Taking a Plunge

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Hey guys, what’s up? I am new here and after years of procrastinating am taking the plunge to become a web developer. When I was 18 I did a lot of freelance web coding, and barely made a living (I am 27 now). After some ‘life’ happened I found myself without a home, and took an opportunity to get into construction. There I worked all over the country framing commercial buildings. I had advanced very fast, and got a good reputation working with this company (6 months I went from never framing to running 2-3 guys). Anyways after spending the majority of my adult life working in construction, the company has gone out of business (owing me and several other guys thousands and thousands of dollars). Panicked I took the first construction job I could find to make sure I was employed, only to find out that I really hate construction. I feel like I’ve wasted a huge part of my life working at a dead end job. So now I am planning on becoming a web developer. I have always been very talented with computers as far as understanding how they work. Also had taught myself C, C++, PHP, Ruby, and a few other languages when I was younger. As I am now planning a commitment to this, I would like to know if any of you more experienced guys have advice/input for me. Should I buy into a coding boot camp? Or just refresh what I have learned and start applying for a job? I am open to any books you might recommend also.
Thanks for reading my post,

  • Jason
1 Like
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  1. Refresh what you already know. Review. (lots of free materials on youtube and udemy and other related sites) in your spare time.

  2. Start applying now for entry-level, or even junior level. There are companies that still need PHP, RoR devs.

  3. What the boot camps give you access are contacts… precious contacts. A high chance of job offers after “graduation.” Somebody going from zero-knowledge will probably be overwhelmed in a fast pace bootcamp. But since you have past programming experience, you’d probably find this environment good for you, stimulating and challenging. The downside is it costs a lot of money. Think of it as a crash course, and payinig for acess to all these company recruiters. I think recruiters like bootcamp graduates is because there’s some idea of what these graduates are capable of already.

My 2 cents.

Good luck!