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Getting thru a bad project one day at a time.
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How do you all deal with the guilt of leaving a comany/ team? I have been working at Microsoft for 1 year now, and seriously considering moving. I find the code base to be very legacy and I mostly work on obscure bugs that I spend so much time on, mostly due to navigating this large code base and not having much docs to refer to. Hence I find the job slightly unsatisfying, and that I could learn more elsewhere. However, I love the wlb, the team and company culture. The guilt stops my applying.
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Keep in mind that it’s a third party vendor hosting this on Northwestern’s campus. It’s not Northwestern professors, if that’s what you were thinking
u prolly don’t want professors teaching useful stuff that changes often
Keep in mind that because of the recent shakeup with lawsuits and etc against IT specific colleges that were found to have used deceptive practices and lost their status as education facilities, those same types organizations are now paying top universities and colleges to use their brand and facilities to provide course content that is NOT taught by the actual college or university. I'm not saying there are no legitimate programs that may help give you the information you need if you aren't one who has the resources available to learn on your own. But, these types of programs do not offer college credit, nor do they have established records of high post-program completion employment. It's a marketing gimmick to get you to pay for a piece of paper that not many organizations take seriously. They are hoping you are excited about the salary and career prospects that you won't read the fine print. You are better off taking college courses specifically aimed at the same topics and doing some discovery and networking of your own to fill in the gaps. Try asking people at tech meetups, try free learning resources, and try anything but spending your hard earned money on programs that are really just using the names of trusted institutions to peddle certificates that don't hold any value in the field (at least not comparable to what you are getting for the price you are paying). Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you need a degree, I've navigated the field myself without getting one yet, but it's getting more and more hyper-competitive for better paying roles at employers with better known reputations. If you are just doing this to supplement an existing education and career and have the money to burn, then maybe you'll find value in the curriculum structure and it being taught vs learned through books/online. But if you are pursuing this as a means to get into the industry or advance professionally, your money would be better served elsewhere. Apologies for the rant, I personally was interested in these as well, but I was really disappointed when I found out what I just elaborated on above. Don't just take my word for it. Ask the tough questions when you are speaking with their onboarding/recruiters. Either way, best of luck on your path.
What is your experience level? I switched from windows forms to web development and it was not easy. I reversed engineered web sites and that was where I got my experience from to move land a job and make the crossover. Bootcamps are expensive and flawed in my opinion because you just can’t learn enough unless you have experience. It might get you in the door but not where I work unless you have solid experience. I’d build a web site and in 3 months, you’ll learn as much and save thousands $$
Are you already working as an engineer?
I went through it a couple years ago, and it worked out well for me. I was lazy about applying for jobs afterwards and spent a while freelancing to build my portfolio out more, but I’m now employed full-time and have no regrets about going through the program. Not only did I learn how to code, I learned how to learn how to code (which is much more important because a lot of potential jobs won’t have a stack that lines up exactly with the one they teach, and selling yourself as a junior dev is primarily about selling your capacity to learn the company’s stack). My teacher and the TAs were knowledgeable and genuinely invested in seeing the students succeed. Plus, while it is a third party running it, you do get a NW alumni email address so you can lean on the name recognition for your resume and contacting companies/recruiters.
All that said, I can’t speak to how competitive the market is right now for new boot camp graduates, nor do I know the ultimate success rate among the peers in my cohort, so it’s certainly a gamble. However, if you’re set on a boot camp, I can say I’m glad this is the one I chose.
In bootcamp space i think you can do better. Universities do not specialize in bootcamps. It's not their bread and butter. Look at companies who's focus is bootcamps. I went to Coding Dojo, took me 3 months to get a job and I'm really happy with what i do (government consulting) and my compensation.