Is this a good route? It seems like most bootcamps are geared towards people who are new to coding altogether, and I'm a ways past that. Codesmith does boast some good hiring numbers though. My ultimate goal is to make the career move with minimal loss in TC, if possible. That would mean at least about 100k plus more for COL difference between Memphis and wherever (willing to relocate, ideally somewhere out west).
How much does the Codesmith program cost? There are other ways to tailor your resume as a SWE and show off personal projects that you have completed. I don’t think boot camps hold very high regards to hiring managers, you could probably say you used a resource like freecodecamp and it will probably have similar results.
It costs $20k. I picked Codesmith because they have a ~$120k median salary for graduates and the projects you complete there are open source developer tools, not just boring clones Definitely wouldn't want to spend $20k if I don't have to, but hard to argue with that data.
I think there might be boot camps that are contingent on job offers. I believe lambda school last time I checked only made you pay it back till you got your job out of bootcamp
Just grind leetcode
I do that regularly, usually during my down time at work since I can't work on my projects there. I need to be able to land an interview first though I think.