Changing Careers Is Not An Easy Task, And People Who Decide To Change Careers At Some Point In Time Are Commendable.

Some people think that programming is the easiest way to change careers to earn more money and that programmers are always in job security, but this is not the case.

Programming is one of the most challenging and complex jobs in the world of technology, and only some people succeed in this field. If programming were a simple job, without a doubt, many people would go for it, and the job market would be filled with programmers with practical skills.

However, some people decide to take a chance on learning to code, except they choose bootcamps. If you open Google and type the term “programming Bootcamp,” you will come across many sites trying to teach you how to program.

More precisely, how long has the term programming Bootcamp been popular in Iran, and Iranian schools, like foreign examples, accept people who are interested in coding and want to find a job as a programmer?

Some bootcamps announce in their advertisements that after attending training courses, you will be able to work as a programmer within four months. Is such a claim valid, or is it more of a publicity stunt?

Essential programming is simple enough to do everyday tasks; almost anyone can learn to program by taking courses or reading online resources. Unfortunately, this initial impression has inspired some people to think they can become professional developers with a little more coding and attending three to six months of intensive classes.

Few, if not more than the fingers of one hand have become professional developers based on such a view.

This issue becomes more interesting when we see some people introduce themselves as programmers after learning how to work with content management systems such as WordPress or Drupal and describe themselves as skilled programmers in their resumes or online profiles, while no major of Them don’t have the basics of programming.

The free and low cost of most of the resources available to learn to program online and the recommendations of some professional developers who declare that it is quite possible to learn programming in a self-taught way and provide practical projects without having a degree in computer science have led people to attend bootcamps or internships.

Participate intensively and spend from their pockets, hoping they will become professional programmers and be employed in a company. At the end of last year, you must have seen all kinds of advertisements about holding one-week or ten-day Nowruz programming camps, all of which tried to instill the concept that anyone can become a professional programmer. We suggest that you read this article first before spending money. Read on to make an informed decision.

Employment figures for bootcamps can be misleading.

TechBeacon, a digital hub for development and technology professionals, recently surveyed coding bootcamps and collected information on 24 training programs. The findings showed that 17 of the 24 programs claimed that more than
90% of their students have landed full-time programming jobs or 6-12 month small projects, but these numbers can be misleading. Course Report, a site that examines people’s opinions about the status of coding boot camps and the output of these centers, has conducted exciting research worth considering. According to this site, in 2014, only 75% of programming Bootcamp graduates got a job as a developer after graduation.

In 2015, this number decreased to 66%. In 2016, this number increased to 73%, and in 2018, this number jumped to 78%. Participants in coding bootcamps are not necessarily all beginners. Some attend these courses hoping to land a job as senior developers, and others are professional developers trying to acquire new skills.

Complaints about the quality are expected.

There are always many complaints about schools and bootcamps. Just do a simple internet search to see people’s negative points of view. There are also positive points of view, but generally, people prefer not to express their negative experiences and not share them with others.

In most cases, negative comments are criticisms of educational instructors. Graduates cite many reasons for this. For example, they don’t want to devalue the lessons and the time and money spent on them, or they don’t want to create friction with the school hosting the courses by giving negative reviews.

“Finding good instructors is difficult,” says Basel Farag, an iOS developer and one of the experienced instructors of these training courses. In most cases, instructors don’t get paid much for teaching, so an instructor must love what they do. Of course, skilled instructors are also present in some bootcamps and schools, but in most cases, the positions of instructors and teaching assistants are occupied by less experienced developers. People who open their pamphlet or tablet and start teaching from it.”

Be realistic about the amount of training time you need

Students from schools and bootcamps who enter training programs as beginners are not prepared to code when they graduate. “It’s possible that you can get a job as a junior developer after graduating from a quality boot camp, but you shouldn’t expect to become a full-fledged developer in three to six months,” says Farag. Many programming bootcamps don’t spend much time teaching algorithms and focus more on learning tools.

Many programming boot camps teach frameworks like Ruby on Rails and try to teach concepts that are easier to learn. Students learn how to use a specific tool but do not get to know the fundamentals of web development through complex tools and technologies.

Bootcamp graduates are flooding the market.

In today’s job market, young developers have a hard time standing out, so they decide to rush to job postings despite their soft skills. Michael Degas, a senior software engineer at Autodesk (the company that makes essential software like 3DMax), says: “When startups announced they were facing a developer shortage, bootcamps proliferated, each with an enticing promise.

