You finished your Bootcamp. Now what?

The developer's job market and Bootcamps

Anywhere you go, in any nation in the world we live in, one might encounter this problem: the job market.

Yes, the job market can be problematic and only a few professions are safe, to a point. What do I mean by that? Well, speaking in Layman's terms, there are jobs that require a vast amount of knowledge even just to get access to them. Now, don't fret, I'm not talking about the "family first, safe jobs for family" kind of thing, I'm referring rather to those that most of the times ensure that entry is allowed only to the more knowledgeable individuals.

Don't get me wrong: I do strongly believe and stand firm by the idea that some professions ought to be opened only to those that studied hard and proved that they can do it. I'm thinking medical school, aerospace engineering and so much more.

But with the continuous development and evolution of our jobs and the ways we work, some jobs are opening up where they didn't not long before. I'm talking about programming, web development and so much more.

You go back a few years and not even that many and you can definitely see how only a nerd was capable and able to do the programmer's job correctly. Heck, developers weren't even that much of a rockstar back then, so what happened? People did.

Programmers are surely not a new thing, Internet aswell has its own age already but what stands out is the fact that from 2006* and on, more and more people joined the Internet revolution, building our world as we know it now, and the more people there will be on the Internet, the more programmers will be needed to build what satisfies the human nature through algorithmic and digital solutions.

From this a thing was noticed: there was opportunity, there was lack of labour and need for solutions.

So a story was told and spread throughout the globe: we need more programmers, we need more people that are able to write code because that's where humans are going. If you ask me, this story is kind of pushed a little bit too much, but I can agree with the fact that technology will be part of our life more and more with every passing day. And to use technology one should better know technology, because as any good instruments, it is yet another one that needs mastering.

So this lead us to where we are today: a world with a prosperous economy (and right now, also a few wars) and so many self labeled programmers that showcase their bootcamp experience on every profile they own, be it LinkedIn, Twitter or any other.

Now, if you are one of those self labeled programmers you might feel a little bit offended, but trust the reading a bit further and you shall be surprised.

I'm a self taught developer, which means that I didn't exactly go to a school that would prepare me to become a good programmer but I do find that I am a decent one indeed. Hopefully this is also shown by the fact that at the moment of this writing I'm entrusted with the position of Head of Development at my current company.

One might argue: self taught doesn't mean that you studied three months and hoped to become a rockstar developer. Indeed, you would correct, I study everyday for hours to update on my current technology stack and to know more technologies and even newer ones.

It doesn't take three months to become a good programmer but it can take three months to start being a programmer. This is everything you need from this blog post but I will be writing a little bit more.

Programming is an art, and as any artists that fall in love with the subject, you, the programmer, will try and try again to better yourself. The first drawing of your code will probably be not much of a piece of art, but that will not stop you from pursuing your dream career and that's the exact moment you will know that you were always a programmer, a code artist, a logical tinkerer. Those are the keys to the kingdom and you will need nothing else.

Be wary of those that will tell you otherwise, but also be very aware that three months of code school will not always open golden doors. It takes effort and it takes time and it will take a toll on you every time you feel like failing and succeeding and failing and succeeding and it will happen a lot, so don't ever think that you are not enough. It just takes time.

As per the topic, the job market will be open to you if you will be a good candidate for the jobs that are offered. And for our older programmers, like myself, we should not fear new people joining us, because they will bring fresh views, more professionalism and lateral thinking, which is pure gold and you know it.

A warning, to the younger devs (younger as in profession age, not human age): not a lot of people get to work for Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and all those amazing places. If you don't get there, it doesn't mean anything. Always remember to do your best, study hard and bring results. That's what matters, the rest is fun, because programming is fun, creating things is fun and everything is art.

The goodbye

Here are two interesting articles that you may find useful on your developer's journey:

➢ An imposter syndrome analysis, for programmers by a programmer
➢ How to learn programming, as easy as possible

I hope you found this article useful and to your liking and if you have any requests, drop a message on one of my social media accounts or open an issue/start a discussion on github, on this repository!

As always you can find me on Twitter, listen to my Podcast on Spotify and add me on LinkedIn to talk professionally (yeah, right)

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