I currently work as a police officer in a very HCL area, making 105k working 60 hour weeks. Deductions are insane, pre $4700, post $2900. No work life balance, no family time. What was your previous employment situation, which boot camp did you attend, what was your role and TC with new employer after boot camp , and where are you now in your career? I am currently doing pre course work before joining a boot camp. Looking at tech elevator and code smith- any info on those is also greatly appreciated. #engineering #software #swe #bootcamp Side note- I have a bachelors in Management Info Systems (for what it’s worth)
Where exactly (city) are you located? The quality and recs for a boot camp depends on locale.
I would be attending remote. The recs are more intense for code smith.
I wouldn’t attempt this with your current work commitments. If want to get into dev, you are looking at 1000+ hours of effort including learning the stack and then leetcoding and interview prepping. Instead, I would consider looking into Grad school programs, get into a good one and then use the two years to really springboard into a good job. That said, if you are not going to be at the top end of tech, which is very very competitive, your police job security along with retirement benefits and health benefits will be unmatched by the uncertainty in the private sector.
Thank you for thoughtful response! The retirement, job security, and health benefits are very difficult to walk away from. After working as a police officer and handling countless baker acts, trying to help people who can’t help themselves but refuse to accept the help and coupled with the time away from family, it becomes daunting. When you recommend Grad school, are you referring to a comp sci route? I could have been mislead- I thought that getting a Masters in comp sci isn’t valued significantly more by an employer as is a knowledgeable swe.
I wouldn’t say you have been misled. But how do you get into that first high paying job? Where will you find the 1000 hours for study and practice? Keep in mind, a lot of those already in the profession discount the time they have spent in learning at school, at work and after hours. If your work is already stressful you are unlikely to get time to prep. While you can still get a low end tech job, working your way up from there to top dollar tech will be much longer than just a good masters program and directly getting into a top position.
Please attend code smith. I have 2 friends who took it. No college degrees. Please read CIRR before looking at any boy camp. It's the only official statistics source My friend in cs 1. First 6 months, didn't like first paying 180k. Now making 160k for bank. Declined 170k offer. 2. First 6 months, didn't like RTO making 80k. 3nd job making 120k for startup.
Do you know if they were able to land remote positions?
1 remote and 1 on site. I'm remote and a bit camp grad, but I also have a degree and have been employed a long time
Realistically you should quit your job during the class and preparation.
That’s my plan. I have a little fund setup. I have 50k put aside for the boot camp and bills during boot camp. And if I can’t land a job immediately, there is some cushion.
tbh i would try doing community college if i were u
I second this suggestion. Make sure you even like CS before committing time and money. A lot of people go into CS not liking the work and yes they might get the better paying job initially but level off because they don’t have the interest in keeping up
Lambda university has a good deal where you don't have to pay tuition if you don't land a software engineer job 55k+. Low bar, but sounds like a good deal.
Thank you to everyone! I truly appreciate everyone’s suggestions and insight.
bro, the market is flooeded with SWEs. it's gonna be hard to get into tech
There are still more swe jobs than swes. It's still hard to get into tech, but not because of lack of jobs.
I’ve realized that I can go the special agent route if private sector doesn’t work out in my favor.
OP Any updates here? Which program did you select and was is successful for you?
How did you get on here? Do police officers get work emails?
It's a genuine question if you want us to believe if your story is genuine.
Also, OP, it took you longer to be annoying than to just answer the question. Why would anyone help you if you are acting like that?