Bootcamps saw this information as a rare opportunity. They thought they could fill this gap by creating programming internships or bootcamps. Still, young and even experienced developers need to gain experience in many aspects of programming to become efficient software engineers.

Are you the right person for programming?

When you code, you feel the first spark of power. That’s when you think to yourself, “I could do this for a living.” when you go a little further, the whole combination makes sense to you, which motivates you to go for online courses to learn. It would help if you had a lot of effort and patience to get a job as a junior developer in a small company and double the patience and effort to continue.

Bootcamp students don’t realize that passing a coding course doesn’t guarantee they’ll become skilled programmers. There is a lot of evidence that not all computer science graduates can code, even though they passed coding courses in college with high marks.

Nearly 30-60% of first-year students in university computer science departments fail at their first exposure to programming, so why would you expect bootcamps to be dramatically more successful? Stack Overflow did an interesting survey in 2008 and asked 900 developers what year they first got interested in coding.

This survey shows that if you don’t develop an interest in programming between the ages of 8 and 18, your chances of becoming a developer are slim. Figure 1 shows the result of this survey.

With this description, destructive training methods should not be blamed solely for the failure of bootcamps to bring people from “zero to developer” within a few months. Programming is a difficult job, and people participating in these bootcamps should be honest about their commitment to programming.

 Find a reason to program

Some people start programming to get a better job with a higher income, but if you only program according to what some classes or schools tell you, This incentive will not be maintained. At the beginning of the programming work, you may get confused and not know what program you are looking for, which is not a problem. It would help if you had time to learn and create your ideas for exciting projects.

You will try to create original projects that will grow your knowledge, even if those projects are not the end product you want, but consider these projects as stepping stones that lead you to more exciting projects to stay motivated.

No matter how you code, even if you write a program full of bugs, try to spend hours researching and looking for bug fixes. Otherwise, what will happen to you is a reversal of priorities.

As a programming student, get advice from people who may not be excellent programmers but are experienced designers. In custom programming projects, you are your customer. Figure out what you want to create and then research which languages ​​and tools are good options for marketing your product.

Don’t obsess about the language and framework.

Programming means using the right tools to do a specific task. You’re wrong if you’ve read articles about “What programming language should I learn?”. Suppose you decide to learn a language or framework that is very common today or among the most common languages ​​in the developer position. In that case, you will have a slight chance to learn to program.

If you only learn one framework, you only know one way of thinking about problem-solving.
When apprentices learn to code in just one framework, they often don’t get it right and get caught up in that framework’s policies. It would help if you did not get caught up in a single way of thinking. Try learning different languages and tools and basic programming concepts instead of focusing on one programming language.

Instead of building a complex project, look for many simple tasks.

Just as you shouldn’t obsess and overthink the language and tools you use, you shouldn’t obsess over the projects you plan to build. Although it is good to work on exciting projects specific to you, as we said, you should not think of building complex and heavy programs from the beginning, as maybe even a programming team will not succeed in building such a program in a short time.

Of course, you shouldn’t be completely random about your project choices. It’s better to work on a variety of projects so that you can expand your ability to handle different programming scenarios. Stop researching and theorizing, and start programming.

Focus on a few good sources

Many free online resources help you become a developer without joining bootcamps. However, you need to choose the best one among them. There are tons of articles on learning to code, but you don’t want to spend weeks reading them; You should spend most of your time editing code and coding and using existing resources mainly as references. There are many resources for learning Persian and English; we summarize some of the best resources that you can start your work with:

 Codecademy:

If you’ve never written a program before, check out this site to see if you enjoy solving coding puzzles. This site is suitable for learning the syntax of different languages ​​and computer science concepts.

The Learn Programming subreddit:

On this site, the fundamental questions of beginner programmers are answered in the resources section on the main page of the subreddit.

FreeCodeCamp:

Every month updates a list of links to hundreds of massively free online courses (MOOCs).

Teaching Yourself to Code to Become an Employment Programmer-What to Learn, Where to Learn, and More: Although it is a site that hosts articles about “how to learn to program,” it is among the most comprehensive articles in this field.

Remember that programming is not the only way to get a good job, but remember that being able to code can help you earn a good income. Having such a capability, you can also take the first step in the path of the programming tools industry.